Tommy Ruff Fish Bar

December 15, 2015May 6, 2018 by Helen Le

Finding a good fish and chips joint can be hard especially if you’re looking for something different and not the usual deep fried stuff that most offer. However we were recently pleasantly surprised when we came across a place that not only avoided frying all their produce, but cooked and presented it more naturally with almost a certain respect.

Tommy Ruff, located in Elsternwick (there is also one in Mordialloc) is owned by John Stamoulis and Helen Stamoulis who has been specialising in gourmet fish and chips for quite a while. Just to give you a bit of background, John’s father, Ipocrates Stamoulis was born on the island of Samos, in the Aegean sea and after migrating to Australia in the 1950s he worked in the seafood industry and then took ownership of his first fish and chips shop in 1969. Inspired by his father, John decided to enter the fish and chips business himself but with a gourmet twist and emphasis on displaying the beautiful produce he has to offer. He has since changed the traditional fish and chips view to a focus on flavour, health and quality produce.

The restaurant itself has a modern, casual and bright beach, fun feel to it with sea decorations wherever possible from fishing nets and fishing rods scattered along the walls, to newspaper clippings made into wallpaper – even the water jug was a large ceramic fish with its mouth as the opening for water!

Continuing with the nautical theme, the menus are available on the table and are blue themed, offering quite a variety of different seafood dishes to choose from. Having been a few times now we have tried a number of dishes so lets talk about them!

We have had the seafood chowder a couple of times now as a starter which consists of fish, prawns and mussels with warmly toasted bread for dipping. It also has a potato like consistency offering it a bit of thickness expected in a chowder. It is quite a large serving but quite hearty and tasty so you’ll easily gobble it all up!

Tommy’s tacos (fish or prawns), which come with Mexican salsa and slaw is also very nice with fresh tasting ingredients and also good for a starter. We have also ordered the vinaigrette oysters which I thoroughly enjoyed – their special vinaigrette sauce has the perfect tang and gets you ready for the mains!

I highly recommend the Chef’s seafood platter if you’re not sure what to order because the huge platter offers a bit of everything for a first timer. It includes the Tommy’s tacos, oysters, about 3 different grilled fishes, prawns, scallops, calamari and chips. The seafood is mostly grilled and not fried which is what we love about it and the produce is fresh! It is also not over flavoured with too much seasoning or sauces, allowing you to really taste the natural freshness of the seafood. However it is definitely not plain tasting either so I think the flavours have been balanced well.

I was also a big fan of the salmon burger which consisted of a lovely grilled salmon fillet with salad, lemon and dill sauce. With such simple, fresh ingredients, allowing the combination of natural flavours, it was a really enjoyable burger! I can’t also forget to mention the chips as they were of real high quality, crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside.

If you’re not too hungry for the seafood platter, you can also order one of their many grilled fish combos with chips and salad or rice and salad.

Overall, if you’re looking for something different from the usual fish and chips you are used to, do check out Tommy Ruff as they offer high quality seafood, presented very nicely. For the top quality produce and presentation, the prices are also very reasonable!

Tommy Ruff Fish Bar
Approx $30 AUD per person

(does not include the Chef’s seafood platter for 2 which is $72)
Website: http://www.tommyruff.com.au/
Address: 1/3 Carre St, Elsternwick VIC 3185
Phone:+61 3 9077 8815

Santorini, Greece

December 2, 2015December 2, 2015 by Helen Le

When we first landed at Santorini airport and jumped into a taxi to head towards our hotel, we were starting to wonder if we had made the right choice with visiting this famous island. Our initial observations from the airport to the hotel was that the surroundings looked barren, dry and hilly. We were worried.

But after we settled into our lovely hotel and took a walk up the hilly roads to discover the white washed buildings overlooking the bluest of waters, our worries quickly disappeared. The scenery was not like the photos we had seen.. it was way better!

Santorini is probably the most famous and popular Greek island out of all the islands in the Aegean Sea and is about an hour’s flight from Athens. Our hotel was located in Fira and only a few minutes walking distance from the water. We found that getting around to all the recommended destinations was quite easy as they had regular buses that could take you all over the island. Getting from one end of the island to the other by bus only takes about one hour so we utilised the buses regularly to explore as much as we could over the few days we had. Oia, famous for their white washed buildings and blue roofs were just like out of a postcard.

