It's My Birthday! (Bob's Steak and Chop)

It is the time of the year again. The day that marks the passing of another year in life. However, the notion of birthdays is starting to make me feel a bit blasé. After twenty of those good days, the significance seems to wane with every passing year. I woke up feeling the same as I did yesterday or the day before.

At least the attention is makes it more special than the rest.

Birthdays are never really celebrated until dinner time. This time round, I opted for a good old piece of steak to satisfy the carnivore in me. Unfortunately, most of the famous steakhouses were fully booked by the time Cherry called for reservations, after she ignored my instructions two days earlier to call then. That blunder aside, she was so sweet as to not have me call the steakhouses myself.

After eliminating about half a dozen steakhouses in her list, Cherry found one that had tables available. Bob's Steak and Chop.

Nine of us met up at the Swanston/Bourke tram stops and took a tram to Southern Cross station, but not before getting some photos.

The women in my life.

A miracle shot of Chris. My set up rarely gets such sharp photos.

Upon arrival at Southern Cross, we had to make our way halfway across the bridge to Etihad stadium and took a long flight of stairs down to the streets below.

Crossing the Southern Cross.

We were a bit lost but after walking a block, we found it, Bob's Steak and Chop.

We walked in and Edwin was already seated at our table, awaiting the glorious arrival of the birthday boy and his entourage.

Good bread.

Before we ordered, the waiters and waitresses served up a generous portion of bread. Having starved myself the whole day, the bread they served tasted so good. The looks of the bread itself is enough to win me over as I am a sucker for sizeable, spherical and soft things. The butter that accompanies the bread is even better, so much so that everyone at the table exalted its smoothness and the richness.

Then, after enjoying the bread, we ordered and started chatting one another up in anticipation for the steaks, as well as getting more photos.

Mimi, Cherry and Henry.

Mimi and Anthony. Somehow Mimi looks great in this photo.

This one takes it all back.

Then came the steaks.

Rib-eye steak (Scotch fillet).

That is not mine.

Filet mignon (Eye fillet).

This is mine. A bold chunk of 110 day grain fed Black Angus that weighs in at 350g. Filet mignons do not come by everyday for me and I enjoyed every last bit of it.

Blood is beautiful.

A wonderful medium rare steak.

Sinking the steak knife into the beautiful chunk of beef felt a bit like ruining a perfect marble sculpture; but when the knife goes all the way through and the blood flows onto the plate, and the reddish pink flesh is revealed, I imagine that is what discovering a diamond in a lump of coal feels like.

However, there is a better feeling - putting that piece of meat on your tongue. I may not be a connoisseur of steaks but as far as I can tell, this is a bloody good steak, literally. The salt and black pepper does not penetrate more than the crust of the meat, thus the meat still retains its juices and that I mean blood. The meat is just tender and does not fight back and turn a dinner into a wrestling match like cheap steaks do. The seasoning is also very mild. Instead of being bombarded by the overwhelming taste of salt and pepper, one can really savour the beefy goodness in this filet mignon. If those features still do not warrant the filet mignon being called an excellent dish, the shallot and red wine sauce definitely makes up in justifying its quality. I shall not elaborate on that, giving it a try is the best way to find out.

The baked potato on the side I was not too happy about. Although the sour cream, chives and bacon filling was good, the potato itself was too damn big. Unless you are a person who runs on that much carbohydrates you would probably find this boring after the first few mouthfuls.

The smashed, not mashed, potatoes is very smooth and buttery. I would pick that over the huge baked potato any time.

The steak fries, to me at least, were great. The crust of the fries is just so crispy while the insides were still soft, just how I like them to be.

But the best of all the sides would be the skillet potatoes, topped with sauteed onions and peppercorn gravy. Probably the most seasoned out of all the potato dishes, it feels more robust in flavour due to the gravy and the sweetness of the onions.

The restaurant definitely gets a thumbs up from me, any day. Nonetheless, the night was still young and we had to cleanse our palettes are kill whatever bacteria from the steak with alcohol. Hence, we made our way back to Melbourne Central station, but again, not before getting some photos.

Suited up.

Can't think of appropriate caption under the influence of alcohol.

We went to this Asian bar called Cho-Gao. It is Asian because of the decor mostly, but more than anything else, it serves cheap booze. The next few hours of the night were just spent drinking and making merry. Some people got high and tipsy, you know who you are, or maybe you were already drunk; while others looked on, puzzled at how some people have such low alcohol tolerance levels. There was also another photography session.

I believe this is camwhoring at it's best.

Display of affection under influence of alcohol makes good black and white photos.

Chris, Keith, Kaili and Jinny.

Beer drinkers.

Sleepy heads.

Before I end this post and hit the sack. I would like to thank everyone who made this day so special. Thank you, Cherry, for calling for reservations and the lovely card you made me. Thank you, Jinny, for the present you never fail to give me every year, despite me not reciprocating. I promise to make it up to you next year. Thank you, Edwin, for being there early for the table and waiting for us. Thank all of you, Keith, Henry, Mimi, Anthony, Chris, Kaili for attending the dinner and paying my share.

I shall leave my thoughts about my second decade in this world for another day.

Bob's Steak and Chop

737 Bourke Street, 

Docklands, VIC 3008, 

Australia.

+61 3 9642 3350

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