Tonik

The other weekend we headed to Tonik with our regular dining pals, Benisa (Ben + Lisa) plus Nathan. Tonik is a bar located in Kensington Village, which does some rather good food. It feels very cosy inside, with couches and an open fire place on one side of the room and tables on the other. At the back is the bar, along with a staircase that leads upstairs where more tables are located.

We started with the Tonik Tasting Plate – "a selection of delicately prepared morsels designed to share" ($12.50 per person with a minimum of 2 people). Menu descriptions makes me chortle sometimes! Anyhoo, sometimes when I order a "tasting plate" I get disappointed because what comes out is mostly dips and bread. This wasn't the case with this one! I was quite impressed by what we received. There were two little cups of a curried lentil soup, two beef skewers, polenta chips, calamari, roasted mushrooms, pita bread and tzatziki. The calamari, polenta chips and mushrooms were particularly good.



For mains, Ben and I both had the potato gnocchi covered in a creamy blue cheese and broccoli sauce finished with rocket and toasted walnuts ($17.90). I've been in a gnocchi mood lately – and the gnocchi at Tonik were pretty good. It was a mild blue cheese sauce, creamy and rather tasty. But I got a bit tired of the rocket after a while, it was fairly bitter and I had loads!



Alastair had the other gnocchi option – the pork and veal meatballs, cooked in a spicy tomato ragout ($17.90). It's hard to go wrong with meatballs in a tomato sauce!



Lisa had the chicken mushroom, leek & juniper berry 'pot pie' with sour cream flaky pastry and iceberg salad ($21.00). Lisa's meal was massive – almost bigger than her!



After our meals, Alastair and I shared a dessert. I know how much he loves sticky date pudding, so that's what we had, a big slab of it sitting in butterscotch sauce ($10.50). I let him eat most of it.



Benisa shared the self saucing chocolate pudding laced with brandy and accompanied with ice cream and fresh cream ($10.50). It looked super pleasingly gooey inside.

During the week, Tonik does some bargain dinners. On Mondays there's $6 pizzas, and Wednesdays is steak and a beer for $12. I can recommend the steak and beer evening - it's a good, inexpensive way of celebrating the middle of the working week.

Tonik
524 Macaulay Road
Kensington
Phone: (03) 9376 9928

Blush Foodroom - Happy Birthday, Bro!

It was Bro's birthday on Friday - 08/08. How lovely that the Olympics were scheduled especially to celebrate his birthday!

On Friday night, we went to Blush Foodroom to kick off the eating weekend. Blush is located on a corner, in a cottage that was once a milk bar. Nowadays, it's a split-level restaurant that also does a busy trade during weekend brunch time.

You may notice a strange blue twinge in my photos - it's from a blue light that was outside the window.

Alastair and I started off with the pork belly – twice cooked, served on a ginger and apple puree, with sesame seeds, spring onion and snow pea salad ($16.90). The pork belly was lovely and tender – initially I thought it was a tad salty, but it was just right when eaten with a bit of apple puree. The best part was the piece of crackling – like a salty pork chip! Yum!



Pat had one of the specials – pea and ham soup served with a dijon crouton. I have a wee issue with peas (I don't like them) so I didn't have a taste.



For mains, I had the Moroccan braised veal shanks on saffron mash, roasted baby root vegetables and served with a red peppercorn sauce ($31.90). Wow, this was huge! I found the meat very tender, but lacking in flavour. I would've liked a bit more oomph, particularly for something that was "Moroccan braised". At least the mash was smooth and creamy.



Pat and Alastair had the herb and garlic crusted lamb rump with dauphinois potatoes, orange and thyme braised fennel and crispy prosciutto served with a port wine jus ($31.90).



And then, dessert. We all had separate ones (must have been feeling greedy that night). Alastair had the sticky date pudding ($13.50). The Boys decided that sticky date pudding is the best dessert - I don't know if I agree with that assertion. I think creme brulee might be a winner for me. But Alastair's sticky date pudding looked pretty good, particularly with the slowly melting ice cream....



Bro had the cheesecake ($11.90) - on the menu it was raspberry and vanilla, but he was advised that it was unavailable and it was substituted with a Bailey's version instead. It came with coffee bean syrup and caramelised banana.



I had a chocolate and macadamia nut mousse with strawberry sauce and white chocolate ice cream ($12.90). The mousse was rich and smooth and I even enjoyed the ice cream, despite my general dislike of white chocolate. I also loved the crunchy chopped macadamia on top of the mousse too.

We spent the rest of the weekend eating. Stay tuned for more birthday eating adventures!

Blush Foodroom
43 Epsom Rd
Kensington 3031 VIC
Phone: (03) 9376 1222

KitcCh

Last weekend Alastair made a small bet on the NZ versus France rugby World Cup game. He bet on France (what a bad kiwi!) so we headed to Kensington Village to pick up his winnings. We stopped for brunch at KitcCh, which is across the road from the TAB.

The Boys and I have our own jargon that helps us recall things and places. We call KitcCh "the dark one" due to the dark wood panels and the painted black floor. The walls are lined with artwork that is available for purchase.

During the weekends, KitcCh does breakfast all day, but there is also a lunch menu. Since we're late risers in the weekend, I generally have breakfast.

I had the Black jack cheese and baby spinach wrapped in a double smoke ham served with poached eggs, basil oil and hollandaise on english breakfast muffins ($12). It looks like eggs benedict - the cheese and baby spinach were hidden in the ham. Despite one of my eggs not being as runny as I like, it was still good. The spinach and basil oil helped cut through the fattiness of the hollandaise and egg yolk.



Good breakfast, but the coffee was only average - mine was rather sour. I finished off with a raspberry smoothie (that I didn't bother taking a photo of). Very yogurty, with a bare amount of sweetness, it made me happy and made up for the sour coffee.

KitcCh
512 Macaulay Rd, Kensington
(03) 9376 5694