Mediterraneo Charcoal Restaurant

by Davin Lee

We were at home watching ‘Steak Revolution’ on Netflix whilst not eating steak! This steak documentary is great by the way, they filmed all around the world discussing and eating different beef. Immersing ourselves in food is what we’re all about, and this documentary made us crave for steak bad! We decided that the next night we were going to get our fix, however we had one little problem. We had overspent a little bit for the week, which meant that we had to find a bang for buck restaurant. This ruled out pretty much all the top steak houses, and this is where Mediterraneo Charcoal Restaurant came to the rescue.

A restaurant name that’s straight to the point plus numerous good reviews on various sites, gives us nothing but confidence to dine here. The biggest plus of all was without a doubt the exceptionally reasonable steak prices! For example, a 250g porterhouse or scotch fillet is priced below $30. We are literally talking about pub/RSL prices, if not even cheaper. Not to mention that the mainstream steak franchises would easily be more expensive than this. Now none of this would matter if the steaks weren’t any good, but thankfully they are! But first, let’s talk about the entrees..

Helen and I started off with the Australian calamari, stuffed with crab meat chargrilled, served with a potato salad. We followed this up with a chargrilled quail served with wilted spinach, butternut pumpkin and Portabella mushroom. Let me tell you, these entrees were absolutely flawless. I was shocked because I thought I came for steaks. Both the calamari and quail were cooked superbly, paying respect to the produce. The stuffing complemented the calamari, boosting the seafood flavours of the dish. The marinade used on the quail was really special and was a nice break from the Asian flavours which I’ve been used to.

Now for what we came here for, the steaks! I ordered a Goulburn Valley T-Bone steak with aged muscat and mushroom sauce, I believe Helen may have got the special, looks to be a rib eye with burnt butter, garlic and cream sauce. These were some high quality meats with robust flavours. We deliberately didn’t go for the eye fillet this time, in order to try some different cuts. The T-Bone cattle was grass fed and the difference was noticeable. Cooked medium rare, the steak was tender and seared beautifully. If you’re a sauce person, the aged muscat and mushroom sauce was the pick of the two. However you won’t be disappointed enjoying the steak as is.

Did we get our steak fix? You bet we did! We were both stuffed after our steaks, with the waiter acknowledging our incredible eating abilities. To put the nail in the coffin, we even managed to fit in another lemon lime panna cota with cinnamon poached pear! I was very happy with the amount of the bill, considering the amount we ordered. You’d expect to pay at least 30% more at another restaurant of equivalent quality. We’re extremely grateful to have found and dined at Mediterraneo Charcoal Restaurant. We came here fully focused on eating steak, but after our experience with the calamari, we’re intrigued to try their seafood platter next time!

Mediterraneo Charcoal Restaurant
Approx $50 AUD per person
Address: 116 Birdport St, Albert Park VIC 3206
Phone: +61 3 9690 5155
Website: mediterraneo.com.au

Mediterraneo Charcoal Restaurant Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Nyala African

by Helen Le

One night a couple of our friends called us up to see if we were free to catch up for dinner. We in fact did happen to be free and so our friends left it with us to choose a place. Now this happens quite often these days as we’ve been the ‘go to’ for restaurant recommendations for quite some time and we were fine with that. However on this particular night, with dinner only an hour away we went into this frantic panic mode of ‘where can we take our lovely friends where we also haven’t been’?! This is a predicament we’ve been finding ourselves more often these days. It’s easy to recommend our favourite restaurants that we frequent all the time. But it’s getting harder to find a good restaurant which no one has yet been to.

Anyway we told our friends we would handle it, and after some frantic searches and calls we decided to settle on Nyala African. So Davin and our friends have never been to a proper African restaurant before. Davin has tried African cuisine at a food festival but this would be his first proper dining experience. Our friends have never tried it. However I was lucky to have dined with a friend a number of years ago at an Ethiopian restaurant so had a bit of an idea of the type of food they would serve.

Located in the heart of Fitzroy, the entrance of the restaurant produced a narrow set of stairs which we climbed up to the next floor and opened up into a spacious restaurant. The decor had lots of dark wood and African images scattered throughout. With no air conditioning on a hot day, we sure felt like we were in Africa! The staff were super friendly. And when I say staff, I mean just one person who was managing the whole floor! However he seemed to be really on top of everything and was super friendly and accomodating. He talked us through some of the African beers they had on their specials board so we ordered a couple of them and a bottle of Taylors Cabernet Sauvignon.

The menu was extensive and had so many interesting dishes which I wanted to try. To make things easier for everyone we decided to go with one of the banquets so we could try a bit of everything. There were a few banquets to choose from and we ended up picking the one for $38 per person.

The banquet started with some dips and very thin flat bread which one of our friends described it as similar to flat sheets, which I thought, very true! The dips were Tahini – made from sesame paste, yoghurt, lemon juice and olive oil, Deberja – cooked eggplant with tumeric, coriander cumin, capsicum, garlic and yoghurt, and Lentils – Berbere chili, onion, fresh garlic and spices.

All the dips were yummy but out of the 3 we absolutely loved the lentils dip as it was really flavoured and had a spicy kick to it. We asked if we could have a bit more of the lentils dip because it was so good and he promptly brought out a very generous serving of it.

Then came the Baboutie and Cauliflower dishes. The Baboutie consisted of flavoured minced beef with sultanas and nuts mixed through it. This was a really flavoured and appetising dish! The cauliflower was fried and had a thick, soft layer of batter around it. We found this to be quite plain as there wasn’t really any seasoning and the batter around it had a texture we’ve never had before.

