Lucy likes food.

Money Order Office (M.O.O)
3 Driver Lane
Melbourne, 3000

Website: http://www.moneyorderoffice.com.au/index.html

In celebration of me finally getting my P’s, me and Mummy were going to eat at Seamstress which I had been dying to go to for awhile. However, being a Saturday night the place was fully booked out for the whole night so bad luck with that. After scrambling around for awhile, we called up MOO to ask if they had any tables free (just to be safe) and luckily though we had to share, we got the seats.

I’d passed by MOO a few times, meaning to go quite a few times but it never happened. It’s actually just right opposite the back-door exit of Myer, just off Little Bourke St in an alleyway. I always thought it was on ground level, but you have to walk down a set of stairs underground where the door creepily opens as you approach.

The interior is fashioned to be similar to something like a upper-class lounge in the 1960s or so (my history is absolutely shit, but something like that). There are several small booths along the side for 2/3 people that were unfortunately taken up already; whilst there are two massive couches in the middle for just casual drinks.

Food-wise, we opted to get a mix of everything on the menu which is split into Tapas, Salads, Mains and Desserts, the latter of we ended up not getting.

Tapas:

• Chorizo Rolls (2 mini chorizo sandwich with piquillo pepper, de cabra
  cheese, pickled chilli & port glaze) - Surprised both of us at how much flavours they packed into it, and for a reasonable price! The pepper especially added an amazing chargrilled flavour; and wouldn’t have minded having another one of these.
• Special - Zucchini Flowers (stuffed with house-cured salmon, brie(?) and something else..) - Honestly, this was probably the dish we liked least - though the zuchinni flowers were nice, we weren’t too keen on the filling. Can’t remember what cheese it was but it just didnt suit the more gentle flavours of the salmon.

Salad

• Roast Pumpkin & Pomegranate Salad (Roast pumpkin with pomegranate, toasted almonds, goat’s cheese & pumpkin puree) - For the price ($14.00), it seemed like quite a hefty price for the very small portion. Flavours, you can’t really go wrong with this combination so that was fine; just couldn’t get past the price for it.

Main

• Chicken & Pistachio Terrine (Homemade terrine with pistachios, tarragon & apricot gel. Served with bread & relish) - We absolutely loved this dish! Though it looks rather small, the terrine is packed full with chicken, with flavours happening throughout the whole thing. The gel on top made it stand out even more; and the side of chilli/tomato relish really enhanced it. Not sure about the bread, which were like extra-toasted crisps, but they still tasted fine.

We were crazy full by the end of the meal as we didn’t realise how filling it would all be (especially the chicken terrine!) that we opted not to go for dessert; also considering their dessert menu was very limited with nothing that stood out. However, we did get some drinks to have during the night:

Drinks

• Sangria (Our own secret recipe using Tempranillo, fresh strawberries, spiced orange segments & apple slices & a hint of orange & cinnamon) - It comes in a 1litre jug, which we underestimated. It’s actually quite a lot to get through between two people, which I wasn’t complaining about because I love a good sangria - and this was good! We polished off the whole thing, and the fruit inside which had soaked up all the flavours and had that as our dessert.

Not sure I’ll be back for awhile as there isn’t much else that I really want to try; not liking seafood or mushrooms. However, I would recommend everyone else try it as the prices, other than the salad are very reasonable.