The Hungry (Greedy) Hippo: Cumulus

Cumulus turned out to be one of our favorite restaurants in Melbourne, with beautifully and tastefully executed dishes. It was pretty easy to plan a long evening out starting with drinks at the bar upstairs - Cumulus Up - followed by a late dinner downstairs.

I have to qualify that our visits to Cumulus took place a few months ago and as a result of not blogging about the visits immediately, I've forgotten quite a bit about the details of the experience. However, Cumulus is one of those places which I would highly recommend to any visitor to Melbourne - it's been talked about so much, but I think the hype is entirely justified and the quality has been so consistent on every visit.

Our dinners usually start with waiting at Cumulus Up for a table to open up downstairs

Starting off with mussels baked with a tomato-ish sauce. These weren't too memorable, sadly.

These pigs head croquettes were amazing - without knowing or thinking too much about what was inside. Kind of like a terrine with breadcrumbs.

Pigs head on the inside, gelatinous and creamy. Absolutely delicious.

Black pudding, which I didn't taste.

This was an amazing Pinot Noir - which also cost an arm and a leg, if I don't recall wrongly

There was a grilled John Dory (I think) with lentils - this was surprisingly tasty given the rather drab appearance of the dish.

We also ordered a couple of sides; this was a roast pumpkin which was beautifully soft and sweet.

The steak had to be the standout dish of the evening. I recall that it had such a plain description on the menu, but it was so nicely grilled and tasty and tender that we regretted only ordering one serve.

Their salads were so good too. For someone who is hopeless at assembling salads, I'm always impressed as to how people figure out what to put in, how much, and what dressing to add.

Dessert was an assortment of no less than 3 desserts - a chocolate mousse, a strawberry dessert and a rum baba

The chocolate mousse was nice but sadly arrived looking like a very healthy grain and seed loaf

My favourite dessert was the one with strawberries (trying hard to recall if they were soaked in alcohol)

The rum baba was pretty amazing too, and they left the bottle on the table so we could add as much as we wanted.

On another visit, we started with a bottle of wine at Cumulus Up which we carried down with us. One of my favourite Italian wines which in recent years has become easier to find, although most restaurants still carry more Chiantis and other Tuscan wines.

The menu at the bar

We tried the duck waffle with foie gras - this was pretty mind blowing. I'd go back just for this as a pre dinner snack.

A mussel and clam escabache (whatever that is!), which we enjoyed less than the duck waffle. Perhaps it was because we couldn't quite understand the dish.

It felt too much like a chutney.

Loved the design of the bar

We finally made it downstairs at around 10pm, I recall

Starting off with some breads

We started the dinner off with the sweetest smokiest shrimp - this just blew us away. The flavours were incredibly complex, and the shrimps were so juicy.