CAFE VUE - COCKTAIL NIGHT

430 Little Collins St, Melbourne - ph: (o3) 9691 3888

Come here for: a great night out with friends; a first date; an interesting food and drinks matching
Don't come here if: you need to drive home - not a good idea after so many cocktails

Got together with a few friends for a girls night out at Cafe Vue's Friday night cocktail degustation.

Basically, for a fixed price of $75 you get 5 cocktails matched with food. Cocktails and food are designed by the staff around a theme that changes every month.

This month's theme is 'Friday night fever'. Inspired by the movie Saturday night fever, each course was based on a different music genre. The background music actually change with each new cocktail, to match the theme being served.

#1
Motown - rye whisky, cognac, vermouth and Dom Benedictine
Crab & oat mille feuille with seaweed gel


I think I was the only one who liked this drink at our table. The other girls found it a bit too strong. Albeit normally disliking whisky, I thought the cocktail's sharp, smoky flavour was great way to arouse the senses and open my appetite.


The entree was delicious - specially the citric seaweed gel. Mille feuille was light and beautifully buttery. Great dish.

#2
Bossa Nova - cachaca, lime, sugarcane juice and sparkling coconut water
Coconut & chicken blanquette with corn cake


Everyone liked this drink. It was similar to a caipirinha with the addition of coconut water, which it made it even more refreshing. Also, using sugarcane juice instead of processed sugar made it lighter and added some extra flavour.


This dish was interesting. The white slice looking like cheese is actually the poached chicken. Both chicken and coulis were really nice, but the corn fritter was bit too greasy.

#3
Hard Rock - bourbon, blood orange juice, vermouth & cherry brandy
BBQ waygu ribs with potato salad and coleslaw

This cocktail was fantastic. Combination of sweet and sour worked perfectly here.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to take pictures of the ribs, but they were also very good.

#4
Hip Hop - gin, rosemary, honey, lemon and apple juice
Goat cheesecake with walnut and endive


This drink was a bit too sweet for me. It was tasty, but more like a lolly / soft drink than a cocktail.


The dish, on the other hand, was my favourite for the night. The cheese was creamy and quite strong and went perfectly well with the bitter endive leaves and nutty walnut base.

#5
Electro - vodka and passionfruit
Milk chocolate and passionfruit cake

We all finished our bubbly vodka drinks in a second - tasty and light.

I loved this dessert. The little plastic dispenser shown in the picture contained a really sour passion fruit syrup that we squeezed inside the sweet chocolate cake, making a perfect combination of flavours. I also really liked the crunchy cake top and soft filling; good combination of textures.

We spent near 3hs going through our food and drinks - and a lot of gossip. It was a really fun girls night out that I'd recommend. Will definitely be coming back when the menu changes.