Melbourne Patron

Named for children's author Paul Jennings , this baby in Richmond's on-again off-again hospitality wasteland of Bridge Road is one for the real foodies. It is the solo venture of Head Chef Ryan Flaherty, who has stinted at world-renowned restaurants El Bulli and The Fat Duck , then jointly brought Northcote's The Estelle to foodie fame along with then-business partner, Scott Pickett. Flaherty's passion, creativity and refined skill is evident in his food, and indeed the whole of Mister Jennings (142 Bridge Road, Richmond) is a pretty schmick affair. It's an unassuming shopfront in amongst the retail section of Bridge Road, near the corner of Lennox Street. Mister Jennings had been on my restaurant hit list for so long that by the time I got there, I'd managed to avoid the 'just opened' crowds, and aside from maybe three other tables, we had the place to ourselves. Then again, it's not a massive restaurant, and it was mid-week in late March ...

The shops along Domain Road, South Yarra have a reputation for being a bit posh. It is South Yarra, after all, and the majority are cafes and restaurants that take advantage of their location (opposite Melbourne's Royal Botanic Gardens ) by providing some outdoor seating. Apparently The Real Housewives of Melbourne even frequent one or two venues along the strip. A little further down the road, on the corner of Millswyn Street, Entrec ô te (131-133 Domain Road, South Yarra) is having a party of its own - still refined, but with a little more colour and personality. In operation as a Parisian-style steak bistro since January 2015, the restaurant offers breakfast, lunch and dinner seven days a week in the former site of the infamous  Lynch's Restaurant . Business partners Jason McLaren Jones and Adam North developed the idea when they bumped into each other in Paris in late 2014. They took a meal together at the institutional  Le Relais de L'Entrec ô te : a no-booki...

Want Melbourne Patron blog posts delivered straight to your inbox? Click on the "Subscribe" button at the top of this page and follow the simple instructions. Magic! I am a sucker for a good steak, and lately, what with moving house and all the extra expenses that incurs, I've been on the lookout for great pub specials such as steak nights. I've been keeping a list on my phone of some of the deals I've found at venues around my home and work (mostly in the CBD, Fitzroy/Collingwood, Richmond/Abbotsford, South Yarra/Prahran/Windsor, South Melbourne) - and there are lots, so please note I haven't tried them all.  Several of my friends have asked me to send them a copy of the list - so I figure this way, I can share it with everybody who might be interested! PLEASE NOTE: This is by no means a comprehensive list of all the pub specials in Melbourne (there are many websites for that already!), nor is it necessarily current. I will do my best to keep it up-to-dat...

Some friends wanted to try the new Korean fusion joint Anju Restaurant + Bar (18 Little La Trobe Street, Melbourne), so I happily joined them for an early Friday dinner. Not having eaten much Korean food previously, I'm still learning about what constitutes 'traditional' Korean fare, so I was interested to see how this place did 'fusion'. Owner Young Choi went from a retail background to opening a completely fusion restaurant (combining Spanish, Mexican and Japanese), before adapting to patrons' requests for more the more traditional foods of his native background. The result is a schmick, modern restaurant/bar down a dodgy-looking CBD street, and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. Let me break it down for you... The style Anju has a warm industrial feel with traditional accents. Wooden floorboards, tables and decorative features (like planter boxes and wooden toy trucks hanging overhead) are interspersed with hard industrial surfaces like ...