Waterfront at Station Pier

MM has been mentioning this restaurant a few times and strongly recommends (she herself has been there several times!) us there as she REALLY like the ambience of it. Hence, since HW is here for holidays, I got the chance to tag along and to try out this restaurant =) This restaurant, Waterfront, is opened by the restaurateur Nick Zampelis, who also owned Cafe Greco(Crown), Waterfront (Crown) and Campari (Port Melbourne).

Waterfront (click here for their website), Port Melbourne

After approximately 45 mins of drive (it takes us that long because of traffic jams in the city), we arrived at Port Melbourne. The picture above is the outside of Waterfront, if you can c the words.

Waterfront's menu consists of mainly seafood although they do offer a few choices of steaks. If you wanna indulge yourself, there is luxury seafood platters. The menu also has sushi and sashimi. Yup, the menu is a fusion of western and eastern cuisines, therefore, you can expect to c words like "curry" on it =D

Inside of Waterfront:

I really like the interior design of it where they used alot of timber and glasses. It makes me feel very comfortable, plus the just right amount of light in the restaurant just make it really relaxing and romantic =) For the seatings, you can choose to sit inside o outside. We were seated inside and although this resulted us could not enjoy the view of the sea but we were happy as we needed the warmth! If you wanna have a day look of the restaurant and some scenic views, you can click here.

bread and capsicum dipping sauce

The sauce is very nice! Its just make you wanna eat the bread non-stop =D Luckily, I could control myself and stop at 2 slices of breads.

Entree:

Moreton Bay Bugs, $45

MM loves to eat the bay bugs and hence we ordered this to share. There were 3 bay bugs on the bowl and all of them were being cut into half. You have 2 sauces to dip into ~ lemon sauce and homemade mayo. Btw, they didnt season anything on the bay bugs so I feel its nicer to either squeeze some lemon on it or eat with the lemon sauce. The mayo is nice but it come across to me as too strong, hence, covers up the natural delicate flavours of the bay bugs.

Haha.. just for fun =D

Waterfront’s classic seafood chowder, $19.90

Another entree is the chowder. Its quite lovely with a few pipies and bit and pieces of salmon in the soup.

Our mains:

Seared Salmon fillet with fennel and scallop risotto and lemon butter sauce, $32.00

MM's choice for the main. She feels that the salmon is not seasoned properly, and the risotto as well. Thus, it makes u feel as if the dish misses some essential flavours in it. However, as a whole, not too bad and she enjoys the crispy salmon skin.

Lobster Risotto with green pea, chorizo, chilli, finished with mascapone and Thai basil, $39.90

When we were ordering, HW's eyes have been captured by the word "lobster" next to the risotto and hence he ordered this dish. The red thing on the right is the lobster shell, just in case you are wondering. Although he is quite happy eating the lobster, the risotto itself was too mashy =(

Whole salt and pepper Baby Barramundi, green papaya and pomelo salad, $32.00

My main

This dish came with a bowl of rice. The rice was cooked with coconut milk and hence very aromatic. The name of the dish sounds exciting, isn't it. However, I was quite dissapointed with it as first the sauce was way too little. Although the sauce was quite nice and tasted very oriental and also has a sublte hint of spicyness in it, it wasn't even enuff for 1 piece of the fish on my plate (I got a few pieces of barramundi). 2nd, I did not have any pomelo in my salad. The salad, as u can c, are just bean sprouts, cucumbers and 2 small cubes of tasteless green papaya (the green papaya was cooked b4 adding to the salad, either steam or cook in the water). To be honest, I could not really taste any dressings in the salad! =( The fish itself is crunchy, however, without any proper seasonings and sauce, this dish is too plain!! I can just pan fried a whole barramundi at home myself. San is really dissapointed!

Btw, I oso ordered a glass of wine. I forgot the name though... The restaurant only have 2 types of wines by glass, if im not mistaken. One is muscato and another one is white wine ~ the one i orederd. I did enjoy the wine as it was quite fragrant.

Desserts:

Although we were very full after finishing our mains, somehow we still manage to find some space in our stomaches to savour the desserts =D We only ordered one to share:

Dark and white chocolate terrine with Marquise chocolate and mocha, $16.50

OOO... this dessert is delectable! It tasted like frozen mousse and ice cream at the same time. Very yummy indeed.


Overall, the food, esp our mains, was dissapointing as the rissoto was too mashy and Me & MM's dishes weren't properly seasoned and (mine) did not have enuff sauce at all. However, lucky Waterfront got such a beautiful location as the ambience was very appealing that I might go back to try out other dishes there (mayb lunch to enjoy the views) and also thumbs up for the lady that served us. She was very friendly.

Or, I would go back to Port Melbourne and try out other restaurants there because of the nice views...


San


Waterfront
1 Station Pier
Port Melbourne
Victoria, 3207
Phone: (03) 9676 9180
Fax: (03) 9676 9186