Still haven’t quite finished entertaining L. After dinner at The Deanery, we had a hot date with a booth at The Toff In Town. Thank goodness for bookings because the bouncers are…choosy with whom they let in.
Our booth seated about six people ‘intimately’ or four people with a fair bit of space. The decor is pretty swish with lots of old world accents. I particularly liked the chintzy tablecloth.
Again, you will all have to put up with my shitty mobile phone photos. Sorry about that. Tristan and I shared a bottle of cider from France – Bordelet sidre brut tendre, a nomtastic drop.
The gals Nat and L had cocktails. The one on the left is the Violet Ayala – a champagne cocktail with violet and aloe vera for the sophisticated pallet (sic). The one on the right is a Ginger Marmalade Margarita – a classic take on the margarita with ginger, kaffir lime leaf and homemade marmalade.
Nat and L being silly girlie girls had to have both the cocktails with the word ‘violet’ in them. The one below is the Lilac Velvet – a gin-based cocktail with grape, lemon, vanilla and juniper. I think the red blob at the bottom is a glace cherry!
We all decided to share a cheese platter too. On the night we went, our cheese platter consisted entirely of cow’s milk cheeses. I’m afraid I only remember that the one of the left was Delice. It also comes with plenty of crackers and muscatels, mmm.
I may have tittered a little upon seeing that you could order Bridge Road Chav beer. I think they mean ‘Chevalier’. Despite the constant spelling errors littered through the menu, the beer list is cracking though at times quite expensive.
Still, if you want to impress the hell out of an out-of-towner, I’d recommend a Toff booth. It’s got a fancy button so you can summon bar staff and everything! They do have plenty of nibblies too, but if you want to be really lazy, best to have dinner beforehand at Cookie, that which I’ve been meaning to review (using iPhone photos – that should be fun!).
I want to keep loving Misty’s, I really do. I’ve been quite a few times – even long ago enough for this sign not to mean anything to me, oh those days of innocence.
One of my old friends used to live in the area and first suggested we go. It’s really cool inside – 50s booths and memorabilia on the walls.
Sadly, when I last went there to take L while she was down from Sydney, we went on a very busy evening. First we were told that we could only dine in if we wanted to sit outside. There were lots of bookings and we didn’t have one. That’s fine: we chose to eat outside rather than not eat here at all.
Later on, we learnt that you could indeed sit inside if you were willing to wait and that many folks did do this. Argh, what the hell?! Anyway, we were here and we placed our order. As I tell newcomers as it was told to me, cheesy chilli fries are the way to go when you’re here for your first time.
These are the famous cheesy chilli fries, when eaten at the restaurant. Yup, they look a little gross but they’re so freaking good.
This is what we ended up with instead, eaten huddled in my parked car. These are wet fries – still delicious and reminiscent of poutine. Originally we ordered the dish above as a starter to share but they forgot to put in our order. Yes yes, of course we asked about it a few times and got it when we’d actually finished our mains. The reason we got wet fries instead of cheesy chilli fries was because when someone came out to confirm our order for the third or fourth time (seriously, I lost count), I was told that because I’d said yes when the lady said ‘wet fries’, I got wet fries.
My bad that the wait staff, the dude taking my order and the kitchen staff initially stuffed up my order. I confess I just said yes so I could get my food and get the hell out of there to somewhere warm.
Still, the wet fries are good and me, Tristan and L gobbled them up like hungry, hungry hippos. Basically, they’re what I initially ordered but without the spiciness – gravy, melted cheese and chopped spring onions.
But let’s get back to when we were still dining at the restaurant and not forced to my car shivering like mad.
L decided on the Philly cheese dog for her main. It looked and smelt so good! Lots of onions, thinly sliced beef and drowned in sauce. If I went back I would so order this next time!
Tristan and I shared the ‘I Want What Misty’s Having’ platter – which was two mini blue cheese and Cajun burgers, and a serve to share of the mini blue cheese salad and mini taco nachos. This is perfect if you’re wanting to try out lots of things and not feel sick with overeating!
These burgers are small. Here’s my fist curled next to one for comparison’s sake. Suck on that White Castle!
Crazily, despite us girls freezing our tits off outside, we still had to have the thickshakes. L and I shared a cherry cola one – I am a fan from way back.
Tristan went for one of their most popular ones – a Reese’s pieces thickshake. I don’t even like Reese’s peanut butter cups but have to admit the thickshake is delicious.
Tristan reckons the food here is so good that despite the appalling customer service on this occasion, I’d still come back. There are loads of things on the menu I do still want to try and it’s guilty pleasure eating at its finest but no. I won’t be returning, not even for takeaway, not even for the breakfast burrito I saw on their menu and not even in spite of their ability to cater for vegetarians (there are loads of vegetarian options, believe it or not!).
