Time Square Diner

So what is an American experience without a visit to the diner? When I was last in NY, I did exactly that. I did my research and found that the Time Square Diner was one of the more iconic and long standing diners around the Time Square area, since it was a snowing Sunday morning, I used 'avoiding the snow' as an excuse to be a pig at the diner.

The thing that sucks most about traveling alone is dining alone. Options whittle down and you can't share with anyone and the worst thing is..... you look like a bit of a loner at some places where everyone is chatting to someone. Anyway this didn't stop me.

To start my American diner experience I got myself a hot chocolate to defrost. Big chocolately, frothed milk was before my eyes and I devoured the warmness very quickly.

It was hard to narrow it down so I got the loaded Time Square breakfast which was another word for a big breakfast. This came with the option of French toast or pancakes (I picked pancakes), eggs (any way you like), bacon, sausage, ham, hash brown and toast. The buttermilk pancake was fluffy and really hit the spot with maple syrup but it was so big, by the time I was 75% through the pancake I was already stuffed. At this point I haven't even touched the bacon, ham, eggs and toast yet. Hash brown is always good, but these were more of a fried potato hash and not a form single piece of hash brown. The streaky bacon was crispy. This is a lot of food and for $14.95 (USD) I found it to be very good value.

I really should have stopped when I couldn't finish the loaded breakfast but my curiousity got the better of me and I ordered the Time Square burger. This came with a huge juicy patty, mushrooms, relish and bacon. It was greasy but really good.

Overall 14.5/20 I think this place is good for the tourist diner experience. The staff were all very friendly and happy to chat. The menu had a huge selection and well rounded selection for breakfast, lunch, dinner and supper.

Ikkoryu Fukuoka Ramen

There is a new addition to the Melbourne ramen scene and that's Ikkoryu Fukuoka. Ikkoryu isn't actually a complete new player though, they have been established in Japan since the 1970's and just called Melbourne one of the new babies in their family.

Mario and I got invited to their soft launch where it gave us an opportunity to sample their menu. To start we got to sample some of their appetizers that was floating around. Mario and I tried the gyoza, karrage and fried rice. We found all of them really enjoyable and got second and third servings of the gyoza and karrage.

For the ramen I couldn't say no to black garlic when I saw it on the menu. I had black garlic when I was in Tokyo and loved it to bits, and have been on the hunt for the best black garlic ramen in Australia ever since. Ikkoryu’s black garlic is done with a tonkotsu soup base. The intensity of the  garlic was just right. All other elements of the ramen is customised to your liking, so you get to pick how much ramen oil, garlic, soy sauce, noodle texture and the toppings. I am not very adventurous in that regard so I opted for normal garlic oil, noodle texture and  garlic for mine. The hero of this ramen was the black garlic broth, it wasn’t very heavy but just heavy enough. Personally I would prefer a thicker broth, but it wasn’t bad the way it was.

Mario opted for the original tonkotsu, as he thinks it's the only way you can truely taste if a ramen soup base is good. The tonkotsu soup was rich and punchy in flavour. The egg was perfectly runny and had good soy infusion into the white of the egg.

Overall 16/20 I found all the things we tried to be very appetizing and it's a place that I have visited again since then.

8bit burger

So I finally hit up 8 bit burger with the usual burger gang after months of talking about it. Miss P and Bear recently helped Mario paint the house while I was away in the States, so as a thank you I saw it was only fitting that I fed them burgers. 8 bit is located in Droop street Footscray, it has been a popular local burger joint for awhile now.

It was a Saturday when we visited, we got there around 7pm and there was already a line out the door, but lucky for us, most people were buying take away so it wasn't a long wait to get a table. As usual, we went all out when it came to ordering.

When it came to ordering I go straight down to business. I ordered the Instagram famous Double Dragon, this came with a double beef patty, double cheese, double bacon, pickles, mustard, lettuce and 8 bit sauce. This was one massive burger, and I probably didn't need double of everything but YOLO (and I guess the same theory goes for a lethal heart attack hahaha). The patties were cooked to a perfect tender state with just enough juiciness but also a good bite. The cheese and bacon gave it that extra fatty goodness.

