Hello and welcome to another shiny New Year!
Thank you for coming back to read my posts and providing me with your continued support and love.
This year, the Boy and I are hoping for more adventures as well as cooking more delightful recipes to share with you.
It’s 2012, can you believe it?!
OMG, the world may end, but until then, I would like to share with you what we (the Boy and I) thought were the best places and dishes we dined on in 2011.
Hang on tight, as it’s going to be a good one!
This is obviously merely based on our experiences and by no means do we wish to cloud your judgement in any way. We have had an awesome year of wining and dining and have had a very difficult time deciding what should go into our Best of 2011 list and some haven’t made it in this list as I haven’t gotten around to posting it yet!
The following lists are in no particular order 🙂
Top 5 Degustation Dishes of 2011:
- Pickled, Raw & Cooked Vegetables, Puffed Rice, Congee Sauce – The Provenance Restaurant, Beechworth (VIC)
- Blue Eye Cod from Portland, Pan Seared and served with its own Bones – Loam, Drysdale (VIC)
- Wagyu Beef, Poached in an Oxtail and Morel Reduction, Mol̩ Puree, Farro & Ezekiel Crumbs РQuay, Sydney (NSW)
- Pumpkin Custard with Pumpkin Seed, Sunflower Seeds, Goats Curd & Millet Crisps – Bentley Restaurant, Surry Hills (NSW)
- Slow Cooked Lamb, Sweetbread, Peas, Baby Cos Lettuce, Roast Onion – The Brix Cafe & Bistrot, Fitzroy (VIC)
Top 5 Casual Dining Dishes of 2011:
- New England Lobster Roll, Hot Buttered Bun, Cold Poached Crayfish, Watercress & Kewpie Mayo – Golden Fields, St Kilda (VIC)
- Caramelised Sticky Pork – Chin Chin, Melbourne (VIC)
- Ceviche de Yucatan – Mamasita, Melbourne (VIC)
- Tonkotsu Ramen – Gumshara Ramen, Haymarket (NSW)
- Crispy Pork with Red Curry – iSpicy, Hawthorn (VIC)
Top 5 Desserts of 2011:
- 8 Textured Chocolate Cake – Quay, Sydney (NSW)
- “Snickers” Dessert Bar – Albert St Food & Wine, Brunswick (VIC)
- Violet & Blueberry Macaron – La Belle Miette, Melbourne (VIC)
- Red Velvet Cupcake – Cupcake Central, Melbourne (VIC)
- ET –Â Luxbite, South Yarra (VIC)
Top 5 Cafes of 2011:
- Auction Rooms, North Melbourne (VIC)
- Proud Mary, Collingwood (VIC)
- De Clieu, Fitzroy (VIC)
- Duchess of Spotswood, Spotswood (VIC)
- Hardware Societe, Melbourne (VIC)
Best Restaurant of the Year:
This goes to Loam, Drysdale (VIC)
Best Newcomer of the Year:
The Brix Cafe and Bistrot, Brunswick (VIC)
Ooh a masterlist!
Indeed!! A very hard list to compile as well!
Happy New Year! I hope 2012 is filled with just as many delicious treats! 😀
Thanks Lorraine!!
And I say to you: harrumph. HARRUMPH.
Ah well. At least I got some Luxbite and Burch and Purchese. Not to mention being saved from orange chocolate 😉
xo
Speaking of orange chocolate! I have some here for you to try!! When you’re naughty!!
Bahahaha! That is so completely the best way to put me on the best behaviour. “Eat your broccoli or we’ll force-feed you orange chocolate!”
Yes… I’ve got some sitting in the guest room for your imminent arrival 😛
Great list!!!!!!! 😀 Can’t wait to start ticking some off when I get back to Melb 😉 hehehe btw, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! may 2012 be amazing and filled with joy & happiness!!!
Thanks! Happy New Year to you too!!
Happy New Year from the UK! Really enjoyed discovering & reading your blog over the past year and looking forward to more in 2012. Love reading your recipes 🙂
Hi Angela! Thanks for your kind words! I’ll make sure to post up more recipes this year!
Great! Any Malaysian or Thai vegetarian recipes would be great, I’m not veggie but I’m really enjoying trying new recipes with vegetables at the moment thanks to Yotem Ottolenghi’s persian inspired food – delicious!:-)
I will do my best!!
Happy New Year to you too, I-Hua!
Some of those places (and dishes) you’ve mentioned will be on my ‘to go’ list in 2012. Here’s to a great year!
Yayy! My list keeps growing longer too!!
Happy New Year!! Love the round up and everything looked so lovely! I sure hope the world doesn’t end just yet as I hope to read more of your great posts this year 😛
Aww shucks Jenny! I’ve enjoyed reading yours as well! Yayy to the Mayan calendar, if it ends, it’ll be a good year anyway 🙂
Happy new year, lovely! This year I proclaim to you: MORE FRIED CHICKENS (for your friends of course).
Thanks dastardly twin! That proclamation was for Gazza wasn’t it? Lol… I feel used!! USED!!!
Love this post especially your awards 🙂 I’m going to try all your top desserts!!!
I can’t wait to see your new adventures with the Boy this year!
LOL.. it was a bit tongue in cheek fun 🙂
What an amazing list of places – so many are on my wish list! Restaurant of the year to Loam as well makes me REALLY want to go there. Here’s to an even better 2012 for you….
Definitely! Loam is one of the places I would always go back to!
OH!!!! 8 Textured Chocolate Cake! Jealous ;)!! Want to try it so bad! What a fab recap 🙂
It was unlike any other chocolate cake I have ever had in my life!
You’re such a great resource for eating out!! Love it. Happy New Year, lady 🙂
Heidi xo
I so am!!
You certainly lived it up food wise in 2011! Cheers to a better and even more food filled 2012!! (But with more weight loss hehe)
YES TO WEIGHT LOSS!!!
So much food! Here is to more eating and drinking and not putting on any weight.
Yayy to mystery weight loss!
Oh man… This is one heck of a list! And I really trust your judgement so I’m sure I would enjoy all these places if I were to try them one day. What a great year of eating. Cheers to an even better one in 2012, wee-heee! =D
Thank you Thank you! Takes a bow 😛
I have so many I need to tick off that list D:
Well get yo ass back to Melbourne and leave the country behind!!