Melbourne NOMS

Place: The Swiss Club, 89 Flinders Lane, Melbourne (Australia)

Cuisine: traditional Swiss

Don't think people wanted to venture out this week - bad colds and flu seem to have got the best of Melbourne at present. However, I hauled myself out of bed despite sickness and turned up to the Swiss Club to see what Swiss fare was like.

The dining room of the club is on the first floor of the building - entry is a little daunting at first. It's a pretty basic-looking dining hall and can accommodate quite large groups for functions if so desired.

Whilst waiting for a last-minute companion, I ordered some mineral water which claims to actually be from the Swiss Alps. It was actually pretty refreshing. As soon as companion arrived, we tried out some Austrian beer, a pilsener.

There were heaps of interesting options on the entree menu. I settled on the soup of the day, which had finely chopped meat (bacon, I think) and pearl barley - very warming for the wintry weather! Quite a creamy soup, and filling. Despite the meat, the flavour still remains delicate and definitely left me wanting.

The main menu is extensive, but this is a cuisine that generally lacks vegetarian options. The dishes offered seem very rich and dare I say fattening. There were several temptings things on offer, and I decided to choose a meat that I don't often get to eat. I settled on the venison escalope in a port wine sauce with spätzli and red cabbage.

I'm guessing that spätzli is the gnocchi-like stuff on the left - it tasted a good deal like gnocchi. The red cabbage reminded me very much of beetroot, but less tangy (or as my companion noted less "in your face"). The venison itself was not as delicious as I imagined it would be - a tad tough and the sauce was not as robust in flavour as I wanted. I've had venison on one other occasion and remember being blown away.

Dinner was finished with Swiss coffee that was liberally laced with schnapps.

I probably wouldn't dine here again unless I knew someone that really wanted to try Swiss cuisine - it was a little expensive and there are not enough vegetable-dominant dishes on offer aside from salad, but the service is warm and friendly, where at one stage the chef came out and amiably greeted the diners. If I were to go back, I'd definitely order rösti, snails or share cheese fondue.

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Place: Wabi Sabi Salon, 94 Smith St, Collingwood (Melbourne, Australia)

Cuisine: Japanese Fusion

Price: Entrees:$15, Mains $23

The inaugural NOMS (@melbnoms) night was held at a small Japanese restaurant in inner-city Melbourne on a quiet Wednesday evening. The selection of sake is quite good (there are about five or so, with notes about each one’s flavour), but most of us settled for either Japanese beer (Sapporo and Yebisu) or Japanese plum wine.

The entrees were stellar; a wonderful selection of root vegetable tempura in a chilli mayonaise sauce, salted fried squid, chicken wings stuffed with pork, but the mains left a bit to be desired. There were some decent but unremarkable sweet potato and chick pea croquettes, @colbsi had pork spare ribs (which she didn’t finish on account of the serious layers of fat involved), there was a Japanese-style fried chicken which “tasted like chicken” and the tofu dango (”Mouth Watering Balls”) only really fulfilled the “balls” part of that promise.

Thankfully they picked up their game for dessert, serving a nice creme brulee which involved poached pear and  fresh red berries, a tasty (if slightly dry) green tea cheesecake and an assortment of classic Japanese-flavoured ice creams (black sesame, green tea, and red bean).

black sesame ice cream coupled with green tea cheesecake

The bill came to approximately $55 per person - quite decent given that most of us had had alcoholic beverages and a three-course meal.

If you like Japanese food and are keen to explore some dishes that aren’t your run of-the-mill Japanese fare, head down sometime - but we wouldn’t recommend straying off the entree menu.

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