Romance or fun? Chardanae goes Cantonese at Seamstress, Lonsdale Street, Melbourne

Seamstress Bar and Restaurant

113 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne

Yes, it was a very special occasion, and Chardanae thought she would be clever by booking a surprise Monday night dinner for her birthday-boy husband.

With Sash believing I had booked this weeks ago for a 7 o’clock dinner, as 6 pm approached on the day, I was frantically searching Google for Melbourne restaurants open on Monday night that offered a little more than stir-fry on ‘special’ fried rice. I started to break a sweat because my fine hubbie would be walking through the door any second. What about Cantonese? Tap, tap, tap…

“Yes, of course madam we are open 7 days a week”, said the lovely voice over the phone, “Great, see you at seven!” I quickly retorted and slammed down the phone as Sash opened the door.

Down a cold, gusty Lonsdale Street we walked until we approached Seamstress in all of it’s Asian, kookie, silken, pyjamas-hanging-off-the-ceiling type glory.

Seamstress is over four precarious levels, with the cocktail bar on the top, so take note, a mid-heel is a more sensible option if you plan on indulging in a few. Otherwise opt to stay in the underground Sweat-Shop Bar where the staff are so ridiculously good-looking that it really doesn’t matter what you drink, you won’t remember the taste anyway.

The Restaurant is on the middle level and curiously the kitchen is on the ground level. A bit of a night-mare for the staff I suspect, maybe that’s how the bosses ensure their staff remain so healthy and gorgeous-looking.

What we drank - a tangy mocktail that was everything I asked for…”you know something refreshing, with no orange, and a little bit of spritz!” From what my taste-buds could decifer, I was given a limey, coconutty, glass of spritzy fun. Sash decided on the Pimms, and then for our meal went onto enjoy the floral elegance of the CAVE DE TURCKHEIM Tradition Gewurztraminer from Alsace, get it at your Cellardor of course for only $28.22 a bottle .

What we ate – We started with the Tailor’s Dumplings Special which was 5 delicate serves of pork and Tatsoi balls of happiness. We also tried the Scallops with crumbled Pork Belly which were cooked to perfection. Entrée’s were a great size and ranged from $10 to $18

For mains Sash chose the Red Duck Curry, because we can’t resist a good duck curry. Seamstress’ is a little more rustic than others we have tried, rustic in the form of unpulverised bits of exotics floating around in the thick sauce. The flavour was full and vibrant with LOTS of chilli. Now I didn’t really want to mention the other main…however…if I whisper don’t “order the Spatchcock”, please heed the warning. In all fairness, I need to go back and give this another go as it sounded so good on the menu, Spatchcock stuffed with Sticky Rice in a ginger and prune broth, but I think the apprentice chef at the Spatchcock Station must have had a retardardation of his taste-buds, because what I received was nothing short of boiled baby chick in dish-water! Now in this predicament not knowing if the dish was supposed to taste this way, I perservered in eating half of the dish until Sash noticed that my face was drooping further and further down with every dribble of the broth dripping off my fork. Not one to EVER complain about a meal I quietly mentioned to our snappy waiter that I think something could be wrong with my dish. He was happy to remove the dish from our bill, no questions asked, which was a thankful response.

Oooo, after that upsetting halt to our experience we decided that the meal needed redeeming with a fine dessert. We crossed our fingers and chose the Banana Springrolls, with Goats Cheese Sorbet, Yum, Yum, in my Tum!! No problems in the dessert department at all.

The little hiccup with the Spatchcock did not turn me off Seamstress though, and Sash had a lovely birthday-boy treat.

Seamstress is romantic and fun, and you can have a very different experience on each of the cosy levels, making this a must-try destination for a date, or don’t be shy to get a small group of your favourite friends together to enjoy the wares.

Give it a go and tell me what you think,

Til next time, Chardanae on location 

Back to Cellardor.com.au