NO visit to Melbourne is complete without a couple of good meals and my two-day jaunt to the Victorian capital also included stops at a number of new restaurants and cafes for a meal, a snack or a quick coffee.
We visited The Atlantic at Crown which is a fine dining-establishment at Crown where the seafood dishes are determined by what's available at the local fish markets every morning.
That day the kitchen was using Portland hapuka, Port Albert garfish, Port Franklin whiting, Queenscliffe snapper, Mornington Peninsula flathead as well as Stanley crayfish, New Zealand salmon and Port Lincoln kingfish.
It took us several hours to make our way through the mini-degustation lunch chef Donavan Cooke created for us which included scallop tartare with celeriac remoulade, Tasmanian truffle, green apple and hazelnut tuille and yellowfin tune with heirloom tomato confit and jelly, basil and balsamic glaze.
The only non-seafood dish we enjoyed was caramalised crispy skin port belly with pineapple cumberland sauce, corriander, spring onions and soy beans.
Dinner the first night was at Miss Chau in Exhibition Street, a hole-in-the-wall eatery best described as “a hawker-style Vietnamese tuckshop’’, which serves traditional Asian street food.
We also had our morning coffee the second day of the excursion at Manchester Press, a funky coffee house in Rankins Lane with a staff of talented baristas that create little works of art in the froth of your latte or soy cap.
