Bluefire

We'd noticed lots of restaurants opening in Melbourne Central and thought we'd go for dinner and a movie. Conveniently located next to the Hoyts cinema was Bluefire (part of the Rivers group that also runs the restaurant cruise on the Yarra amongst many other things it seems) and seeing a good sized crowd, we thought we'd venture in. The restaurant is massive because it is split into 2 sections, the Churrascaria and the more casual pizza and tapas area.

The tapas menu was inviting so we decided to try the casual dining. Unfortunately most of the seafood items (those that did sound delicious) were no longer available but as per the photo, we tried the Moroccan meatballs, the crumb fried haloumi wrapped with prosciutto and the marinated octopus (no longer paired with mussel). The capsicum sauce for the meatballs was definitely required as the meat was a little dry and the haloumi was disappointingly chewy (it squeaked against my molars!) and far too salty to be paired with the prosciutto. But the marinated octopus was tangy and tender and that saved the platter.

Considering one origin of tapas is that a slice of bread would be put on top of drinks (tapa = lid in Spanish) to stop the flies from falling in and a snack later added on top of the bread, we weren't going to fill up on "snacks" and also had some pizza. We picked the Pork & Pancetta which had smoked pork and pancetta, with an onion compote, artichoke hearts, capsicum, parmigiano and mozzarella - all "glazed with BlueFire’s herb oil and a hint of spice". Yum! Not too greasy and they put real meat on the pizza. Other combinations were also enticing, Brazilian Fiesta (chicken and jalapeno salsa), Latino Chorizo... will be back!

But what I was disappointed in not being able to try was the dessert selection - I was too full, dessert stomach must have been used up! Check out this photo... no, behind the cute little cakes... that is flowing hot chocolate!! "Hot chocolate" is the "chocolate and coffee bar" offering cakes and home made ice-cream and liquer, all with a shot of hot chocolate.


What movie did we watch? Superman Returns we really enjoyed it and in fact tried to take some younger relatives (aged seven and eleven) last week. Maybe it's a generation thing, I remember growing up and watching Christopher Reeve's movies so I was looking forward to this version, but the seven year old was like "Superman? Nah, I want Click." Hmm, superman is a classic now? Ladies, Brandan Routh is easy on the eye and men, you have Kate Bosworth... although I really want to take the girl to Bluefire and feed her!!

Bluefire
Level 3, Melbourne Central
La Trobe St side