Melb in May 1 - Spicy Fish Restaurant Revisited

Spicy Fish Restaurant
209 Little Bourke Street, Melbourne CBD

For someone who hasn't been to Melbourne THAT many times in her adult life, I sure get a lot of deja vu when I walk past the restaurants. Could it be that I'm such a glutton I've fitted into 3-4 trips what most people can't consume in their whole lifetimes? Whatever the case may be, I met up with Marc for lunch in Chinatown and walked past at least two restaurants that I pointed out as "I've eaten here before". Finally, I spotted Spicy Fish Restaurant and long story short, I had a dream about spicy fish literally the night before so it was exactly what I was in the mood for and we went in. It looked instantly familiar to me and when I did a quick search on my own blog, it was revealed that I had eaten there before (previous post here). Hungry Kittens might be useful for you readers in determining which restaurants to go to but it's also my own little memory bank for places I've been in the past.

This will be a short post because as soon as I realised it wasn't new, I didn't do my usual comprehensive set of photo snaps. I debated with myself whether to write another post at all but in the end decided to do so because the last one was from 2011 and also, I didn't get spicy fish that time. Actually eating the spicy fish at Spicy Fish Restaurant is important enough to write about.

Melbourne in May

The city of food and friends...

My lack of travelling this year is driving me nuts! I can't be the only who uses holidays as milestones for the year. How many of you guys keep telling yourselves "Only 3 months until Africa" (for example) to bait your soul after a long, tedious week? Having something to look forward to makes the bad parts of life bearable.

Because Marc and I are planning a big trip next year (not quite as big as 3 months in Europe but still big), we are making sacrifices this year to save, save, save. It all got so boring for me that I desperately searched for some interstate CPD courses I could do as an excuse for some 'light' travelling. A couple of my closest friends (shoutout to Howl and Mochi xoxo) have fled to Melbourne so that's where I aimed to go. Luckily I found something interesting that spanned across 2 days and thus, gave me a reason to book a long weekend away.

Degustation Dinner at Urbane

Urbane Restaurant
http://www.urbanerestaurant.com/

Now that I'm an old lady with grown-up problems, fine dining experiences are for special occasions only. The thing is though, Marc and I are so settled into our home and have really brewed our laziness and comfort to a whole new level, we end up just doing home cooked meals or takeaway feasts for special occasions anyway. Because of this I can see from my own blog that my last fancy meal was April 2013 at Esquire.

Imagine my excitement when a couple of girls from work decided to arrange a joint birthday dinner at Urbane. I had it penned in my diary weeks in advance and found myself counting down to that weekend. Arguably even more eager than the birthday girls, I periodically looked up the Urbane website just to read the seasonal menu. I know I was obsessive because the menu actually changed at least once in the time that I was repeatedly looking it up.

George's Paragon for Lunch

George's Paragon Brisbane City
Level 1, 45 Eagle Street, Brisbane CBD

My parents and I have a little family group on Wechat that we use to exchange news, gossip and photos. One day mum uploaded some food piccies from a work lunch function she attended at Jellyfish. Despite her assertion that the food was subpar, dad and I got instantly jealous. We decided we'd have our own seafood lunch along Eagle Street the very next day.

I have a strange connection with George's Paragon. It's a short and tragic story: one fateful evening around this time last year, Marc and I were drunk loonies running (literally running) to try and make it to a dinner booking with friends at Georges Paragon. At some point, running became piggy backing and as I hurried Marc along the Victoria bridge from his shoulders, disaster struck. He tripped on a rock and tumbled... and sprung up perfectly fine. I, on the other hand, dropped from greater heights directly onto my face. There was blood everywhere and I won't gross you out with details but here I am, 1 year later with a (thankfully) relatively small scar on my lip and (unthankfully) 3 dead teeth.

Not one to be put off a restaurant visit by such a 'trivial' occurence, I was super keen to finally try George's Paragon with dad.

Tukka for Lunch

Tukka Restaurant
http://www.tukkarestaurant.com.au/

This post should have been uploaded sometime in March but I've been dining out so infrequently I just forgot about this blog, including the stuff I had half-ready to go. I have a sparse piece of history with Tukka. It was one of my first 'fine dining' experiences from the days I was a little baby. My grandparents were facinated by the native menu and I remember the food was tasty and the whole experience was enjoyable.

Tukka's quirk is that they present native Australian ingredients for a refined palate. Just imagine kangaroo, emu, crocodile, wattle seeds and more, arranged in pretty, elegant and tasty dishes.

