Last year it was won by a pizza joint. This year the judges of The Age’s Good Food Guide Restaurant of the Year award didn’t award one. What’s gone wrong with food in Melbourne?
Perhaps nothing is wrong with it but the system. Or perhaps the problem is with the judges of these awards and the reviewers themselves. Here at Tomato we are of the view that the publishers and judges of the awards are too close to the restaurant business. Last year in Tomato Magazine reviewers John Lethlean and Matt Preston didn’t wanted their pictured obscured so that restauranteurs would’t recognise them.
But the reality is that Melbourne is a small town and any respectable chef would know exactly who the reviewer is.
On SBS tonight we will see the last of the excellent series Heat in the Kitchen. We see that Matt Moran knows exactly who Matthew Evans the Sydney Morning Herald reviewer is. He personally takes over the presentation of Evan’s food.
It is inevitable that Melbourne’s best known reviewers will be recognised and receive special treatment. Take one of the winners of a chef’s hat, Ay Oreintal tea House in Prahran. Its has scored well in all its reviews (even with Stephen Downes) but we have report of mixed reviews from the general public. There was Kylie who found the loos filthy on one visit. And me. Lunchtime on Saturday, a friendly face greeted us at the door. But the service was surly and indifferent inside. Half way through the meal the service changed from the trollies of Yum Cha to having to order it from the menu. Our waitress tried to push, fairly aggressively, the left over on us.
We left disappointed and hungry.
Meanwhile, Fenix in Richmond loses it’s hat. This is a restaurant that Stephen Downes rates in To Die For: 100 gastronomic experiences to have before you dies one of the best meals in Melbourne – for its coconut noodles and chilli pork belly salad.
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