My first visit to Melbourne was in 2011 and it was love at first sight for this state the moment I touched down. One of the highlights of my trip was a meal at the Press Club, as seen
here and I can still recall the pleasant aroma of Aphrodite lingering around my palate that day.
Seeing as the sister is in town, we decided to reserve a table here for dinner and treated ourselves to some excellent Greek fare - a first for me and a second for me.
Both of us ordered the house made alcohol (which I cannot remember what sort of concoction it was) and we thoroughly enjoyed George's brilliant play on the humble but necessary piece of the drink aka the ice which had been slowly infusing flavour and fragrance to our drinks. Highly recommend you give this a try.
We were then served with miniature buns that had a savoury filling. Wouldn't mind a bigger version of this pillow-y soft and fluffy piece of entree.
We were then served entree sized portions of food to kickstart our palates. Pictured above is a savoury version of loukoumades aka Greek honey balls which were used to lap up that silky smooth dipping cream topped with fish roe.
Crisp chicken skin that has a few dollops of pate and cream on it.
Toast with fruity toppings ~ more so verging on the tangy side of things but has a good balance of sweetness to it.
I love the idea of having a set of cutlery at our disposal, to be used whenever necessary.
Octopus/hummus/lemon ~ a piece of octopus prepared with such simplicity and complimented well by the acidity from the lemon and creaminess from the hummus.
Pig spanakopita/date/garlic ~ not sure how the pig was prepared here but boy, did they have a crunch factor.
Potato skordalia/walnut ~ one of my favourites for the night. I love how creamy and smooth the potato was and it blends so well with the nutty flavour from the walnut cream/sauce.
Mussel/ avgolemono/ celeriac ~ after a few plates of slightly bolder flavours, we came back to a mildly flavoured dish that is perfumed with a wonderful seafood aroma.
Dory/ cauliflower/ shittake ketchup ~ Dory was still succulent and had a lovely caramelized exterior to it. The shittake ketchup was really salty but harmonized itself with the cauliflower's tamer flavour profile.
Chicken and beans ~ ok, my description does not do this dish any justice at all. It may look like something that came out of a non-professional chef's kitchen but it is truly a well prepared cube of chicken that easily melts away, leaving a pleasing trail of roast flavour on your palate.
Lamb/beetroot/ yoghurt ~ I love lamb dishes and yoghurt so this was a real treat for me. A few pieces of fruit were incorporated for brightening up and adding a sweet/ fruity flavour on the plate - all of which, toned down the stronger flavour from the lamb. Drizzled with a good amount of beetroot to counteract the sweetness, do enjoy this dish slow - you do not want to regret cleaning your plate too quickly;)
Hazelnut, coconut and blood orange ~ palate cleansers to prepare us for desserts:)
Quince and nut crumble ~ I love love the dollop of burnt butter ice cream and goodness me, each piece of quince used in the terrine was uniformly sliced and assembled with such perfection - I could not resist picking at the individual layers haha. Favourite dessert for the night:)
Apple baklava/ ginger beer/ smoked chocolate ~ a refreshing and light dessert to conclude our entire 9 course meal.
Petit fours ~ marshmallows, carrot cake with cream cheese biscuit and jelly. Both the sister and I are suckers for marshmallows and were so amused with the clothes hanger way of serving the petit fours.
My verdict? Easily still one of my favourite places to dine at when I want to spoil myself. My only request would be for them to bring back Aphrodite because damn, it was such as wowzer of a dessert. Pretty please?;)
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