La Luna Bistro

Twenty seven!!!!

Just last week, I celebrated my 27th birthday with some friends and Le Boyfriend. For my pre-birthday celebration, Le Boyfriend booked a place (which I will not name for privacy purposes) at Crown Complex. It is a renowned Seafood restaurant and the display at the window showcases some very enticing seafood varieties. Everyone who walks past this restaurant can't help but to peer inside the restaurant to check out what they have to offer and it is always busy whenever I walk past. So when Le Boyfriend asked where I'd like to have dinner to celebrate my birthday, there was not even a doubt in my mind as I firmly said "Let's go to that place". I was very much looking forward to the dinner as I had planned the year before to go there. I dressed up and got myself ready to rock the night. 

As it turned out, the dinner was a massive disappointment. We had a seafood platter which costed $105 per person and everything was way too cold to my liking. There was no doubt the seafood varieties were fresh but they were just too cold and the sauces weren't amazing either. I was absolutely not impressed and it kind of ruined my mood for the night because Le Boyfriend paid for the meal and it wasn't a great meal. I've personally had a better seafood platter in Geelong with a bunch of girlfriends and it only costed $45 pp for 3 girls to share. I was so extremely let down by that restaurant and have vowed not to return again. They also offer a 6-course meal which should be what we should've ordered but because the 6-course meal barely has seafood in it and we're in a seafood renowned restaurant, we set on the seafood platter instead. Furthermore, when we walked out, we saw the seafood platters just sat on the ice ready to go so no wonder they were way too cold because they were all ready to go.

Ok, I'll take back my words, I shouldn't say I'm not returning ever again. Afterall, I think to be fair, I should return to the restaurant not in the near future to try other options in their menu. Maybe a fish fillet or something else seafood-related. 

Outfit of the Night: Dress from Zara and heels were presents from 5 years ago from Charles & Keith in Korea. 

We went to watch Focus starring Will Smith and Margot Robbie after that just to cheer me up after the average meal we had and I loved that movie so we went home in a happy mood at least. 

We redeemed ourselves the very next day which was the actual day of my birthday. Two of my friends share the same birthday here in Melbourne and I was a bit sad when one of the girls who is also one of my BFFS in Melbourne was celebrating her birthday in my hometown this year. Yes I have Le Boyfriend with me but it's not the same without sharing it with another person who shares the same birthday as you. So when my other girlfriend's husband organised brunch together, I was super excited. She and her husband initially wanted to organise lunch at La Luna Bistro in Carlton but it was booked out, so we decided to have brunch in Richmond at Top Paddock which is one of my favourite brunch places and the food there is simply amazing along with the coffee but I will save the post about Top Paddock for another time. After brunch, we went for a walk and we discovered.. Well, thanks to my girlfriend, "I" discovered this awesome electronic shop that apparently has existed for 90 years!! It is THE most sophisticated sound system design and quality I've ever seen and heard in my life!! Some of you probably know this brand already. It's a Danish brand called Bang and Olufsen. It definitely caters to the high end niché market. One of the TVS featuring 360 turning point and built-in speaker costs A$37,000 so, go figure! When I have a house one day, I would like to have a home theatre with sound system installed from Bang and Olufsen. Hey we all can dream right? One of their speakers is fairly affordable, about $2990 and the quality is extremely good! You definitely invest your money in the modern design. It is one of the kind.. 

We spent the rest of the afternoon at Moomba Festival at Alexandra Garden in the city which is held every year mostly for families to hang out when the weather is still warm in March because from hereon, Autumn is just around the corner. There was really nothing much to see except there was also Japanese festival going on in Federation square and so many people turned up in their cosplay attires. 

Kawaii ne~~~~ (Means so cute in Japanese)

After that, we had this idea to just walk in to La luna Bistro for dinner because my friends initially misunderstood and thought that Le Boyfriend and I were going to Crown Complex for dinner on the same day but it was actually the night before, so we decided to walk in to La Luna Bistro and try our luck. We were lucky to get seats and we had about 2 and a half hours before the next reservation was up but that was plenty of time for us because we only had 2 hours parking on the street. 