However let’s not forget to talk about the food. The seafood in Santorini was the freshest of the fresh and cooked so simply with just light flavours so that you can really taste the natural goodness of the produce. We had the most awesome seafood platter at Volcano Blue restaurant and the best fish soup we’ve had to date. In fact it was so good that we came back the next day to have more. The seafood platter had everything we could ask for and it was all simply grilled – none of that fried stuff! It came with a light lemon dipping sauce to accentuate the natural flavours and we thoroughly enjoyed it with some cocktails.

We also went to Lucky’s Souvlakis which was a small shabby looking place on the outside but was so packed with people and buzzing inside, all enjoying their famous gyros and souvlakis while sitting on stools along their long counter. There’s probably only enough room for about 10 – 15 people inside but that didn’t stop people like us from pouring in! We enjoyed our pork gyros souvlakis with some chips and a nice cold beer.

The gyros was cooked in front of you on the rotisserie and their pita bread was warmly toasted giving you that crispy texture. With the addition of lettuce, onions, tomatoes and chips loaded inside the bread, you got that extra crunch and burst of flavours from the gyros and tzatziki.

Verdict? A pretty high quality and tasty souvlaki! It was also really cheap and so is a great place for a pit stop for a quick lunch or late night dinner! I also can’t forget to mention the lovely service we received from the friendly and warm staff. The family who worked there looked like they were truly enjoying what they were doing.

Santorini are known for their beautiful beaches and boy were there many to choose from! Not only do they have the usual white beaches which are probably not so different back at home, but they are known for their famous Red beach and Black beaches which are coloured from the red and black volcanic pebbles.

And so we visited one of their black beaches, Perissa beach, about 15 km south of Fira and easily accessible by taking one of the buses, known for its black sand and the massive Mesa Vouno rock which rises high in the distance. It had an abundance of sun lounge chairs and straw umbrellas. We lazed around with our cocktails for a good few hours and took in the tranquility and crystalline water.

But my absolute FAVOURITE beach and place in Santorini was the Red beach. The Red beach is probably the most famous and beautiful beaches in Santorini and is only a walk away from ancient ruins site of Akrotiri. This beach also makes you work a little harder before you see its beauty because you do have to walk along a rocky and steep path, up a cliff and back down again before you reach it. For someone as clumsy as myself, I was being extra careful not to slip and topple over!

When we got to the top and looking point of the cliff we were able to admire the stunning scenery of the beach. The beautiful red landscape of the volcanic rocks enclosed around this small and intimate beach was breathtaking. It gave us the motivation to keep walking so that we could get to our destination! As we gradually made our way down to the beach there were many sun lounges and umbrellas to choose from in which you pay a small fee to rent for the day. We sunscreened up, dropped our belongings and jumped into the beautiful blue waters.

Overall, I have to say that Santorini was probably one of my favourite places on this Europe trip and I would definitely revisit. Not only was the food amazing and the scenery was stunning, the people there were so lovely and warm. It was also one of those places where we didn’t have to rush around in a bustling city and we were about to take our time, relax and just soak up the atmosphere. The weather was definitely beyond warm, it was hot! But even more of an excuse to take a dip in their crystal blue waters.

Restaurants

Volcano Blue
Website: volcanoblue.gr
Donkey street, Fira, Santorini, Greece
Phone: +30 2286 022850

Lucky’s Souvlakis
Dekigala, Fira 847 00, Greece

The Tippler & Co.

November 20, 2015May 6, 2018 by Davin Lee

This was a restaurant Helen and I discovered upon returning from our first Europe trip. Trip Advisor is the preferred review site overseas, so out of curiosity I looked up what the top Melbourne restaurant was on Trip Advisor. To our surprise, it was The Tippler & Co! We had never heard of this restaurant before, so we were very curious as to why The Tippler & Co. were rated so highly by our international and local visitors. We made an online booking and when we got there we realised that a booking wasn’t really necessary. This continued to be a common pattern even until today. Out of habit I still call up to make a booking every time just in case. If you’re someone that links how busy a restaurant is to the quality of their food, The Tippler & Co. will throw that theory out the window because their food is amazing!