Mario decided to be very sensilble and got the 8 bit with cheese. This is their version of a classic cheeseburger; it came with the usual beef, cheese, tomato, lettuce, onions, pickles, mustard and 8 bit sauce. If you can't decide when you visit, this is a fail proof choice. The fillings were in perfect ratios and the taste was what you expect in a well made cheeseburger. We all agreed that Mario's safe choice was the best choice of the night.

Bear picked the Altered Beast. This was beef, bacon, cheese, bbq sauce, lettuce, 8 bit sauce and onion combo. It was similar to the Double Dragon, except with less bacon and beef and substituted the mustard with bbq sauce. This packed a very intense flavour, the 8 bit sauce with the BBQ sauce together with the flavours in the patty, it was burger flavour galore. Only down side was, this burger got very messy towards the end. Think there was a bit too much sauce in it. Otherwise it was lip smacking good.

Miss P loves her mushroom burgers, so there was no way she could pass up the 1 up mushroom burger. It came with a big crumbed Portobello mushroom and all the usual burger fillings (tomato, cheese, onion, 8 bit sauce and lettuces). That juicy mushroom, is actually a good substitute for those who aren't feeling very meaty.

Who goes to a burger place and not order fries? To my disappointment, there was no potato gems left, so we got 2 lots of fries to share.

First one was the chilli cheese fries. This came loaded with chill beef, cheese sauce, jalapenos and spring onions. Don't let the name scare you, this was not spicy at all. The beef only had the smallest kick and the jalapenos were quite mild.

Second fries was the cheese and bacon fries. The beer battered potato goodness came covered in bacon and cheese sauce. Good for my weight and diet? NO. But did it taste good? HELL YEAH! I don't think the spring onions were really required but Mario seemed to enjoy them.

We each got a milkshake to wash it all down. Since there was 4 of us and 4 milk shakes on the menu, we tried them all. The salted caramel was thick, dense and just the right amount of saltiness. The strawberry cheesecake was more on the sweeter side; it had a good cheesiness through the shake to balance out the sweetness in the strawberry syrup. The chocolate bar is perfect for those wanting the classic chocolate milky taste. The intensity of the chocolate coincide well with a burger, but if you have it alone, you might want a stronger chocolate hit, to me it was perfect alongside a burger. Lastly was the peanut butter shake. I don't know when but in my mind I consider this a classic flavour now. I love the nutty, saltiness mixed with sweetness. I liked all the milkshakes and when asked, we all had a different favourite. If I was alone and had to narrow it down to one, I would pick the salted caramel.

Overall 16.5/20 it was a bit of a drive for us to get there but it was worth it. I can appreciate and understand why there is a line at the door. It was a more 'oily, greasy' burger but it never claimed to be healthy and otherwise. The burger offering is nothing that no one else hasn't tried to put together before, but it is well executed and that's all that matters to me at the end of the day.

Dex2rose

A few weeks ago on a lazy Sunday K and I went to Dex2rose to try what they had to offer. They are a nitrogen gelato place located on Little Bourke in the city. It is the textbook Melbourne style hang out, it's off a small street in a lane way, then when you walk in, it's a cool modern warehouse convert feel.

Personally I am a big fan of gelato made with the nitrogen process as it has smaller ice crystals within the body of the gelato and it leads to a softer and creamy texture in the body, so when the owner Jesse invited me along to try their offering, I couldn't decline the offer.

First thing off the menu we tried was "The Original Mr Grey", this was a earl grey tea flavoured gelato laced with hazelnut chocolate throughout the body of the gelato. Beautiful aroma but still hits that chocolate spot.