Jako Japanese Korean Restaurant for BBQ

Jako Japanese Korean Restaurant
2/9 Morley Street, Toowong

Regular readers will know all about my recent obsession with Korean food. Never mind whether it's in the form of a rice dish, soup dish, pancakes or bbq, if it's Korean then I can't get enough of it. Naturally, when I saw an online offer for a Korean BBQ meal, I jumped to make a purchase.

Jako Restaurant is located in Toowong village, conveniently accessible by a couple of main roads. It's a tiny little restaurant and I can only suppose the staff were pushed to capacity when we arrived because despite a booking, we had to wait a good 20 minutes or so before food started being served. They were very apologetic about it though and we didn't mind too much.

Lunar Cuisine for Family Dinner

Lunar Cuisine
Sunnypark Plaza, Sunnybank

Anyone who's part of the Chinese population in Brisbane will acknowledge that there's NOTHING in the way of good Chinese restaurants. Sure, there's the odd passable yum cha restaurant (which is a type of Cantonese cuisine) and plenty of eateries that target uni students but at a restaurant level, choices are severely lacking.

This might explain why my parents were so keen on this new restaurant they read about in the local Chinese-language newspaper. We rushed to the location one weekend, fighting heavy confusion because the place where the restaurant was supposed to be was actually a different restaurant. It turns out that this new venture they read about was so new it hadn't even opened yet. Not to be deterred by such a minor detail, they went back the following weekend. It STILL wasn't open. So they tried again the weekend after that and bingo, Lunar Cuisine had launched and my mum and dad made it as part of the pioneer lunch crowd.

Sylvia's Restaurant and Wine Bar at Shangri-La Gardens

Sylvia's Restaurant and Wine Bar
http://shangrilagardens.com.au/restaurant.html

I'll start this post with a slight side story about geographic disorientation. What I mean is... have you ever noticed that places you are familiar with don't feel that far away but anywhere new and uncharted automatically feels a world away? I grew up in the Eastern suburbs of Brisbane on the south side of the river. Whenever someone tells me a suburb I've never heard of before, I assume it's in the northside. 9 out of 10 times, I'd be correct.

Contrastingly, if I hear of a restaurant in a familiar-sounding suburb, I don't think twice about booking a meal there. Never mind the fact that I now live in an inner city suburb and said restaurant takes close to 40min to get to.

This was the case with Sylvia's restaurant in Wynnum. We made our (lengthy) way there a few Wednesday nights ago for dinner. I'm still not entirely sure what the Shangri-La Gardens in Wynnum is but it provides accommodation and also acts as a venue for wedding receptions. We felt a bit strange going there for dinner, especially since there wasn't another dinner guest in sight (a couple of wine drinkers excepting). It ended up being rather nice, actually, with the vibe of having an entire restaurant staff to ourselves.

Billykart Kitchen for Lunch

Billykart Kitchen for Lunch
http://www.billykartkitchen.com/

I had a long overdue catchup with highschool friend Tracy on the weekend. We arranged to have lunch at a venue of my choosing and I was grateful to be able to select one from my ever-increasing list of 'need to visit' restaurants and cafes. Billy Kart Kitchen appealed to me because the photos I saw online looked promising and once I read the menu, I was sold.

The cafe stands out as a social hub in an otherwise suburban crossroad. I'm so used to inner city cafes that are a nightmare to park at. It was refreshing to be able to find close street parking without incident.

Blackbird Bar and Restaurant for Dinner

Blackbird Bar and Restaurant
http://www.blackbirdbrisbane.com.au/ 

Last night marked the break in our drought from dining out at a proper restaurant. It feels like a long, long time since we've ventured out to somewhere more upmarket than the local Asian/Indian eatery. To me, dining out isn't just about the food but about the extravagance; getting dressed up, ordering fancy drinks with descriptions I don't entirely understand, ordering way too much food in multiple courses, with sides on the side (even if your meal already comes with sides). Because most of these elements are clearly a luxury, we toned down to keep the bank balance happy but decided to splurge as a celebration for some good news.

We made a booking later on in the evening and got there later again (bus troubles) but the restaurant was still buzzing with activity. I suppose late night dinner on a Friday is nothing out of the ordinary. It was our first time visiting the Blackbird venue and we didn't expect to see bouncers out the front. I can only suppose their presence is more for the bar section of Blackbird, which we were relieved to find was a separate area to the restaurant. Why relieved? Do you realise how loud a Friday evening drinks crowd in the CBD is? I wouldn't have been able to hear myself think let alone enjoy my meal. Luckily, the restaurant was lively but not so overbearing