At a glance - Pure South

Pure South is a restaurant that offers exceptional modern Australian cuisine to the Melbourne dining scene. The restaurant serves superbly fresh produce, all sourced directly from Tasmania, King Island and Flinders Island.

With newly appointed Michelin Star Head Chef David Hall heading the kitchen, the restaurant is in safe hands. David Hall was born and raised in Scotland with a chef for a father and developed a passion for cooking fresh produce at an early age. His early memories from the remote Isle of Skype are revisited in Pure South Dining’s relationship with lobster fishermen on King Island and Tasmania’s wild north coast.

Mt Gnonom Farm Wessex Saddleback Pork Belly, brawn, kohlrabi, pork consommé with viola flowers - The slices of pork belly were stunning. The pork was moist on the underside and contained the perfect amount of unctuous fat, encased in a crisp outer crust of crackling. Each bite was gratifying. The delicious consommé provided a delectable depth of flavour to the pork. We could not fault this dish.

A twist on the classic New York Sour - Our accompanying cocktail poison was twist on the classic New York Sour made with Jameson Irish, egg white, lemon, apple juice, splashed with Tassie Pinot Noir- served with a floating viola. We adored this heady, frothy mixture of sweet and sour.

At a glance - Top Juice

Located in the Windergarden food court in Sydney's financial district, Top Juice offers a range of freshly prepared and reasonably priced salads to cope with hungry workers. We have returned on several occasions and the salads are always fresh, healthy and delicious. Definitely an excellent food court option.

Mountains to the Sea

Gastrology recently attended Mountains to the Sea, a one-off, wine matched dinner event at Circa The Prince which highlighted Robin Wickens' (Royal Mail Hotel) and Rhys Blackley's (Circa) culinary interpretations of St Kilda and Dunkeld.

The dinner comprised a six course menu, with each chef drawing inspiration from their restaurant’s home.

We enjoyed Circa's two seafood dishes in honour of the restaurant’s location by the sea. The Eden Bass grouper with smoked cauliflower, shiitake and lovage was a winner. The Eden Bass grouper was served in a beautiful sea of seafood emulsion. The fillet had been cooked to perfection - its flesh was extremely delicate and communicated many of its natural flavours..

Royal Mail Hotel's two meat-based dishes, utilising beef and lamb produced on the Royal Mail Hotel’s own farmland and produce from the property’s acclaimed kitchen garden were each lovely. We particularly enjoyed the dish of Royal Mail hogget. The accompaniments of zucchini, luxurious squash blossom puree and heady dehydrated goats cheese were magnificent.

For the finale, a creative cheese course of Brillat-Savarin served with strawberry, olive and basil got us in the mood for a very rich finish of Dark chocolate ganache that tasted wonderful with tart passionfruit and refreshing nasturtium ice cream.

Mountains to the Sea was a very memorable evening by the bay where guests experienced the best local ingredients from our coast and our countryside.

At a glance - Providence

Providence cafe continues to serve up top shelf food from its Carlton location. There is clear technique in the kitchen that must be commended. The coffee blend at Providence is rotated monthly. While this does create interest, it also makes it difficult to lock Providence in as a regular coffee haunt given you can never be certain of what you're going to get - fix this issue (by having a house blend and a second rotating coffee) and Providence would be hard to beat.

At a glance - Hihou

Almost completely unmarked and requiring patrons to press a non descript doorbell to be granted entry, it is easy to miss Hihou. Once inside, you are greeted by a gorgeously minimalist Japanese interior lit by flickering candles and a chique backlit bar. Shoes will need to come off if you are going to venture into the more intimate spaces to the right of the bar and the menu has been clearly designed with drinking in mind – think sword fish sashimi, oroshi-ponzu and shichimi and fried crumbed eggplant and kingfish skewers. This is a good thing as Hihou boasts an extensive range of Japanese beers, whiskeys and, of course, sake. Hihou feels words away from its Spring Street location and is definitely one to check out.

At a glance - Five Points Café

Five Points Café is tucked away on Little Collins Street and has a clear focus on two things - bagels and coffee. Five Points is solid and offers a pleasant ambience, nice bagels and good coffee. However, it has become incredibly difficult for cafes to differentiate themselves in this saturated market and it isn't clear whether Five Points have done enough to stand out from the crowd.

At a glance - Dude Food

The Melbourne Burger Invitational (as part of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival) brought together the who's who of Melbourne's burger industry - Beatbox Kitchen, 1090 Burger, Dude Food Man, Easeys, 8bit, Mr Burger and Gelato Messina for some dessert offerings.

The sold out event was held at Welcome to Thornbury which is Melbourne's only permanent food truck park. 

We enjoyed the Dude Food's 'Dude Burger'. The brioche bun consisted of a wagyu patty, and all the trimmings such as lettuce, aioli, mustard, tomato, pickles, cheese and onion. This 'Dude' burger was juicy and was expertly prepared. 

By Helena Lea.

At a glance - Day of the Dead

Day of the Dead is a Mexican Spanish Tapas Restaurant Bar  in the centre of St Kilda on Fitzroy Street with an extensive cocktail list. 

The restaurant had a wide variety of spirits on display at the bar with the back drop of an eye catching piece of artwork on the wall. 

To start with, we enjoyed a cold refreshing light Argentinian Beer which was perfect after a hot day. 

The buffalo wings (of which we chose the spicy option) was tender and packed full of flavour. The thyme and citrus infusions along with the special homemade wing sauce provided an excellent start to the meal. 

The Nachos were filled with the usual ingredients of guacamole, jalapeno, generous cheese, black beans, capsicum and corn which was served in the ceramic bowl it was cooked in. A generous serving of this classic dish was also accompanied with sour cream which provided us with a refreshing contrast. 

A quartet of tacos were   served on blue corn tortillas with deconstructed toppings. The fish taco was well cooked which resulted in a light and tasty taco. The slow cooked beef taco was a delight topped with homemade cheese. The chicken taco was also a great dish which was refreshing with the slaw served in it. 

Overall, Day of the Dead was a nice casual place to relax with some great food and extensive drinks list. 

By Helena Lea.