DSCF1760 — Pan Fried Gnocchi with sweet potato, sage burnt butter, lemon, pine nuts, goat’s chevre

The food is based on a sharing plate menu. They have a wide variety of vegetarian and non-vegetarian foods which will appeal to a wide range of people. The menu also changes regularly so we do get excited when something new is added (and equally get disappointed when a great dish is taken off). I can tell when a restaurant gets their food right when I really enjoy their vegetarian dishes. I’m usually the type that goes looking for meat in a dish but I actually look forward to the veggie dishes here. As a matter of fact, one of my favourite and long standing dishes here is the roasted cauliflower salad! It consists of cauliflower, green beans, pine nuts, goji berries, quinoa, and tahini yoghurt. This salad is just so appetizing and I love how they just lightly roast the cauliflower. I’ve lost count of the amount of times other places have charred the cauliflower. Everything just goes so well together and being so healthy makes me feel good too. That’s until I move onto the smoked chicken ribs! Oh these were so good we ordered another serving last time we were here. They have a nice woody and smokey flavour that’s been fully embedded into the meat, it’s topped off with a barbeque sauce glaze. These are guaranteed to make you want to lick your fingers!

Their pan fried gnocchi is another stand out. Sage burnt butter with lemon forms the basis of this dish. How can any dish go wrong with these two ingredients together? It’s just not fair! Then sweet potato, pine nuts and little balls of goat cheese are added in. While you’re enjoying the perfectly cooked and fluffy gnocchi, the goat cheese just bursts in your mouth. As the goat cheese flavour mellows down, the sweetness of the potato takes over. The problem with a lot of gnocchi’s is that it can feel a bit heavy and bloated, no such problem here even with the goat cheese. Other dishes such as the spatchcock and the chunky beef & wild mushroom pie were also exceptional. And this is what The Tippler & Co. does so well, they just understand how food should taste. It’s never bland or overseasoned, they just hit the mark consistently and they do it so effortlessly. Their dishes remind me of some country style dishes. Whilst there are similarities with the taste and ingredients used, what I’m really thinking of is the way the food here makes me feel. The food here gives me this warm and fuzzy feeling, the same feeling I get when I’m having hearty country style dishes.

DSCF1757 — Chunky beef & wild mushroom pie – smoky cheddar scone, roast tomato ketchup

Now the big question on your mind right now is probably… price? Well it’s our go to place to take our friends because the prices here are really reasonable! The last thing we want is to make anyone feel uncomfortable with high food prices. The smaller items such as the roasted cauliflower salad and smoked chicken ribs are around the $10 mark, and the larger meals such as the pan fried gnocchi, pie and spatchcock are in the low $20 price range. Excellent value considering all the dishes come in very decent portions.

The service has always been excellent at The Tippler & Co. They seem to really enjoy their jobs and it shows in their level of service. They are attentive and also break down the waiting staff / customer barrier. My impressions of them are that they are honest and down to earth. If we over order they will be the first to let us know. Their menu knowledge is also impeccable and can pretty much answer any questions you may throw at them. All while still making the effort to come and have a chat with us about a wide range of topics. This is the service I feel most comfortable with and I really appreciate their efforts. One minor disadvantage of The Tippler & Co. is probably the location, it’s situated in East Melbourne and therefore a little far away from the CBD walking wise. However there is a bar here serving a wide range of spirits and beers which should make for a pretty good night! A part of me doesn’t want to give away this hidden gem of a restaurant, well what can I say, guess I’m just a generous person. Do give The Tippler & Co. a try and I’m sure they’ll fulfill your heart with warm and lovely foods.

DSCF1766 — Ginger and date pudding – salted butter caramel and fried ice cream

The Tippler & Co.
Approx $35 AUD per person
Website: www.thetipplerandco.com
58 Wellington Parade, East Melbourne, VIC 3002
Phone:+61 3 9416 0618

Tommy Ruff Fish Bar

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Santorini, Greece

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The Tippler & Co.

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