mumu grill @ alexander st., crows nest

The week had only started at work and I was already thinking about the weekend (Do weekends fly by or what?!) In an email to J on Monday, 'Let's organise dinner at Mumu Grill', J very diligently took care of the rest and organised 9 of us to have dinner at Mumu Grill on Saturday night. It was a long week's wait but Saturday finally arrived and yay, time to sit down to dinner with friends in the company of good food, wine, 'lots of hearts' on the walls (which proved a little too much for my friend C), lots of cows on the walls and the friendly team at Mumu Grill cooking up a feast for our table.

First up was Wood fired bread and dips - olive tapenade and a white bean, parsley, and parmesan tapenade. Makes for a good starter!

The wine came to the table and I forgot about photos of all our entrees! We had an assortment of tapas including the spanish olive selection (first time I've eaten that many olives and I actually quite like them!), mushrooms topped with roasted capsicum, fetta and parmesan (tad expensive but I highly recommend), and the boys went for the cured meat plate that consisted of hot salami, mild salami, bresaola, jamon serano and cornichons (I had been intrigued when I saw it on the menu but a small bite was already quite enough salami for me!)

Mains - My choice: Prime Rib crusted with Szechuan Pepper (with a Red Wine Jus on the side). You get a choie of either chips or potatoes with your meal (everyone down our end of the table opted for the chips which were lovely as they should be :P). In this photo is also the grilled goat cheese salad which we shared down our end of the table - the cheese was absolutely delicious!

J with his Aged Sirloin - Kona crusted with Papua New Guinea Kimel Coffee Bean (definitely one to try as I would've never though coffee bean could go so well with a steak!)

All the cows and Mumu hearts on the wall (there's a lot more hearts on the wall in the ladies bathroom which I thought was rather pretty but C wasn't a fan of - I admit I'm a bit of a kid and the name 'Mumu' is extremely, extremely cute!) Anyway, the table isn't all that big with the 9 of us - it was a tight squeeze with all the food that we ordered (very strangely, the waiters come by your table quite often to check how everything is but even when most of the table had already finished - and had arranged their knives and forks arranged to be collected; they still didn't collect them. C finally had to ask them to grab our plates so we could stretch out a little and have a bit more room.

A handful of coffees were ordered but looks like I was the only one keen on dessert (possibly the first thing I look at when I sit down in a restaurant and open up the menu :P). Hehe, I went for the Dessert Platter which offers a taste of all the desserts on the menu (which turned up surprisingly big). Wasn't a big fan of the sorbet (way too sour and even J, who loves sorbet, scrunched up his face a little with how sour it was). The gingerbread and mascarpone sandwich was definitely an eye opener and different to anything I've ever tried!

Dinner ended up being about $60pp which was certainly worthwhile for the quality of the food - each dish was full of flavour and unique compared your standard steakhouse (for those not keen on steak, there's also organic chicken and duck on the menu which I wouldn't mind trying!) On the whole, service is attentive but clumsy at times (the thought they knew where the plates were going and placed them in front of us but in the end most of our plates had to be swapped around.) It did however come with an apology and throughout the night, our glasses were topped up regularly and the table was wiped down after we finished which I thought was a rather nice gesture. Might I add, it was nice and warm inside compared to the chill of the night when we stepped out after our meal! Shame that only Mumu Pizza is in the Entertainment Book - Mumu Grill is part of the same restaurant!!