Category Archive: Restaurants
Bitings on a Complimentary Basis.
Get your bitings here
In 2004, while staying in a converted monastery in wild, windy, Avignon, we read an invitation to “bitings on a complimentary basis” at 7pm . In some trepidation we donned evening garb, strung garlic around our necks and descended to the ancient hall for what turned out to be “free nibbles” and not of the flattering, cannibal sort. The European grip on English translation had not improved by 2013, when, in the train station at Sorrento we read a sign which frightened and confused us.
Continue Reading →Dubai – Dawdling and Haemorrhaging Money
The view from The Atlantis
2013 Wandering in foreign countries seems such a luxurious waste that it would shame P, as a working member of the idle poor. Yet here we are, en route to Rome, stopping for a night in Dubai, described by some as Hell with air-conditioning. Arriving at 5.30am, we are conducted through an enormous white entry and processing hall, apparently designed by the committee responsible for the repulsive Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II. Officials in full Bedu garb loiter as we slowly file past and stare into the passport-face-recognition machines that struggle with asiatic eyes. Our modest hotel in an…
Continue Reading →La Tombola
61 Unley Rd, Unley, South Australia This inner suburb Italian restaurant is an Adelaide institution and its Majordomo, Tony, clearly loves his work. He has a great staff and kitchen but he personally ensures it always runs true. TVC in particular recommends the formaggio soufflé.
Continue Reading →Bistro Vue
(Picture by A12, Wikimedia)
Wouldn’t it be nice, if like a girl who comes out of her emo stage and puts on a pink dress, Australian restaurants decided that now it is ok, in fact perhaps even desirable, to look pretty. Bistro Vue in Little Collins Street, Melbourne understands that it is ok and its eclectic, Frenchy, art nouveau style quite warmed the cockles of TVC‘s heart – starved as we are for carpet, flowers and colour. L regretted not choosing the snails when the neighbour’s molluscs, little balls in pastry, were served. P’s onion soup was almost as good as his version, but…
Continue Reading →Stokehouse
Melbourne, December 2014 What is a stokehouse? We came across this sister to the restaurant with the same name in Brisbane when dragging ourselves through the Melbourne alleys, too weak from fatigue and hunger to care. We never did find out, but it doesn’t matter. We spurned the packed, noisy bar for the upstairs restaurant which happened to be as packed and noisy but also light and airy. Virtually the only decorations are large chandeliers wrapped in string nets which we eventually decided we liked. I had to try the peach gazpacho. It was disappointingly sans peach as far as…
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