Next was "Orange is the new Orange. This has cardomom (third most expensive spice in the world) that leaves a subtle smoky aroma to orange blossom gelato then topped with a zesty lemon caramel. For me the hero was the lemon caramel and I wish there was more of it in the gelato, but K seemed to think it was fine just the way it was.

We gave the gelatos a break and moved on to try their drinks offering. Nitrobrew coffees is one of those specialty offering to those who crave more a caffeine hit over a sugar rush. It is one of the very few places in Australia that offer this, it a a cold brew cooled/charged with nitrogen and serves from a beer tap. The coffee itself comes with a bit of a head like you would expect to see in beer. The actual coffee was very full bodies with apple and cinnamon infused into the coffee to give it a different feel from your typical cold brews. They offer you the option of syrup and milk so you can play around to have it the way you like your coffee. Personally I liked it best black with syrup, that way I found that it bought out the apple flavour in it. K and I played around with milk, and syrup. I found when you added milk, it dulled down the apple but highlighted the cinnamon.

After the coffee we moved onto their cold pressed juice. One thing I noticed straight away, was their cold pressed wasn't based on the usual 'healthy' flavour combination but just good old fruit flavours. I love watermelon juice, so it was an easy decision for me. Cold press watermelon bought out the intensity of the watermelon which was perfect for the warm Melbourne day that it was.

We moved back to the gelato afterwards and tried the "Rockkaido" which was a rockmelon and Hokkaido millk gelato and topped with raspberry cream. The milk and rockmelon worked wonders, the raspberry added a nice touch and was good for visiual but you won't notice it too much if it wasn't there. This was all about that rockmelon flavour, I found the rockmelon part to be stand out,

Lastly we tried the "White Dragon", this was an oolong tea and white grapes gelato. Not a combination I have seen before but I loved it. This was my favourite out of everything I tried. I am a real sucker for tea flavoured/scented things and this hit the spot and together with the sweetness and texture in the grapes, it was a nice creamy taste that has a small chewy bite from the frrozen grapes. It was topped with coconut rosewater cream which was unusual and delicious. The dairy free cream was something that took me by surprised and I enjoyed every bit of it.

Overall 16.5/20 I think this definitely ups the gelato game in Melbourne. The creation of unconventional flavours, lane way location and appreciation for coffee makes this place 'so Melbourne'. I am sure with Jesse's passion for gelato, there will be heaps more exciting flavours to come from this place and I know it will be place that I will be frequenting after dinner a lot more now.

Izakaya Wagaya

Wagaya is a new Izakaya style Japanese restaurant in Melbourne, with interactive (ipad) ordering feature. I was fortunate enough to be invited to review the restaurant, at the invitation of their lovely marketing team. To be honest, I had never heard of Wagaya prior the invitation as I have been travelling in and out of Melbourne regularly in the past 6 months and my weekends have normally been based off a long list of 'to eat' places, so I was very pleased to learn there was a new Japanese restaurant in town.

Since it was a tapas styled eatery I was able to try quite a few things without entering into a food coma after 2 dishes.

When we got there we were greeted by a lovely entrance of cherry blossom. The booths were spacious so it gave K and I plenty of space to put our bags.

First thing we tried was the soft shell crab salad. It came on a bed of leafy greens, a zesty salad dressing, lotus chips, corn and cucumber. I liked the crunch the lotus chips added to the salad. As much as I like corn normally, the corn felt out of place in this salad,

How could I have Japanese for dinner and no sashimi? I ordered the salmon sashimi, it came with generous, large thick slices of salmon.

Next we got a bit adventurous and tried the eel and cream cheese California roll. This had the sweetness of the marinate on the eel and the creaminess from the cheese. Texture wise, I found this quite mushy, I think it had to be eaten with the lotus chip, but I found it a tad annoying there was 3 slices of sushi but only 2 slices of lotus chips.

Then came the tomato, mayo, corn pizza. Honestly, I ordered this out of curiosity more than anything. It was the first time K and  I had heard or seen such a combination presented. I found it very interesting, there was a generous amount of topping (calamari, mushroom, tomato, corn) and oozing with cheese on top. The pizza itself was thin base, so if you plan to order it, make sure you eat it fast, before it gets soggy.

