I'd wanted to try Dandelion for years now (since 2011) however my Vietnamese dining companions refused - modern Vietnamese isn't something they wanted to try. They are the biggest offenders when it comes to "this is not good/authentic because it isn't my mum's" type comments and to me shows I can't trust their opinions (as wonderful friends they may be) when it comes to eating Vietnamese food.
I suppose I never pushed it because the reviews seemed to be very mixed (ranging from 50-70% on various websites) which I couldn't account for simply being those impossible to impress types.
However many years later the opportunity came now back in Melbourne and able to visit at part of the Food & Wine Festival express lunch. $40 for 2 courses and a glass of wine (or in my case double happiness flower tea) meant a cheap way of testing the flavours and skills. I'm sure with several years of one chef hat awards, it couldn't be as bad as the unhappy reviewers. The menu wasn't released in advance so I was hopeful it would feature some of the regular and known dishes.
Unfortunately none of the express menu were from regular dishes (previous specials perhaps?) or maybe just testing something new.
- Ocean soup of prawns, squid, crab, snow mushrooms & coriander crest - reminiscent of shark fin, the crab threads created the base of the soup. Two good prawns and squid rounded out the seafood in this nice savoury soup with reasonable flavour strength;
- King brown mushrooms & cherry tomatoes in creamy coconut sauce & silken tofu - I honestly picked this as the thought of 2 rice paper rolls seemed too standard an entree to order from such a place. I was rewarded by a lovely dish of excellent individual elements (particularly the tofu) put together with a coconut sauce that married the dish together tasting similar to a delicious not-soupy tom kha;
- Twice-cooked gravy beef salad & banana blossom with green pepper dressing & peanuts - the beef was fine but not as tender as I hoped but the dressing was perfectly balanced and the fragrance of this was most palpable. Unusually the salad had celery which I found a little surprising but complemented the dressing flavours;
- Roasted quail stuffed with water chestnut, lotus seed, goji berries & shiitake mushroom - sauce tasted similar to a Malaysian medicinal soup my mum makes (but this version was less medicinal and more savoury). The quail seemed like the meat has been removed, blended with other ingredients then stuffed back in. The result was a smooth minced filling that bulged out and could be used to absorb the sauce;
- Ginger & lemongrass creme brulee with lychee & papaya fruit salad - I dreamt of Red Lantern's kaffir lime creme brulee when I ordered this. Although not quite as memorable, this was an excellent version with strong ginger and lemongrass flavour coming through. The texture was much grainier than the usual smooth creme (intentional or not I don't know) but I didn't mind. Because of the heating torch the top was warm and became colder eating the way down. The fruit also included dragon fruit and was sprinkled with some kind of green sugar(?).
The table next to me ordered the salmon skewers which were huge and looked fantastic alongside the salad. I'd opt for that main next time (as should future express lunch diners - however knowing Zomato this review will never get published in time for that).
Overall the food quality and flavour was excellent. It may seem expensive for Vietnamese food ($26 Wagyu beef pho and $22 banh xeo for example) but I'm still intending to give the full menu a try sometime.