Tag Archives: Derrimut

The burgers? Just as great as the view …

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The Eatery at MDGC, Mt Derrimut Golf & Community Club, 475 Mt Derrimut Rd, Derrimut. Phone: 8737 9011

The Mt Derrimut Golf Club has been on our “things to do” list for pretty much as long as Consider The Sauce has been going.

A quick afternoon visit after I’d picked up Bennie from his current, Truganina, place of work quickly elevated the place up our list of priorities. Beer, chips and a superb view went down a treat.

A few weeks later, we are back – the day is overcast, Melbourne’s CBD is a smudge on the horizon, but our spirits are high.

Oh my, how good is it to be out and about again?

 

 

In terms of eats, the venue is finding its feet again after the long lockdown months.

So for the time being, a basic bar-style menu is on offer, with a more elaborate list and such things as Sunday roasts presumably still to come again.

On the drive, I’d confessed my scepticism about the quality of the food we might encounter here, so much so that I was quite prepared to ascertain the beef burger patties are made in house – the dreaded frozen patties seemed like a possibility.

Once perusing the menu (see below), we realise its adamant proclamation of quality renders such an inquiry unnecessary – so we order and wait.

The food is really, really good, the service unobtrusive and the timing spot on.

 

 

Bennie digs his chicken burger ($18) a whole bunch, eventually rating it 8.5/10.

The panko-crumbed chicken is substantial but very fine, while all the bits and pieces are just right.

The chips (included in the price) are just as excellent, hot and crisp as on our earlier visit.

 

 

My spicy beef burger ($18) is sensational.

It’s bereft of any greenery or veg.

But the ingredients are wonderful.

Onion rings provide little by way of flavour, but compensate by contributing cool crunch.

Best of all is the bacon.

It’s outstanding and there’s heaps of it.

How often does burger bacon barely pass muster or deliver little or no flavour?

That’s emphatically NOT the case here.

The “siracha mayo” is only a tad spicy, but the beef is real-deal delicious and chewy.

For those suspicious of mixing burgers and brioche: These were really good and fresh. And, unlike so many burgers, they held together supremely well. My last mouthful was a perfect gobful of meat ‘n’ bacon, topped and tailed by similar-sized pieces of bun. Impressive! No falling apart.

This is a 9.5/10 burger – maybe even a 10!

Really.

Bennie wonders if my extremely high rating can be attributed to many burger-free months or the high spirits of liberation.

Nah.

 

Nice Indian mix, great prices

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Chutneys, 8/1 Elgar Road, Derrimut. Phone: 8361 7588

There’s Indian food in the Derrimut area, but this new place Chutneys is worthy of celebration because it’s the first of its kind there.

No butter chicken at this place.

But there is Indo-Chinese, biryanis, dosas, chaat dishes, uttapams and thalis – all at very cheap prices and served up in friendly cafe-style premises (see menu below).

 

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Vegetarian thali hits the spot with its recipient, CTS pal Marnie, who works her way through the lot …

Sambar (as served with dosas), dal, a suitably mushy vegetable curry with good knobs of cauliflower and a very good dry carrot curry.

There’s raita and a papadum joining the rice and the deal is sealed with some good, sweet halva.

Nice job for $10.95.

My vegetable uttapam ($10.95, top photograph) is just as good.

The “pizza” is fresh, hot and moist in its centre, and goes just right with the same accoutrements served with dosas and idlys.

 

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On an earlier visit with the Nat Stockley crew, our choices run to the Indo-Chinese portion of the menu.

The prawn noodles ($14.95) are a highlight – fresh, light and expertly cooked with as little oil as the kitchen could get away with.

 

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The pepper chicken ($11.95) is another good ‘un and very tasty.

 

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For our other choices we select from the “wet” Indo-Chinese options with somewhat mixed results.

The chilli fish ($13.95) is lovely, but …

 

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… the chilli chicken ($11.95) and …

 

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… gobi Manchurian ($11.95), while also enjoyable, have a certain sameness about them in terms of seasoning, texture and flavour.

Still, these are small quibbles given the prices and location.

Chutneys will doubtless become very popular.

Memo to self: When ordering Indo-Chinese, stick with the dry option!

 

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OMG Indian sweets

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Kumar’s Sweets, Shop 3, 85 Mount Derrimut Road, Deer Park. Phone: 8361 7303

After my story about Kumar’s Sweets was published in The Age in October, I thought that was that … next!

However, in the subsequent months, Kumar’s Sweets has become a firm favourite of CTS – meaning it’s high time it had a highly justified post of its own right here!