The skewers were next, first skewer was the fish cake. It was nicely charred and the cheese melted on top was just the right of melted cheesiness goodness to fishcake ratio.

Second skewers we got was the ox tongue. It was soft and juicy, grilled to just the right amount of time

The last of the savory we got was ramen, The noodle had a bit of a bite to it, so it's perfect for those who don't like their noodles soft. The soup was not as think as I would like it to be but it still contained a rich tonkotsu flavour. It had a bit of a kick to it, tasted like pepper or shimichi.

For desserts we got the parfait. This had a generous amount of green tea ice cream, I really enjoyed the layer of crunch and the red bean topping.

Also we got the WA assorted to share, this came with green tea cheesecake, black sesame ice cream and daifuku. The cheesecake was rich and dense, strong green tea flavours, the black sesame ice cream was not as creamy as I would like it to be, it tasted quite icy and the daifuku was very ordinary.

The also offered a wide selection of drinks, from cocktails, mocktails, beers, sake. So it fits in perfectly to the Izakaya theme

Overall I found Wagaya to be very interesting, their menu is very creative and good place to chat catch up with friends over some sake and Japanese tapas

Koko

I was lucky enough to tag along to an event hosted by Crown Casino at Koko. Koko is one of Crown's Premium restaurants and one of the fine dining Japanese restaurants that has been around for a long time. It is located near the mahogany room, tucked towards the spa in Crown Towers; it's not something you will normally walk past, but it has a lot of loyal customers that know their way there and spread the name via word of mouth.


We got one of the their many teppanyaki sets. Once we were seated we got a sashimi assortment made up of salmon, tuna, kingfish and tobiko nigiri as starters. The fresh fish was a great way to prep my pallet for all the Japanese goodness to come for the night.

Next was dobin mushi which was a consomme with prawn, chicken, mushroom served in a clay teapot. The soup had a intense flavour but a light texture. Along with a small dash of lemon juice it was in a weird way, refreshing. I found this very enjoyable.

Another part of the appetizers was a mixed green salad with sesame dressing. Sesame dressing is my favorite salad dressing so this was one of those salads I could eat a second and third serving of.

Last of the starters was the crayfish tempura. This was in a light batter that wasn't too oily. It was served with a wasabi mayo. I think it tasted fine without the wasabi mayo but since I had the option I won't say no.

Finally it was time for the teppanyaki. It started off with the fish of the day and scallops. The fish was Patagonian toothfish which is one of my favourite fishes. I love the succulent flavours, it's delicate with the perfect flakey texture and this was no exception; it was cooked perfectly on the hotplate. The scallops were perfectly seared on either side.

Next up was the prawns cooked with butter on a hot plate; the butter accentuated the flavours of the seared prawns. To top this off we were also served the prawn heads extremely crispy and had the natural prawn taste in the head enhanced by the butter earlier.

To balance all the protein, broccolini, baby carrots and beanshoots were served up with the prawns. Something simple yet a good change of pace to break up the meal.

Finally came the star of the teppanyaki show, the waygu. It was cooked to our liking and I went with medium rare. The fattiness from the meat with the sizzling hot plate seems like a match made in heaven. The way it was cooked, the integrity of the meat was maintained and it also highlighted the texture of the great cut that it was. It was easy to eat and free of the chewy bits which you get in cheaper cuts of beef.

If you were still hungry after the point above there was friend rice too.

After all that, I was about to enter into a food coma and then dessert was served. Lucky dessert wasn't very big and heavy - it was just a simple vanilla ice cream with a few pieces of melon and orange.

Overall 15/20. I find that Koko is a reliable and constant place where you can visit for quality classic-style Japanese food. I always enjoy their teppanyaki when I attend. It is in the higher price bracket but I find that it's fitting to the quality of produce, atmosphere and the level of service.