And yes, I think the food and service is better in Melbourne restaurants than in Sydney. So much so that the Hubby and I chose to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary in Melbourne and with a very memorable loooong lunch at Vue du Monde with their Gastronome menu - a ridiculously decadent 10 courses with matched wines, and as it was Perigord truffle season we had that shaved over a few of our dishes as well. That meal currently stands as our best and most expensive to date.
So on the odd occasion that we do head over to Melbourne for a day or so, I do my research and decide which restaurants we should eat in - always a pleasurable but painful undertaking, as we only have so few meals and so many restaurants to choose from! We could only fit in one dinner for this visit too, so that was seriously difficult. After much umming and ahhing, it was a feature on Maha Bar & Grill and some of their recipes in a recent Gourmet Traveller issue that sealed the deal for me. And I was very happy with the experience.
We chose to go with the 5-course "soufra" menu - basically a tasting menu made up of their signature dishes. I must say that the "tastes"were rather large, much more generous than your usual degustation style serves, but that would be my only complaint in an otherwise meal-perfect night.
This was followed by an array of cold mezze, comprised of:
- havouch-Turkish carrot and yoghurt
- fried cauliflower, tahini and walnuts
- olives-fel fel
- anchovy bastilla, tomato salad, feta foam
- pilaki-turkish carrot, bean and dill
- pickled eggplant with pomegranates
The hot mezze was next, with two stand-out dishes: salmon, saffron, fennel and mussel doughnuts, and a family recipe of fenek stuffat,(braised rabbit) with potatoes and green peas. The rabbit was particularly scrumptious - again, not a big bunny fan as I have cooked with it only twice in my life and find it difficult to not think cute, white, fluffy bunny wabbit while slicing into it - but I don't mind it cooked for me and this was dish was superb.
At this stage I was pretty full, and was a bit worried about stuffing two more courses in. But I simply, simply had to have room for the grill course - the famed Maha Bar & Grill 12-hour roast lamb with shaved iceberg and kousa (preserved lemon). It was, as expected, heartmeltingly tender.
Not to be outdone in the melting stakes was the grilled butterfish in aleppo pepper butter sauce. It certainly lived up to its name as a butterfish! Both dishes were served with a pine nut rice, and with a lovely red wine - Massaya Silver Selection from Bekaa Valley in Lebanon.
After all this beautfiul, beautiful food, the trio of desserts did not disappoint as the final course. We were presented with the signature Maha doughnuts with a Turkish delight and pine nut praline, sweet corn cream and salted caramel with burnt butter ice cream (my fave!), and a quite interesting beetroot and chocolate sponge with chocolate mousse and milk ice cream. We of course just had to wash it down with a Yarden Muscat 2007 from Israel.
Thank goodness our hotel was at least a 15-minute slow walk up the hill - I needed every bit of exercise after such an incredibly indulgent meal. But hey, we're only in Melbourne once in a blue moon, and the dining experience in Maha Bar & Grill was well worth the wrath of my nutritionist!
The only other thing to make this whole experience complete? I'd like to know where I can buy aleppo pepper please! It's quite integral to many of Maha's dishes, and I am dying to try the recipes out. I have inquired into so many places for this, including Herbie's and the actual suppliers to Maha (Bas Foods), and still have no joy. So if anyone knows where I can buy it, please let me know!
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