Battle of the Chocolate Truffle

Cin posted about the Chocolate Fire Cafe and one must always try new chocolate places! :) I was in a rush so couldn't sit down to test the claim of "best hot chocolate" but I decided to put Chocolate Fire up against Koko Black as they were so close to each other! (Although I did buy other varieties, I settled for the truffles in my taste test.)

First impressions
As Cin noted, the service isn't great and when I was there, there were only two of us. Nevemind, it gave me more time to feast my eyes on the huge array of chocolate dipped fruit, the New York style choc dipped Pringles... pretty much whatever you can dip? It's certainly not as glamorous as Koko Black but it's fun and bright!

Packaging (Just because...)
Chocolate can come in a plain bag as far as I'm concerned but if you're going to surprise someone with a treat the Koko bag does look good.

Truffle Time
This is the Koko Black one rolled in cocoa. If you like more bitter chocolate, this is it. A lovely texture that melts away, finished too quickly!

Chocolate Fire Cafe has more variety, there are truffles rolled in Dutch cocoa, dark chocolate, white chocolate but I went for the milk chocolate. (Well, I wasn't being strict in direct comparison so thought a little variety would be OK.) T's vote is for this one because it's sweeter and oh boy, it is so much sweeter.
As you can see from this photo, this truffle is much gooier and probably not what I would normally associate with truffle texture. But it was good and if you want something to sink your teeth into, this is it.
Value
The truffles were about the same in price ($1.40 each I think) but you can see which one is value for money!
I don't think I'll choose one over the other simply because I think it's great that so many people are making a deal of chocolate. I would guess that both shops are marketing towards different groups, Koko is upmarket and decadent (they are a "salon") whilst Chocolate Fire is fun (a "cafe") and moves away from traditional treats. (No, I can't see Koko dipping pringles quite yet!)

So if you're in Melbourne go enjoy some chocolate!

Both shops are in Royal Arcade, the Koko Black is more towards Bourke St Mall and if you keeping walking into the arcade, Chocolate Fire is down some stairs to the right.
Royal Arcade
335 Bourke St
Melbourne

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