We’ve all got to eat so it might as well be good! I’ve been a restaurant critic for almost 20 years, and have been writing a weekly restaurant column in Melbourne’s Sunday Age since 2006.
My approach is to always take a restaurant on its own terms: there’s no point slamming a burger joint because it doesn’t have white tablecloths. I try to be constructive in my criticism and I’ve always got the diner in mind: there are many places you could choose to go. Why should it be here?
Twenty years ago, when I started writing about restaurants, I would sneak to the toilet with a pad and pen to scrawl notes about the food and mood. Occasionally, thus enthroned, I would sketch a plate so I could recall its composition.
Barbecue season is upon us. But before you conjure images of backyards, burnt snags and sauce, consider the Texan-style barbecue on offer at Bluebonnet.
There's so much gleam and glam going on at the Greville that I expected the food to be something of an afterthought, little more than a sponge to soak up the savvy blanc, if you know what I mean. But the first dish to come out of chef Casey Norman's kitchen proved how wrong I was.
You don't need to tell anyone you've been to a Korean barbecue restaurant. They can smell it on you. The smoky sizzle of charcoal-grilled pork belly and marinated beef are locked into the very fibres of your clothing, emanating evidence of your eating adventures as surely as a Google tracker.
One of Melbourne's most experienced restaurant managers, Joel Penno, previously at Stokehouse and Kisume, has opened his first venue, and it's been instantly, fiercely embraced by its community. Elwood Bathers is right on the beach, in the premises that was Sails by the Bay for more than two decades.
The ceiling at Yu Kitchen is strung with beads that represent the abacus. Photo: Chris Hopkins Back to restaurant reviews Shop 41B, Chadstone Luxury ...
The most surprising thing about the Espy Kitchen isn't how busy it is, though it is the ever-thrumming engine room of a revivified landmark licensed for an epic 1700 souls. The astonishing thing is how good the food is.
The best thing about eating out in Melbourne isn't finding things that taste great, it's connecting with cultures all around the world without leaving the city. And, if I can assume that you, gentle reader, are not one of the 70,000 Chinese students living among us, then you – like me – will find David's Hotpot an energising, spicy adventure.
There's an important metric of success for a neighbourhood wine bar. If visitors from afar fantasise about moving within walking distance, then it's on song. Henry Sugar sails through the "real estate dreams" test: it welcomes and satisfies in such a way that you want to return, preferably on foot.
If you – like me – believe that sides and condiments are often the best bit of a meal, then you – like me – will love Small Graces, a petite, welcoming, year-old cafe one street back from Footscray's main strip.
