Fish for thought

Since it has been so long since my last restaurant review, I thought it would be appropriate to write about our latest culinary experience, at Toofey's in Carlton. I knew about Toofey's existence, and knew it was a fish/seafood restaurant, but that was about it.

We headed into Carlton last Saturday evening, experiencing the rare feeling of running through pouring rain while trying to catch a taxi. We were having pre-dinner drinks at Markov Place, quite a nice bar just across the road from the restaurant that seemed to be channelling a bit of a Melbourne CBD bar vibe, hiding away down a laneway. I tried a refreshing mix of green apple vodka, ginger ale and lime that, quite frankly, I could have kept drinking all night. The green apple vodka was surprisingly just a Smirnoff flavour; I'll have to track that one down, the aroma was spectacular.

The drinking continued at Toofey's, where the inability of some of us to decide on a pre-food drink meant we ended up ordering of bottle of Veuve Clicquot for the table. It took us a while to actually order our food, deciding on an appropriate combination of dishes was quite difficult.

In the end, I went for the kingfish carpaccio for entree, and the seared atlantic salmon with green curry for main. The entree was light, but very flavoursome. The kingfish had a similar consistency to tuna, and it was drizzled with a wasabi mayo and soy. The salmon was cooked perfectly, still tender and pink in the middle, and the bite to the green curry provided a nice contrast.

If our entree and mains took a while to order, our dessert took even longer... the decisions on the dessert menu were even more difficult. In the end, a good assortment of dishes we chosen around the table, including a banana and walnut pudding, a passionfruit souffle and a cheese platter. Personally, I went for the Valrhona chocolate plate (apparently "ideal for two") after seeing it delivered to another table. Wow. The plate contained 4 tastes, including a chocolate and Baileys mini-milkshake, a chocolate pudding, a chocolate mousse and a chocolate mini-ice cream cone filled with honeycomb ice cream. I'll let you make up your own mind as to whether that sounds good! This was accompanied by a bottle of dessert wine (for the table, not just for me).

All in all, I was very impressed by not only the quality of the food, but the quality of the service as well. Courteous but not intrusive, and no missed drinks or dishes confused between diners.

Almost four hours later, as the last of the diners left in the restaurant, we stumbled out into the street and found our way home, sleepy and content.