 

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Look, at Kumar’s you can get typically rich staples of Indian sweetdom, such as barfi or gulab jamun.

You can get, too, a line-up of savoury snacks – often, salty and spicy; always delicious.

 

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But we what REALLY like is a tight line-up of gorgeous and jewel-like Indian sweets largely based on little more than nuts and dried fruit.

That’s right – they could even be loosely labelled as “healthy”; but these are about a gazillion light years in every way from your dreary “health food bars”.

Ugh.

 

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Nope, these – including the wonderful cassata in the top photograph – are something else.

Very highly recommended by CTS.

 

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Shota Muni Sushi & Grill

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Shop 5, 1 Elgar Rd, Derrimut. Phone: 9363 1554

I’VE BEEN TOLD THIS RESTAURANT HAS NOW CLOSED.

Head up Ballarat Rd, turn right at Deer Park, keep on driving and you’re in Derrimut.

This is a trip into the unknown for us, in more ways than one.

It’s an area in transition.

Our destination for the night is part of a shopping precinct – a car wash and a handful of eateries (Subway, Turkish, Chinese/noodles, F&C, Japanese) on one side of Mount Derrimut Rd, a Coles and more cheap eats on the other – that doesn’t appear on Google maps.

Further on up the road we spy Sunshine Golf Club on one side of a large roundabout and a slice of swish-looking suburbia on the other.

Everywhere are the bleak vistas of industrial parks and lack of humanity.

No matter.

We’re here for the food, as they say in the classics.

We’d spied Shota Muni while cruising around after lunch at Kabayan Filipino Restaurant.

Our expectations range from the nastiest of takeaway sushi rolls to the real deal – some good and varied Japanese stuff.


Happily, our Friday night dinner very much fits into the latter category – with a few hiccups.

After placing our order, we are presented with small bowls of complementary bean sprouts. Vinegary, sweet and with just a touch of chilli kick, they are very high on the scale of scrumptiousness.

Our order of gyoza duly arrives. The dumplings look sleek and glistening – and like they’re going to be on the crunchy side. They’re not. Instead, they’re slippery, tender and delicious. Kenny has two. He wants more, but the dumpling nut opposite does the pleading thing and gets four.

Bennie finds the whole idea of bento very appealing – all those little compartments, so much variety. So the staff are nice are enough to rustle one up for the boy when asked nicely – they’re usually only part of the lunch menu.

It’s a winner!

Seemingly a little pricey at $16.80, it has three weirdly elongated prawns tempura (they look like roasted anorexic parsnips), a mound of rice, three more gyoza and a gratifyingly large serve of sweetly grilled salmon, under which lie some salad bits and pieces. This is the only greenery – a little disappointing, as bento deals usually involve some kind of more substantial vegetable or salad quotient.

Still, I am not about to complain. This is the first time – EVER – Bennie has ordered fish. Could this be a breakthrough?

The three generous pieces of fish are just the slightest bit overcooked, but there’s more than enough for dad to have a good taste, too.

My own main course order is the biggest hiccup of the night.

It’s a beef hot pot for $18.80, a variation of shabu shabu.

But it’s not cooked at the table.


Instead, it arrives in a large paper bowl, which is placed on a burner fuelled by some sort of petroleum jelly substance that looks like it belongs in a lava lamp.

There’s no rice provided, no way to sup on the stock in which the meat, vegetables and cellophane noodles are cooking – the whole trip is a little weird.

Our waiter suggests I dip the food in soy sauce, and that works. But soon the food is scaldingly hot, and has to be removed to a plate for further eating.

The mix of sliced beef, bean sprouts, cabbage, carrot and tofu is nice enough. But really, it’s more like what I need rather than what I want. After a long week of commuting, holiday program and so on, something a bit more sexy and seasoned would have been welcome.

And there’s plenty of that going on at Shota Muni.

The menu lists a long range of grills, salads, ramen and udon, donburi, tempura and so on. I’d want to know if the range of fish extends beyond the usual salmon and tuna, however, before embarking on a sushi/sashimi adventure here.

Oddly, we are served a single bowl of excellent miso soup after our mains arrive.

Still, we are satisfied – so much so that the non-arrival of our seaweed salad is of no consequence.

The bill is a tad over $50, including a strawberry Calpico cultured milk soda pop for Bennie.

This is a scandalous tab for the likes of us – but, hey, it’s Friday night.

Back home, I discover online that Shota Muni seems to be a chain of Japanese eateries with Chinese roots and/or connections. Whether the Derrimut version has ties in that direction, I know not.