Food For All Seasons

With a few of the outdoor tables occupied on a cold wintery weekend we decided to Food For All Seasons a go.  After going through the menu I highlighted the special sandwich which ET ended up ordering.  It had ham, chicken and an assortment of other things plus wedges and salad.  ET was surprised he liked this jumbled mix of a sandwich and I was glad I could steal some of his wedges!
I went for the beef and burgundy pie with relish and salad.  I thought the pie could have had more gravy and I found it strange that the salad came with a single-serve Masterfood French vinaigrette dressing.   As for the service, ET didn’t like that he could see the waitress eating from where he sat or that she put her fingers on the cutlery and didn’t bother to ask if we wanted more drinks when our coffee cups were empty.  So although ET liked his sandwich, we won’t be going back specially as he saw the guy behind the counter sneezing and not washing his hands.  I sincerely hope that guy doesn’t prepare any food!


Food For All Seasons
254 Yarra St, Warrandyte

Enrik's Restaurant (V)

I was glad to see the cobwebs in the corner had disappeared since we were last at Enrik's. And much to my surprise ET did not choose his usual Sunday Morning Savior. He went for Enrik's Big Breakfast which came with one piece of unbuttered toast. Luckily the waitress was kind enough to offer to bring some butter.

I was quite excited to order the Raisin French Toast. But when it was served to me, all I could say was "I ordered the RAISIN french toast". To which the answer was "That is the french raisin toast".  Funny, because I couldn't see one bit of raisin on the whole plate. And once I sliced into the thick bread, I still saw no sign of a raisin nor was there any taste of it anywhere.

The second slice of my french toast was a bit dry thanks to all the maple syrup being drizzled over the first slice. I was fully intending to ask for extra maple syrup when they finally brought over the butter for ET's toast and the water I asked for. But alas, neither arrived and so I ate my second slice without any maple syrup and ET ate his toast unbuttered.

You should have seen my mouth drop when, upon finishing our meals, another waitress said "French Raisin Toast" to the table behind us and ET nodded to show that they, unlike us, were served raisin bread for their French Raisin Toast. Grrrr!!


Enrik's Restaurant
25 Railway Rd, Blackburn

Birdie Num Nums

This place is well known for families with prams on the weekedn so it should come as no surprise ET chose to sit by the window counter.  This is where they keep several newspapers of the day, as well as the bookshelf of children's books - a testament to their family-friendliness.

In case you happen to be a Peter Sellers fan, Birdie Num Nums is supposedly named after a line in the film The Party.  And just like the film, this place was slightly comical in that someone tried to serve us a muffin & coffee when no one had bothered to give us menus yet!

The big breakfast was the usual order for ET.

He also ordered a side of chorizos which arrived in a small bowl, cut up into pieces a minute or two after our meals were served.

I opted for the french toast and was disappointed to find some of the eggs had oozed out the sides of the bread so it felt like I was eating scrambled eggs. :(

Coffee was good so ET went for a second cup.  Although we weren't greeted as soon as we arrived, they also kept us waiting as we tried to pay.  We went up to the counter where a man was operating the cash register.  After about a minute he walked off without any acknowledgement!  We, in turn, were tempted to do the same.  It would have appeared to any bystander that we had paid and rightly so.  Imagine walking off on a paying customer like that!  Needless to say we will not be returning.  There were at least 3 other cafes within 30 second walking distance, all on the same side of the street.  And that's no exaggeration!

Birdie Num Nums

745 Nicholson St, North Carlton

Sapporo Japanese Restaurant (II)

What is it with places that don't hand you menus once you're seated?  We were shown to our table (which we actually booked for) then left to our devices.  This is the second time this has happened to us at Sapporo.  After finally hailing a waiter serving an adjoining table, I made ET choose between the two soft shell crab specials for entree.  He decided on the crispy soft shell crab.

I liked the crunchy bits but didn't enjoy the whole dish, specially as it had a touch of spice.  ET thought the crab too rich but either way, the dish did look impressive.

After tasting the terriyaki chicken, I got an "Oh wow" from ET.

His terriyaki beef just got a "not bad".  It wasn't as flavoursome as the chicken so we stirred the beef around the sauce a bit.

Although both dishes were terriyaki, and even had the same vegetables (which we didn't really touch) why were the two dishes not the same color?

Sapporo Japanese Restaurant

432 Mitcham Rd, Mitcham

Sakura House

Although I was craving Vietnamese cuisine, try as we might, we couldn't find any in the surrounding area.  Shame.  But seeing Sakura House as light-filled and roomy, we decided to give it a go.  ET was pleased with the tall indoor water feature but we didn't like the rude scratchings on it - it ruined the effect quite a bit.

But on to the food.  As usual I was starving so we opted for a platter for starters - the name of which escapes me.  I was pleasantly surprised with the large assortment and it was all served in twos so it was nice and easy to split.

ET enjoyed the spring rolls but it was too light in color for my liking.  You can barely just see it on the bottom left of the photo, covered in mayo.

The octopus balls had ET quite perplexed (topped in pickled ginger beside the spring rolls) but I've since realised that I just don't like octopus balls.  Full stop.  I would like to know, however, how they got the prawns so straight?  (See top of photo below)

ET was amused by how many edamame he had eaten compared to me, so we just had to take a photo of all the shells as proof:

Sashimi was Et's choice for main as he wasn't so hungry.  Although not bad, there were some tiny pieces next to ones twice as thick and a bit tough so they obviously need to work on this.

I went for the grilled salmon main.  After struggling with trying to get the noodles out from under the salmon, I was much disappointed with its rubbery texture.

One thing ET & I agreed on was how nice the miso soup was.  Lucky the mains came with this along with rice, pickled cabbage, salad and chilled tofu which I rue not trying.  But I was, after all, quite stuffed by this stage.

Staff were a bit haphazard on the night.  At one stage two approached us but neither one took our empty plates away.  I also said to another "Can we have some water please?" only to be given one glass of water even though ET & I both had empty glasses from our previous drinks.  Nor did they ask if ET would like another drink when his glass was already empty by the time the mains arrived. It wasn't until the manager came to clear our mains that he immediately bought another water for ET and asked if he would like another glass of red.

Sakura House
425 Burwood Hwy, Shop 2222 Knox O Zone, Wantirna