Squires Loft, South Yarra

Don't you just hate it when things don't go your way? I certainly do. A few days ago I had to rush to get my dad, uncle and brother's visas to China. They were scheduled to leave next week but mum had forgotten all about the visas! So she filled out the forms and stuck on the photos and I went happily on my way to the Chinese Embassy. I waited in line for over half an hour and when I finally went up to the counter, I was told the forms had changed just a fortnight ago! Great. It was already 1:30pm and my stomach wasn't happy. Why didn't anyone tell me about this at the door? I dragged Yuye out of the car and after another half hour battling with form filling and bad Chinese writing and 20 minutes in line, we finally finished and headed out for lunch. The Mexican restaurant on Toorak Rd, South Yarra that we had wanted to go to was closed so I was overjoyed when I spotted popular Squires Loft across the road open for business.

Although I'm undoubtedly a carnivore, I've never really been a big steak eater. The fact is, most of the steaks I've had in the past were either too tough or just plain not tasty enough. This is with the exception of top wagyu which is also in a totally different price category (like the $200 F.A.N.T.A.S.T.I.C. wagyu I had in Las Vegas). However, Squires Loft just redefined what I see in steaks. I'm not kidding when I say that they might serve the best steaks in Melbourne.

We were seated at the front of the house where we were surrounded by wine bottles, a warm heater and logs right next to my chair. It was a very comfortable and inviting atmosphere.

Before I could complain to Yuye how hungry I was, we were given 2 pieces of beautiful complimentary sour dour bread. One butter was enough between the two of us and I chowed mine down as if I hadn't eaten in a week.

Complimentary sour dour bread

I convinced Yuye to order a wine to go with the meal. He's doesn't usually drink alcohol when we're out but I wanted him to enjoy a good meal that day. He ordered a 2004 Zema Estate Merlot from Coonawarra for $10 which was quite tasty and easy to drink. I'm not fond of wines that are too dry but this one was fine and it went very well with the steaks.

Zema Estate Merlot 2004 (Coonawarra) - $10

I got my usual boring lemon lime & bitters, except this time, it came in a cool glass. It had great proportion between bitters and lemonade and was oh so refreshing.

Lemon Lime & Bitters - $3.50

The drinks weren't the stars of the show though. Our steaks were! My steak to be exact. I don't have a huge appetite normally so I figured I might as well get a smaller but nicer cut of meat. What can be better than a 200g eye fillet? A 300g eye fillet that's what! Well, I regretted just that little bit at the end for upsizing my steak to 300g, but it was just so beautiful that thought went away instantly. I was pretty darn full though. For $45, I got a melt in the mouth and fabulously tasty eye fillet with a side of baked potato. I thought the baked potato was small compared to Yuye's chips but really it was quite big when I dug in. I also got a $4.75 Danish Blue Cheese sauce to go with the steak but I realised as soon as I tasted the steak that it didn't really need it. The steak was perfectly salty and flavoured already. But BOY was the sauce good! I've had blue cheese sauce before but never this rich and intense! Blue cheese lovers, this is perfect for you!

300g eye fillet - $45, Danish blue cheese sauce - $4.75

Look at the grains of that meat! It was a very good looking eye fillet and when I asked for rare, rare is what I got. So the tasty steak is a combination of fresh, beautiful ingredients mixed with experience and good skills. Even when it got a little cold, the meat didn't go tough. Simply superb.

France Soir, South Yarra

Yuye and I ate at France Soir for dinner two nights ago out of complete impulse. Despite being a Monday night, France Soir was fully booked out. I may have just booked the last available table actually (just in time too as we only made the booking at about 6:30pm for an 8pm start) and saw a long line of people waiting at the bar for a table shortly after we arrived for our meal.

The waiters were very friendly, attentive and reasonably efficient given how busy they were. In the photo is Jacques who was very nice and so was Jean Noel, the other waiter who served us on the night (I love France Soir's website :D). The only thing that I didn't quite like was how cramped and loud the place was. The customers next to us had to manoeuvre their table to get in and out and most people had to yell in order to be heard by their companions. Regardless of this, it was a nice and friendly bistro atmosphere and the noise certainly didn't affect our enjoyment for the fine food.