When visiting Melbourne, MoMo was definitely on my list of places to visit. I love Middle Eastern food, and fine dining, so it was a bit of an easy choice, plus I’d loved chef Greg Malouf’s travelogue/cookbooks written with Lucy Malouf: Arabesque, Saha and Turquoise. I don’t yet have Moorish, but it’s on my list of cookbooks-to-own.
Arriving at the restaurant was all part of the charm. When entering the (normal-looking) lift and pressing the button for the lower floor, suddenly the lights dim, Middle Eastern music plays and a hitherto unseen panel in the wall is lit to show a collection of Turkish objects. Atmosphere plus!
This is a high-end restaurant. Very high end. When we popped down on Thursday night to make a reservation for Friday, my jeans and shopping bags (come on, I was in Melbourne!) were eyed somewhat haughtily by the maitre d’. However, when we returned the next evening dolled up to the nines (velvet and satin, no denim to be seen!) we were welcomed with much more alacrity.
The decor is unmistakably middle eastern, with plush chairs, carved wooden chests and gorgeous little lamps on each table, completely overshadowed by the rivers of sparkling crystals over the lights on the ceiling. Wow.
We had told them in advance that I required gluten-free food, and the waiting staff did their best to accommodate this, unfortunately, mostly by leaving things out rather than substituting something else.
We started with a “traditional” starter, puffy flatbread (not for me), vegetable sticks with an oil and pomegranate molasses dipping sauce. This was a visually appealing and tasty entree, but we were eager to move on to the “real” food. The drinks list has all the usuals, plus some interesting “fusion” drinks to get people into the mood. I tried a Turkish Delight Martini, which was lovely.
The menu at MoMo on weekends are set, but you can choose amongst the entrees and mains to share. The entrees we chose were a mussel and prawn pilaki cooked in parchment, and the special, a half yabbie with spices. These were lovely. The pilaki was a diced vegetable stew strewn with the seafood, and the yabbie was tasty and well-cooked.
Our mains consisted of the marinated roasted lamb with spanikopita and honey-cardamom duck with lentils. My substitute for the spanikopita was cooked spinach, which was well-seasoned. The lamb and duck both tasted amazing, succulent and complex, and neither of us could choose which had been the best meat dish. The sides we chose were a delicious creamed feta spinach (deluxe!) and tomato salad with shankleesh. I don’t know where they bought their tomatoes but they were intensely flavoured.
We hadn’t realised that the dessert tasting plate was included in our “Arabesque” dinner menu, and so we were ecstatic when our plates arrived. We were slightly disappointed that the Fairy Chimney Meringues were off the menu (they’re the ones on the cover of Turquoise) but we were very happy with our platters of sweets. There was a divinely creamy panna cotta, sesame honey ice cream, turkish fairy floss and a fruit salad with mandarin icecream. My dinner companion also had cookies and a chocolate wafer in the shape of a turkish coffee pot in addition to the gorgeous tastes on my plate. Delish!
Since we had booked an early table, the staff were eager to have us leave by the next sitting, but we had finished in perfect time for this.
I would definitely recommend MoMo for a special occasion, as the atmosphere is luxurious and the food an amazing blend of tastes. The service was almost as good as I had predicted, with attentive staff right up to the end, with the only small blemishes their initial reaction to us the night before, and a waitperson who didn’t crack a smile until the final course.
Unfortunately when you step into the lift to leave, the lights come back up and the music ceases a bit too abruptly for those of us who would like to savour the evening!
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