I love the ambience at La Luna Bistro, it is a fine dining setting yet it is vintage-ish as well. The wait staff are interesting people and not the usual clean cut sleek hair to the back kind of style. They have more characters in them. It's the kind of place where you don't necessarily have to dress up to go there and be embarrassed when the wait staff talk to you in some foreign language when they mention their special menu for the night and all you can think of is "what the heck is this person talking about" while displaying your best smile and nod your head understandingly *faking it. 

When we were there, there were mostly older patrons who dined in there interestingly. We can just assume those people were regulars there. Le Boyfriend and my friend's husband decided to order La Luna Beef Burger, bacon, pickles & cheese, fries A$25.50

I must say I wasn't particularly impressed with the burger. It was nice but I hardly get impressed with burgers in general. There are only a few places so far which have wowed me in terms of their burgers being their main selling dish. The fries though, was a different story. I loooove thinly cut fries compared to the thick style which you find a lot here in Australia. I like the french style. The fries in this place was also thinly cut and it came with a nice sauce to dip it with. 

My girlfriend ordered their roast pork, crackling, caponata (eggplant, celery, capers, olives, roast garlic), A$42.50

I would give this dish 10 thumbs up if I had 10 thumbs. Just 2 nights ago, I celebrated my birthday with another friend at a Spanish restaurant in the city and I ordered their slow cooked pork and man.... A few hours later, I had a bad episode of gastro and had to rush to the nearest public toilet!! I had another one when I arrived home afterwards. I knew definitely it was the pork because my stomach reacts to food extremely fast if I ingest anything that's not cooked properly, especially chicken and pork. I wanted to order roast pork as well but because of my gastro episode 2 nights ago before we came to this restaurant, I was still a little bit traumatised. I was glad my friend ordered because at least we could sample her food. Oh boy, the skin was so crispy and the meat was soooooo tender. The crackling was absolutely..... crackling. No other way to describe it. All the garnishing that was served with this dish was a perfect match made in Heaven. My girlfriend is a person who is very hard to please but she loves her choice and that says a lot about how good their roast pork is. 

My turn now, I ordered crisp duck leg, peas, asparagus, hazelnuts, pearl barley & herb salad, A$42.50

I think I've mentioned this so many times in the past and I'm still gonna mention it again, I'm not a fan of duck and it is a rare occasion where I would order a duck dish for myself as a main. Le Boyfriend loves duck and usually I sample a little bit from him but I have no idea why I wanted to try their duck when I was there. I guess I was tossing between steak or duck. I think I didn't feel like steak at the time so I chose duck and I was intrigued with the words "crisp duck leg" so I thought the skin must be crispy and yes!! 

My first bite to it, I was immediately sent to cloud 9. The skin was super crisp and usually, if duck meat is overcooked, It can get really hard to cut through the meat because it gets a bit tough just like beef and the meat sticks to the bone but this one, you can cut though it so easily and it was so tender to the point that it just melted in your mouth but the meat didn't fall apart, meaning not too tender, it was just the right amount of time when the chef cooked it. Hats off to the chef! I really like this duck dish and everyone knows duck meat has less fat, hence I wasn't very full after I ate the whole thing. Le Boyfriend predicted that I wouldn't be able to finish the meal because I wasn't too hungry when we walked in and usually I don't finish my food unless I really like it. On the contrary, he didn't finish his food!! To be fair, he got greedy and he had some snacks before we went to La Luna and the beef burger was very filling plus it was not a wow dish. Everyone agreed the crisp duck leg was the best out of all 3. It was light and delightful. I would definitely like to go back to try their other dishes. Click here to check out their website and their details are as follows.. That's it until my next food adventure and hello 27!! Hopefully, I will be a tad wiser this year and I can be one more step closer to realise my dreams or alternatively, just keep dreaming!!