Dinner @ Ezard

http://www.ezard.com.au/

Tel:  +61 3 9639 6811187

Flinders Lane,
Melbourne, VIC, Australia

Lunch Mon - Fri, 12pm - 2:30pm
Dinner Mon - Sat, 6pm - 10:30pm

Ezard wins The Age Good Food Guide 2013 Diners' Choice Award

Rating:
Customer service: average, leaning to poor
Comments:
Reason I rated this restaurant service is not up to expectation is because I was not allowed to use the washroom at 5.55pm because the restaurant is only open at 6.00pm, and I was about 5 months pregnant at that moment and I really need to use the washroom.
However, they were quite considerate and they did change some of their menu to suit me as I was pregnant at that time.

Food: Japanese Thai fusion (Good , but not outstanding)
Comments:
Overall, the food is very Thai influence and I did not see much of the Japanese side of it.
If I to compare the food to other Thai restaurant, we can get better Thai food somewhere else. However, the dessert was really the highlight of the night.

Some of the dishes were replaced by other ingredient due to

 Japanese inspired oyster shooter
 (replace by tafu shooter)
The shooter taste good like what an oyster shooter should taste like. However, there is nothing outstanding about this entree.
Score: 6/10

Steamed spanner crab dumpling with yarra valley salmon roe, chervil cress and tom kha
I think this is the best dish of the night. The dumpling was juicy and it goes very well with the tom kha. I find that this dish taste good, but I was hoping for something different, something more creative. Overall, it is a dumpling dish with soup.
Score: 7/10

Crispy skin baby barramundi with caramelised eggplant, tomato and lime salad, yellow curry dressing                                           This is the most disappointing dish of the night. It is a fried barramundi with rice and curry. It is a very sinple dish and you don't need to go to a restaurant to have this dish. I was very dissappointed with this dish. It did not show any creativity at all. However, I must give them credit on the baramundi as it is cooked as described- crispy skin barramundi. Other than that, I was not amazed. Score : 5/10                                         

 

 

 

 

 

Slow cooked pork belly, five spice pear pudding, fennel salad, pressed apple, pedro ximenez jusAnother Asian dish, it is similar to the pork belly dish you can get from ChinChin (http://www.chinchinrestaurant.com.au/) except that at this restaurant you only get one pice of the pork belly whereas in ChinChin you can get more of it. However, I have to compliment on the pork belly is cooked to perfection. It melts in your mouth. Score: 6/10

However, I am looking for something outstanding from this restaurant. Not just about the food being cooked well, but something that can differentiate this resstaurant from others. Something that I can share with my friend and tell them that they only can get this from Ezard. But, so far none of the dishes really amazed me.

Eight score sher wagyu beef, white polenta, morels, red wine jam, sticky shallot jus and mache saladThe beef is well cooked,(well, you cant go wrong with an eight score wagyu beef, can you) the sauce is good. The best dish of the night. This is the last dish before we moved on to desset. However, this dish did not wow me at all. But, still a good decent dish. Score: 7/10

 

Ezard dessert tasting plate to share



I have to admit this is the best dish of the night. The dessert. This really wow me! I never been to any restaurant that serve such varieties. Not Jacque, not even Vue. I have to say I am pretty impressed with the dessert. It looks nice and it tasted great! Score: 9/10

Overall, I cant recommend my friend to go Ezard just for dessert, can I?

I have to comment, after all the awards and talks about this restaurant, in my opinion, it does not live up to my expectation.

Gypsy & Pig (Japanese restaurant), Melbourne

Gypsy & Pig (Japanese) Restaurant
Shop 3 391 Little Lonsdale St
Melbourne, VIC 3000
Tel : 03- 9640 0731

This is a Japanese restaurant that specialised in Kurobuta. Kurobuta, sometimes refer as black pig, is bred in Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. Unlike commercial pork, which lends itself favorably to a variety of sauces, kurobuta has its own intrinsic and distinctive sweetness.
Sweetness and juiciness are two factors that distinguish kurobuta from run-of-the-mill pork. This sweetness and rich flavor come from the high levels of intramuscular marbled fat – the very thing that pork producers have dramatically removed to produce pork that can be marketed as "the other white meat" for the health-conscious.This high degree of subcutaneous marbling is a result of special breeding techniques that are not very different from those applied to raising wagyu cattle. The only difference, perhaps, is that there is no massaging of the pig with sake as is the case with wagyu.

I think that should be enough for the "Kurobuta" history and what type of flavour and texture you are looking for when eating this meat. To be honest, what attracts me to this restaurant is the "black pig" as I never tried this meat before. I was suprised when I was served a white meat instead of a black one! Well, after further reading about Kurobuta, it is only the pig hair is black in coulour, and if the pig is bred in England, it will be called Berkshire pig instead of Kurobuta.

Well, the good thing about this pork is that it does not have the "pork" smell. In my opinion, the pork in Australia and Malaysia is very different. Correct me if I am wrong, a little birdie once told me it is the method of killing the pig that cause the smell. Somehow, the way the Malaysian way removes the pork smell. (Well, if you are in Malaysia, please try some of the Malaysian pork, and vice versa)
Like wagyu beef, because of the intense marbling, the way to prepare juicy and succulent kurobuta pork is to not overcook it. The good news, however, is that unlike wagyu,kurobuta lends itself more favorably to heat.

Tonkatsu style filled with cheese sauce - yum!

With kurobuta pork, you don't need much seasoning or thick barbeque sauce, the best way to savor it is to eat it on its own, with perhaps a dash of salt and pepper.
A traditional Japanese favorite is to eat it tonkatsu style – sliced thin, breaded and deep-fried, for which Kagoshima kurobuta pork comes highly recommended by top chefs in the preparation of this dish.

We ordered the pork to be cooked in different style; deep fried; braised; boiled in kimchi soup, and kimchi fried rice. The best of all is just plain deep fried style (first picture from the second row). The pocket cheese tonkatsu style shown on the picture above is good too. I find that the kimchi soup and the braised pork did not show off the quality of the meat. In fact, it kind of masked the original texture and flavour of the meat. Don't get me wrong, the food still taste good, but just not what I expected. It tasted like ordinary dishes we had in other restaurant.