So yeah, if you know of any other ace places offering the American junk food experience in all its glory, you be sure to let me know! I could never ever fault the food at Misty’s Diner but am not returning (or indeed recommending) a place where they make you feel like their incompetence is something you have to grin and bear. I’m pretty downcast about having to ‘demote’ one of my favourite junk food haunts.
That was me trying to get a booking for my Sydneysider bestie L for a bunch of us Twitterers to dine at Cookie. For days, no one seemed to be answering their phone. When I finally got through, of course they were all booked up for the night we wanted to dine.
Panic panic panic more.
Tristan suggested The Deanery and I remember hearing some food blogger wanksters saying the food wasn’t half-bad. So I booked.
Relief!
Not to betray my (old) age or anything, but didn’t The Deanery once used to be frequented by drunk, suited bogans? Perhaps so. It didn’t seem so upon my first visit: the bar area was crowded but the punters were polite. The dining area looked very fancy indeed and the venue’s wine storage is visible from almost every table. Woah. So this is a wine nerd joint, eh?
So of course I ordered a glass of Bridge Road’s Chevalier Saison. I later learnt on Twitter that the keg that just been tapped that same night we were there and more reassuring, The Deanery’s Twitter presence was conversing with Bridge Road’s. Good to see more good food places getting in on the craft beer love.
It gets better.
I didn’t actually order it at the time, but Tristan and Luke had a bottle each of the Weihenstephaner hefe weissbier. Remember guys, when life gives you lemons, get it the fuck away from your hefeweizen. One of my favourite pearls of wisdom from Twitter. Remember folks, this is the One Wheat Beer To Rule Them All.
I love how the menu is divided into small, medium and large dishes, allowing you to choose lots of small things to make up a meal. Of course, if you prefer the more traditional option of just getting one main, there’s that too. Luke opted to do this and had a humble old steak. He seemed pretty taken with it!
His partner Kim chose the Momofuku-inspired steamed pork buns as a starter, as did Tristan. Due to the absence of serious tech, you’ll have to suffer my ghetto mobile phone photos. I do apologise as it won’t do the morsels justice. I believe these appear in the Momofuku cookbook so you can try your hand at making them at home, like this blog has. The consensus seemed to be that The Deanery’s take on them were okay.
Kim then went with the duck pie, celeriac purée and preserved mushrooms on my erroneous advice that it came highly recommended. Turns out I had confused it with The Lincoln’s duck pie. She decided to order it anyway and declared it wonderful.
Big sis L started off her culinary adventures with the quail with coconut, yoghurt and tamarind chutney. She really enjoyed it but as quails are a somewhat bony bird, that can dampen the nomming experience. Just the way the figurative cookie crumbles!
After much indecision (with which the waiter was not very sympathetic, it has to be said), for mains she chose to have the pork belly. Greedily, I looked on!
I had two starter-type dishes: first, a trio of freshly shucked oysters with the house made XO sauce – not only do they look visually stunning, but devouring them was a punchy, flavoured treat. The last time I’d had oysters previous to this occasion, they weren’t fresh so this restored my confidence in them! A trio wasn’t enough.
My second gluttonous escapade was the rabbit rilette with prunes. I was curious as to what rilette was and discovered that it’s a meaty, finely shredded preparation that lends itself to spreading and snacking as if parfait or pâté.
Consider this bouche much amused! Under the layer of fat, the meat hides making it easier to spread and enhancing each others’ flavour. I love these sorts of dishes because I really do find they whet the appetite but they’re also substantial if you’re not wanting an epic fatty meal.
To bulk up my deliberately small meal, I ordered a side of the watercress and fennel salad. As a personal preference, I would have preferred more watercress rather than fennel and for the salad to be equally composed of both ingredients as fennel is rather astringent. Besides, I’m British and we love watercress, haha.
Tristan’s main was the slow braised goat, almond and currant couscous with yoghurt. High fives for goat meat! Surprisingly, I don’t think he was as gushy about it as I expected.
The fitout of the eating area is swanky and the service is mostly lovely – big sis L wasn’t impressed with the waiter that served her and to be honest neither was I, only because I sometimes got the impression that he’d much rather be doing something else than helping our table (as was in evidence when we asked for the bill). The rest of the staff were great and it’d be ace to try out more enticing menu items on a future visit! Was a shame there was no time for dessert as we had to nick off and pretend to be cool cats at yet another Melbourne hotspot…stay tuned!
