Comments on: Verge(ing) on the foamy, liquified ridiculous

By: Izakaya Den is “quite nice really”. Or is it?

Izakaya Den is “quite nice really”. Or is it? — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 05:19:43 +0000

[...] opening has been pitched as one of the hottest joints in town with the Australian media seeming to loose all critical ability when it comes to owner Simon Denton, the son of a famous Melbourne [...]

By: I’ve seen the future of food and it’s in Collingwood (and beyond)

I’ve seen the future of food and it’s in Collingwood (and beyond) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:46:37 +0000

[...] Sake bar Richmond 4.0 Tapas style – whatever the cuisine This week Simon Denton’s (Verge. Yikes!) Japanese style pub food place Izakaya Den on the corner of Little Collins and Russell St. [...]

By: Huge shake-up to Victoria in Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Awards

Huge shake-up to Victoria in Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Awards — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 16:33:44 +0000

[...] 56. Verge, Vic (37) Tires and try hard – trying to recruit elements of FerranAdria. It is so wrong and I hated it. Pretentious clientelle. Read my post here. [...]

By: Ed

Ed — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 23:28:53 +0000

Simon,thanks.

Hannah, And I was actually quite kind about the tossers.I wanted to shoot myself just listening in. It’s probably the pretentions of the food and the design of the place that attracts them.

Thahn,Complaining is a tricky one as it always creates a tension with the staff which I think it did in this case. There again if customers don’t speak up they don’t know that they need to improve. The new Ricoh GR Digital I reckon cuts it pretty well with the f1.8 apereture and all the manual controls you want. Also you can do all those adjustments on iPhoto it just doesn’t have such white balance control as photoshop. Photoshop is also over the top for many people because most won’t use all it’s features. I also have Aperture which is cheaper and god white balance control. I just lost my activation key when I transfered it to a new computer which is a real bummer.

TooYum, A good lesson learned – chefs hats don’t always equate to what you expect because the people who hand them out are sometimes too close to the restaurants.

By: TooYum

TooYum — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 04:07:34 +0000

Hey Ed,
Thanks for the very honest and very amusing review.
I don’t feel qualified enough to jump on the Let’s-poo-poo-Verge wagon, as I’ve only eaten there once (in March) – But as with your trio and Thanh’s experience, I remember leaving disappointed and underwhelmed.
Silly mistake on my part, I chose Verge solely on its Chef’s Hats.
Lesson learnt.
-TY

By: Thanh

Thanh — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 10:06:57 +0000

Hey Ed, great photos to start off with. I’m amazed you were able to capture anything in that dark dark restaurant.

Secondly, I see the food is still really tricked up and not good. I’m so impressed that Twidow complained, wow. I think I will try that in future too, as it will help the restaurant improve.

Thirdly, I’m impressed with what Phil and Simon were able to do with the photos. I wish I knew how to use Photoshop properly to help enhance my amateur food photos. I need a DSLR too as well hahaha. Point and shoots just don’t cut it anymore in the food blogging world.

Finally, I agree with Hannah, the people sitting around me at the time were quite snobby arty types.

By: Hannah

Hannah — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 05:48:10 +0000

Sad but not surprised to read your views on Verge. 3 or 4 years ago I would have said it was my favourite place to eat in Melbourne but the last time I visited it was looking shabby and the food was pretentious and average. Also, and I don’t have a clue why, it does seem to attract some truly DREADFUL tossers of the arty persuasion.

By: Simon Food Favourites

Simon Food Favourites — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 12:05:52 +0000

‘quite illuminous’ would have been very cool to see i use soft light filter to lighting the image. also used colour filter balance to add cyan to counteract your warm yellow lighting. plus adding a bit of highlight colour balance for the white point. so about 3 steps plus i think i sharpened as well. when there’s a few photos it can take a while because each photo is different.

By: Ed

Ed — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 10:29:05 +0000

Phil, no worries about copyright.I just worry about big commercial sites and people I don’t know who don’t ask. I lot my key for Aperture for the new computer and am stuck with inadequate iPhoto for a while. Nice enhancement and you see how awful that jelly looks on the enhanced version.

Simon, that looks great. What was it you did exactly? Although the jelly was really quit eluminous.

By: Simon Food Favourites

Simon Food Favourites — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 10:23:53 +0000

Low light is a pain for all food bloggers but i guess we never worried about it before when we used to not take photos of our food hehe. Romantic lighting was great but now it’s the enemy of our photos and blogging. why can’t we just enjoy the ambience anymore — it’s because we are now compelled to take great photos of everything i guess. phil is right. photoshop will help in retouching but it’s a time consumer. i had a go at the same photo using a few techniques to try and keep colours as true as possible. i have to do this a lot especially for low lighting and overcast colour lights because i only use a basic hand held compact camera canon ixus 70. see my results here http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=2914893&l=74c054f641&id=678726530
ps. I changed the link. can delete my previous comment.