Here's my second Mildura post! So, as I mentioned in my post on Stefano's, it was a very short trip - we literally flew up on Saturday afternoon, and flew back on Sunday afternoon - and for today I'd like to share some pictures of Mildura, and talk about the breakfast we had at Stefano's Cafe Bakery!


Stefano's Cafe Bakery
27 Deakin Avenue
Mildura, VIC 3500
Ph: (03) 5021-3627
Website


On the Sunday morning of our trip, we headed to Stefano's Cafe Bakery, which, like the restaurant, is part of Stefano Di Pieri's food empire. The cafe has been run by Stefano's brother-in-law and sister-in-law since 2010. Overall the service was friendly and the food was very good, but I must say that the food was very, very slow coming out. Luckily we weren't in a rush! It was a sunny morning, and it was lovely to sit under the little vine canopy and enjoy breakfast.

Stefano's Bakery Cafe

Latte, Cappuccino

French toast - brioche, cinnamon sugar, Canadian maple syrup, compote of seasonal berries topped with roasted flaked almonds - $17.50

Mushroom & Goat's Cheese - pan fried mushrooms on toasted grain bread with soft goat's curd, parmesan & rocket - $18 Extra smoked salmon - $4

Bacon and egg roll

The bacon and egg roll was a simple item, but the attention to detail was superb. Look how crispy that bacon is!


Ok, here are some snapshots of Mildura!

Fountain

The Murray River

Tower thingo in our hotel's carpark

We stayed at the Mercure hotel - it wasn't super flash or exciting, but it was centrally located, clean, comfortable and convenient.

Civic Building - I love the Art Deco architecture

Random cacti

Cloudporn

Mildura KFC

I must admit, at first I was having a giggle at the idea of buying your mum KFC for Mothers Day (and the Mothers Day special was a national thing, not limited to Mildura). But then I realised that if I were a mum, I would LOVE to get KFC as a special treat - haha!

Chips at Mildura Airport

I know it's strange to show you guys the chips we ate at the airport whilst waiting to board the plane, but they were seriously good. I'm not sure if it was because I was hungry, or because I was still feeling seedy from the previous night's ten matching wines (eep!), but these chips were just amazing. Salty, hot, fresh, yum. Good work, lady who works at the Mildura airport cafe!

And that was our weekend in Mildura! Thanks again to my buddy An for the fab trip! (PS, this was a short trip, but the lovely Daisy from Never Too Sweet For Me happened to visit Mildura recently too - she was there for longer and seemed to visit more places, so make sure to check out her blog if you want some Mildura tips!)

Stefano's is located in the cellars of the Grand Hotel, and you have to walk through another (unrelated) restaurant to get to it.

Stefano's

We were seated in one of the two dining rooms, which had a lovely warm ambience - I loved the art deco mirrors that lined the walls. (I should note that a friend of mine visited the restaurant a few years ago, and was seated in the corridor that connects the two dining rooms and is lined with tables for single or couple diners, and she found the atmosphere quite cold and dark.)

Stefano's

Two butters were provided on the tables, presented in this super cute natural board. In the hole we have whipped truffle buttermilk, whilst the quenelle was house churned butter with saltbush and Murray river salt. Both were excellent, but I preferred the unusual taste of the saltbush.

House churned butter with salt bush and Murray river salt Whipped truffle buttermilk

On offer were three types of really great house baked bread rolls - sourdough, beer and olive.

Moar bread please!

With an eight course meal on the way, I probably shouldn't have indulged in bread, but it was seriously good and throughout the evening I ended up trying them all!

Sourdough, beer bread and olive bread

So, onto the menu. As per usual, Sandra went for the vegetarian degustation, whilst An and I did the standard one. An insisted I get the matching wines, so he "could taste them all". Well, I wouldn't want to be ungracious...! At the end of the evening, we were each given a little menu card with details of all the courses, but in between the dinner and writing this post I seem to have lost the card with the vegetarian degustation on it! D'oh! I did email the restaurant to see if they could provide one, but unfortunately they no longer had a record as "the chef specifically prepared it for one person that night". (Ooh, special!) I'll endeavour to describe the vegetarian meal as best as I can, based on my hastily scribbled notes, photos and memory. Please excuse me if there are some mistakes or omissions! For any vegetarians thinking of visiting Stefano's, Sandra did say that she greatly enjoyed the vegetarian degustation, that it was a well balanced menu, and that she didn't feel like she was missing out or getting a lesser option for choosing it.

Charcuterie

The charcuterie amuse was a really cute way to show off some local produce. Each element had a bit of a salty-sweet mix, which I liked, especially in the caramelised goats terrine.

Beef Jerky

Normally I'm not a fan of jerky (or biltong or anything similar), finding it overly salted and tough, but Stefano's version was pleasantly chewy and the salty taste didn't dominate the beef.

"Tastes of Pumpkin"

Cod Liver

Wild mustard ice-cream

Agnolotti of Smoked Sheep's Cheese

Ikejime Murray Cod

Our fourth course featured more of that Murray Cod, which we were duly informed were delivered live to the restaurant and killed using the Ikejime method. (I had no idea what that meant, but subsequent Google research has taught me that this Japanese method is the fastest and most humane way of killing fish, which also maintains its quality and appearance). The fish in this instance, was cooked to perfection, flaking apart at the press of a fork. Underneath were a mixture of sea plants (including, I think, samphire), quinoa, bone marrow and a savoury jus. For the wine match, we stayed in the Yarra Valley, with a Toolangi Estate Pinot Noir. I wouldn't have thought to match red wine with fish, but the bone marrow and jus were quite rich, and it worked well.

Roasted Duck

Dry Aged Mallee Beef

As you can see, the beef in this dish was cooked to a lovely pink, with the savouriness of the beef lifted by the bright additions of river mint and pine. I had never tried Lagrein, but it is a variety of grape from South Tyrol (aka Alto Adige or Südtirol), which I'm told is a primarily German-speaking region of northern Italy (close to the border with Austria). The wine itself was slightly tannic with quite fruity flavours - as a wine noob/enthusiast, I thought of it like a less in-your-face version of a Barossa shiraz.

The vegetarian option was based on roast cauliflower - pretty and delicious.

Cheese course

Cheese course

Michael Keenan Citrus

Buttermilk Panna Cotta

Roasted Quince

Tea, coffee

So that was the dinner at Stefano's! It was a seriously amazing meal, and we couldn't fault anything. Yes, there were a couple of wines that didn't suit my taste, but that was down to personal preference and not quality. So many of the courses were inventive and delightful, and all were really skilfully executed. Service was switched on and professional, and we were made to feel welcome and at home. You can see above that the bread waiter kindly posed for me when I asked if I could take a photo of the bread, and the wine waiter presented the wine matches with the same level of enthusiasm to every table in the restaurant. (Pretty much every table opted for the wine match).