Happy Birthday, Mimi! (Charcoal Lane)

The birthday girl.

First of all I would like to wish Mimi a very happy birthday. It has been three years since I first knew her and we are now better friends than ever.

Mimi's birthday has always been the birthday that we plan ahead of the most, for some reason. Maybe she is just the star of the group and everybody treats her in a special way.

This year, we decided to go Australian fusion for the big dinner, Charcoal Lane in Fitzroy.

Charcoal Lane.

Having read the menu online and not understanding a quarter of the words on it, I entered Charcoal Lane with a curious mind, not mentioning a voracious appetite due to skipping breakfast and lunch. Not a very wise idea before dining in a pseudo-fine dining restaurant.

Before we begin, introducing the guests of honour:

Amanda.

Kaili.

From left to right: Chris, Edwin and Cherry.

Mimi and Anthony.

Kaili and Mimi.

Enough about the people, more about the food. For appetisers, we had bread and butter as well as a cup of ocean trout something.

Ocean trout something.

Bread, butter, salt, pepper, wine glasses and napkins.

After that it was time to order. The thing about the menu is it is filled with unfamiliar names, such as tataki, samphire and trumpette. Serious food never fail to sound intimidating.

The intimidating menu.

Not to be defeated by the menu, most of us had our selections while pretending to know what we were ordering. I was happy to order until the waiter came telling us about the daily specials, the main being a lamb rack special. It seemed that the restaurant owners knew I was coming today, because there is nothing that this guy loves more than racks.

We waited rather long for the food. Luckily, I had a cup of hot chocolate to keep me occupied. I wanted an ice chocolate but the restaurant ran out of ice-cream. I was really looking forward to drinking an AUD 3.50 ice chocolate, the cheapest one I have ever seen so far.

Hot chocolate, also for AUD 3.50.

So came the food.

Seared scallop with something.

I did not try these because there were only three scallops a plate. Eating any would leave the person who ordered with almost none. 

Yellow fin tuna, wildfire, vanilla carrot cream, smoked crystal bay prawns.   

Kaili ordered the above, which I tried a bite of with the vanilla carrot cream. Best damned tuna I have ever sunk my teeth into. That being said, I have not eaten tuna cooked this way before. I have eaten tuna from a can, fully cooked tuna or raw tuna, not half cooked and half raw. That is probably one of the reasons I am lost for words for this dish. The fish was just so fresh and tender. Most importantly, it was not heavily salted. Instead, coating the fish in the creamy and savoury vanilla carrot cream is all that is needed to give the fish a wonderful taste and a rather interesting texture. I would definitely recommend this.

Warm kipfler salad, tarragon mustard, coddled egg.

Roasted marron fondue, angel hair, lemon myrtle, baby basil. 

Cindy ordered the above, which I did not sample any of due to not knowing her that well. Now I probably know her well enough for that. There is always next time.

Then the lamb was offered unto us.

Lamb rack special.

Cherry, Edwin, Chris and I ordered the lamb rack special. I was at the verge of exploding with joy when the dish was deftly placed on the table by the waiter. The smell of lamb pierced my nose and I was already drooling. Unfortunately, it was only decent. First of all, I doubt that lamb racks are supposed to be served as raw as this. There was hardly any cooked part at the sides and it was reddish pink all the way to the middle. The lamb did not bleed as I cut into it, and that gave me relief. The meat was tender and juicy, as you would expect of any decent lamb rack but the fact that it was stuffed with black olive paste made me want to cry tears of agony. Although the olive did give it an interesting flavour which is partially masked by the taste of the meat, I felt that it should not have been there in the first place. Maybe I am just not an olive person.

The mash potatoes and the cherry tomato salad I cannot complain much about since I do not really have standards for those.

Kangaroo, broccoli puree, black trumpette, truffle gnocchi, bitter chocolate.

Keith and Mimi ordered the kangaroo. I did not try the meat but according to Mimi the lamb rack is better so I am not having my hopes high for this one. I did, however, much to my regret, tried the broccoli puree. At first I thought it was a pea puree because it tasted worse than peas and something that tastes worse than peas just cannot be broccoli. It is mind-blowing, or should I say mind-blasting how bad it tasted. It was like cognitive dissonance with a horrid taste left in your mouth. 

D.O.C. serves broccoli puree on a pizza and it was the best broccoli I have ever tasted and now I get this. I did mention that this is the way I am going to eat broccoli from now on. Well, I take that back.

I would probably not return to this restaurant, since there are hundreds of Australian fusion restaurants in Melbourne, and I am rather certain that this is not one of the best. However, for its price the quality probably justifies. As far as pseudo-fine dining goes, this is dirt cheap.

Reasonable.

Total damage? AUD 401.00 for ten heads. Definitely dirt cheap by Melburnian standards.

Other than the mediocre food, I enjoyed the rest of the night having macarons and drinks at Naked Satan, a rather raunchy bar. Also, I treasure the time spent with friends, pouring our hearts out and pouring the drinks in. Above all, I treasure having such good friends and being able to know more new ones tonight.

Again, happy birthday, Mimi. Sorry I did not get you any presents.

136, Gertrude Street, Fitzroy, VIC 3065, Australia.
+61 3 9418 3400 ‎


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