For the mains we had 4 meat dishes served with rice, couscous, salad, vegetables and Injera, traditional Ethiopian bread which has this soft, spongy texture, traditionally made from teff flour.

The meat dishes included the Doro Tibs which consisted of boneless pieces of chicken marinated in herbs and spices, sauteed in mild chili, with Nyala Awazi sauce. This chicken was oh so soft and tender and literally just breaks away from your fork. It actually reminded us of the soft chicken you get from Malaysian restaurants.

We also got the Beg Tibs which had marinated and spiced lamb cubes sauteed with fresh tomato, rosemary and white wine on a sizzling plate. The lamb was super flavoured and we loved it. Then came the two beef dishes, the Domeda, a hearty dish from Gambia, which included beef, peanut butter, potatoes, herbs and spices, and finally the Nyala Special which is a traditional Ethiopian stew with lean boneless beef, fresh ginger, garlic and homemade chili with other spices. Both beef dishes were nice and very spicy! The servings were also very generous and between the 4 of us we couldn’t even finish all the food so we were able to take plenty away for the next day.

For dessert we tried all 3 on the menu which was Sweet Couscous – a Moroccan dessert with slivered almonds, sultanas, icing sugar, unsalted butter and icecream, Tafach Mooz – an East African dessert with layers of bananas, brown sugar, cream cheese and cinnamon, and finally the last dessert was chocolate and vanilla icecream. The desserts overall were probably our least favourite as they didn’t stand out as being very special. We were also so full from the meal we couldn’t really finish them!  We also had some Ethiopian coffee with our dessert which as expected was quite different to our usual lattes, but hey – when in Rome, I mean Africa!

Overall it was a great experience. Particularly if you haven’t tried African cuisine before, I would recommend it if you are ever interested in getting a taste!

Nyala African
Approx $40 AUD per person
Address: 356 Brunswick St, Fitzroy VIC 3065
Phone: +61 3 9419 9128
Website: Nyla.com.au

Nyala African Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Rockpool Bar & Grill

by Davin Lee

Rewind it back to 6 months ago, I received an SMS from Helen with a picture of a David Blackmore Wagyu grade 9+ steak from Rockpool. The feeling that ran through my body was one of complete utter betrayal! She was supposed to be my life long food partner, and I could not believe that she had gone and enjoyed this steak without me. She was equipped with the knowledge that I had never had this steak from Rockpool before, let alone stepped into the main dining room, but not an ounce of remorse from her! To my surprise, she had made plans to go again with her friend without me. There comes a time in one’s life where you have to put your foot down, and I wasn’t going to let her have this steak without me again!

As I walked into the main dining room, I realised that Rockpool looked a lot more glamorous than the bar area where I normally eat. I had already looked at the menu weeks before this occasion, trying to work out what steak I was going to get. Frustratingly, their menu changes all the time! Their steak menu changes constantly based on availability, but Helen, myself, and her friend all got the David Blackmore Grade 9+ wagyu sirloin. At $125 a pop, it was the best steak on the menu, cream of the crop. Self admittedly, I had never paid this much for a steak in my life, but I’ve eaten David Blackmore steaks before and have never been disappointed. You know it takes something special for Cape Grim steaks to be the cheaper option on a menu, as they are highly regarded in Australia also.

A few cocktails to ‘cleanse’ the palette, then we had a bottle Cab Sav ready for the arrival of our steaks. We ordered a few side dishes to go with it – potato and cabbage gratin, organic carrots, mushrooms, and heirloom tomatoes. My favourite was the potato and cabbage gratin, it’s a bit weird eating potatoes which taste like cabbage, but it works and was damn tasty! My excitement levels rose as soon as I saw the steak placed in front of me. It looked simplistically beautiful. The sirloin was cut into 4 pieces and had a wedge of lemon next to it. We got some horseradish cream and Bearnaise sauce to go with our steaks, but I had always preferred to eat it without sauce. I slid a piece out and saw all the wonderful marbling glistering in the light. I took a bite, and thought to myself ‘I was expecting this steak to be softer’. I probably felt this way because the last Wagyu beef experience I remembered was the Kobe beef in Japan, which was pure melt in your mouth.

Was I a little disappointed from my first bite? Probably. My next bite I decided to focus more on the taste, and it was at that moment I understood why this steak was so good. They say that fat is flavour, and this statement couldn’t be more true when it comes to this steak. The fat around the steak and the marbling was just bursting with flavour! This truly was a special experience. I went through my first two pieces way too fast, it wasn’t until we joked that each piece was worth $30, that I realised I needed to slow it right now! I understood that I had initially done this steak a huge injustice by trying to compare it to the steaks in Japan. The ones in Japan are purely bred for texture, and while you do get wowed by how buttery soft it is, the beef flavours are miles better with this David Blackmore sirloin. It’s hard to not think of the price, because it is a ridiculously expensive piece of meat, but I felt it was worth it.

We all slumped into our chairs after the steaks, floating on cloud nine. Nothing could wipe the grin off our faces, it was a joyous night indeed. We polished off some small desserts, but they were never going to be the star of the show. We all had a great experience at Rockpool, the service was top notch as always. We talked about making this a yearly event in the future, certainly no objections on my part!

Rockpool Bar & Grill
Approx $100 AUD per person
Address: Crown Entertainment Complex 
8 Whiteman St, Southbank VIC 3006
Phone: +61 3 8648 1900
Website: rockpoolbarandgrill.com.au

Rockpool Bar & Grill Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato