Urban Provedore - South Yarra

Recently opened in May this year, Urban Provedore is a stylish new cafe conveniently located near South Yarra station. Head Chef, Andy Ledson has combined his culinary skills and his love for regional produce to create delicious seasonal menus for us to enjoy. 

Ledson's goal is simple; to ensure us city folk don't miss out on the joys of gorgeous regional produce.

The interior is spacious with lots of natural light and light wood furnishings. 

The walls are lined with shelves and shelves of regional Victorian products, which are also available for purchase.

For breakfast, I ordered Ham hock fritters, potato hash, creamed corn, braised red cabbage, black crumb pudding with the addition of poached eggs. I was really surprised by this dish, I wasn't exactly expecting ham hock and braised cabbage to be a particularly refined dish but it was quite a pretty dish. The cabbage was sweet, which went well with the saltiness of ham hock and the the black pudding crumb added texture.

The UP breakfast is a good feed for those with larger appetites. It's a wholesome breakfast of poached eggs, pork and fennel sausages, buttered thyme mushrooms, sauteed kipflers on sourdough with your choice of either a tomato chutney or bearnaise sauce.

Their Australian Sencha was interesting, a much more grassy and young tea than what I'm used to but the second steeping was quite nice. For those too busy for a sit down breakfast/lunch Urban Provedore also has a gourmet takeaway menu as well as a gorgeous sandwich bar. My only disappointment was the lack of sweets, there was your usual croissant and muffins but nothing to satiate my sweet tooth. 

Nonetheless, Urban Provedore is a beautiful space with lovely food.

231 Toorak Rd, South Yarra

(03) 9820 3500

www.urbanprovedore.com.au

Steer Bar & Grill - South Yarra

Steer Bar and Grill, a steakhouse near my work that's satisfying Melbourne's growing demand for a bloody good steak.

Their philosophy is simple; quality steak comes from cows treated with love and respect.

Whilst you're ordering, the staff comes around with a large wooden board with the various cuts of steaks they have placed upon it, which I think is a brilliant idea! Being able to see the steak to get an idea of its marbling and size is extremely helpful when trying to decide. The staff are very friendly and helpful as well, obviously very knowledgeable when it comes to steak.

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We started our evening with half a dozen oysters, which were lovely. 

I would definitely recommend the house cut bacon, it is a must try! The bacon is a juicy and thick slice of pure guilt that comes with an extraordinary housemade BBQ sauce.

Our steaks, as expected were cooked to perfection, so tender and flavourful. No nonsense just the great taste of beef. Our steaks also came with a little bit of bone marrow, which was a tasty treat.

The foie gras potato puree was absolutely divine. I would personally like to thank the person who decided to combine foie gras and pureed potato. I could've polished off the whole bowl on my own, table etiquette was the only thing stopping me from licking the bowl clean.

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The desserts were also a highlight as well.

Their tart was lovely, it had a lot of different elements from marshmallows, jellies, meringues and ice cream.

The most memorable was the Bombe Alaska. The only way to make dessert better is having it set on fire! A touch of theatrics accompanied with ice cream enclosed in meringue. What more could you ask for?

The little bits of jelly with the Bombe Alaska went very well too, a little bit of citrus to cut through the sweetness of the meringue.

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I have to confess I went to Steer twice within 2 weeks, I liked it so much I had to bring more friends. If you're one of my particularly carnivorous readers, definitely give this place a try. 

Thanks for reading, I'll hopefully dish out a new blog soon.