Eats Melbourne: Little Hunter

I was browsing through the Urbanspoon when I stumbled across Little Hunter. Upon reading at the various comments and blogs about Little Hunter, I've decided to give it a try. The menu listed on the webpage sounds interesting too.

Little Hunter is located short walk away from the Little Collins St and Russell Street intersection. I find it a bit hard to spot because the little stairway that lead to the restaurant is located in between two buildings (One of it is currently under constructions).

We were seated in a cosy booth at the corner of the restaurant (loves that spot by the way) and started looking thought the menu. We were not in the mood for any sorts of drinks so we skip that part and it's a still water day.

After placing the order we were given a complimentary loaf of very delicious, fresh,warm, fluffy, crispy on the top (from the melted cheese), melt in your mouth and cottony soft herb and cheddar pull apart bread with chicken skin butter. According to the wait staff the chef melt the chicken skin fat into oil and mix it with butter and add the bits of chicken crackling into the mixture. The method of using chicken skin oil reminded me so much of my mom and my grandma. The chicken skin oil add flavours into the food they cook in it . Believe it or not I think it does. I myself did the same when I am able to obtain quite a bit of chicken skin fat from the chicken I bought. I like to use it in my stir fry vegetable and needless to mention I like the crispy chicken skin crackling too.

Yes. So we love the bread and the butter and are happy to pay for it if we need second serve. Hubby who is not a fan of bread also think it is good.

From the "small" section we ordered Pork Cracklings and Lobster Hushpuppies. The Pork cracklings comes with apple sauce dip. The pork cracklings are light, airy and crispy with hint of paprika. Although the menu did mention white cheddar but I can't seem to be able to taste it but I can see it. The apple sauce taste like any other apple sauce but I find it a bit overpowering for the crackling. I prefer eating the pork crackling without the apple sauce.

The Lobster Hushpuppies comes with softened vinegar butter. It is not a bit hit for me. It is just some food when I say 'it is not bad but not wow and I may not order this when I come back next time'. If you are from Malaysia you will probably know what Cucur is and this is like Cucur Lobster. Hubby said it reminded him of corn fritters because he can't taste the lobster . Which I am with him. The ratio of corn is probably overpowering the lobster. For some reason I was expecting small pieces of lobster meat inside the batter but looks like the lobster meat has been paste. So I was a bit dissapointed for not able to chew pieces of lobster meat. In terms of the dip i like that buttery tangy dip but hubby did not like the dip because he dislike vinegar so he decided to have Lobster Hushpuppies with apple sauce which works well for him.

The Roast Chicken - Morrocan spices, soured cream and lemon is also not a winner for me. Although the flesh was very succulent, it was lack of taste. However, the skin does have a full Moroccan spices flavour and the lemon juice just add in a kick into the Moroccan Spices. Soured cream and cucumber as the accompanied of the Moroccon Chicken is a good combination.

For the sides we have Little Hunter fries which comes with the fry sauce. The fries are triple cooked. It is golden cripsy on the outside, light but not fluffy enough on the inside and at minimum oiliness. I am sorry about the sauce. I don't remember to ask what it is but it tasted tad similar to thousand island for me.

Overall

The service was what I expected for that category of restaurant. The food arrives promptly, warm and well introduced.  I like the ambiance - quiet, slightly dim light, relaxing, have my own space as I was seated in the booth. In terms of the value for money, I would expect a bit more work to be done on the food for the price they put in the menu (my opinion is according to the food I ordered) and I will return to try other food offer on the menu.

Little Hunter

195 Lt Collins St

Melbourne CBD, 3000 (map)

03 9654 0090

Website 

Open

Tuesday to Friday - Lunch and Dinner

Saturday - Dinner Only

Sunday - Lunch Only

Harbour Town Hotel, Docklands

It name itself as hotel but it is actually a restaurant & bar. As the name suggest it is located behind Harbour Town Shopping Centre at Docklands and it is seriously as relaxing as you can expect in a 5 stars hotel lounges.

Due to the location, there's no worries about getting there!!! it is accessible by tram, bus, train and of course car.

They even offers various type of lunch menu for only $15.00 for weekdays.

Well, I went there for their TUESDAY $15 STEAK NIGHT - A delicious porterhouse steak, served with your choice of sauce with salad and chips.

The porterhouse is averagely presented with large serve of chips and mix salad with vinaigrette dressing. The steak is cook prefectly (medium well) and I really love the garlic butter sauce.

The service was so-so. Where you have to wait to be seated, then the floor staff will show you your seat with the menu and advise you to place the food and drink order at the cashier counter and they will deliver the food to your table when its ready.

Its a good place to have decent food at decent price and to have a long and chatty meal with mates. This restaurant also offer a reasonable range of alcoholic drinks including wines and cocktails. They even have happy hours on weekdays from 5-7pm and 9-11pm.

and well, here the website http://www.harbourtownhotel.com.au/index.php

The Brasserie by Philippe Mouchel at Crown Casino

Located on the Riverside at Crown in Melbourne, the brasserie by Philippe Mouchel features contemporary French cuisine, Australian and French wines, exemplary service and sleek décor.

To cut this short, the experience there was classic, contemporary and the setting is really inviting.

I was there for lunch with a friend of mine. Taking advantage of their Lunch promotion which is any 2 courses for $43.00 per person or any 3 courses for $48.00 per person. However, the today's special is not included in the lunch promotion.

We decided to go for 3 courses so that we could share the brasserie tasting plate for our dessert.

For entree I chose the brasserie country-style Barossa Valley chicken liver terrine the toasted onion jam tartine was splendid and it goes really well with the rest of the plate and the mesclun salad is really up to my taste. I have Spring Dorper lamb rump for main course. The lamb was nicely cook (little pink) and juicy.

My friend had Poached calamari salad for her entree and King salmon confit for her main course. She really love the calamari because it was not rubbery and her salmon goes well with the mango salsa.

We then have our dessert the brasserie tasting plate (the picture above). The plate includes a rum baba which we feel a liltle bit too soggy to our liking (too heavy in rum perhaps), green tea creme brulee which was rather dry, traditional creme brulee which was PREFECT, chocolate and caramel tart ( i love anything with chocolate), ice vacherin and sorbet.

Overall, the presentation was excellent, the service was really good and efficient. This place is really worth for money and I will go back for more.

and here's the website http://www.thebrasserieatcrown.com.au/Content.aspx?topicID=688