Monday 11 June 2012

Taste of the ocean

If you weren't already aware of the Melbourne Seafood festival and you are a seafood lover, well your missing out. Melbourne is showcasing the tastes of the ocean for us and you are missing out!
It happens every year and this time I finally got to enjoy it and must admit that it's a pretty good advantage to take part in and theres only a few more days left (ends June 30th).

Based at Crown Casino there are several participants in the festival. Restaurants such as Margo's, Riverside Restaurant, The Pub at Crown, East2West and a few more you can select what you want to spoil yourself with.

We head to Margo's to take on the Festival, located inside the Casino itself on a Friday lunch of which were not taking reservations whilst the festival was on, so it was pot luck to get in. A small wait was required but nothing to get uptight about. This busy restaurant was filled with seafood lovers like ourselves taking the opportunity to gorge themselves in the festival.

Who could complain really? Why wouldn't you go for a 1/2 kilo of prawns for $14.90, or a 1/2 cray for $24.90, oh and I shouldn't forget to mention the Seafood platter for 2 people for $49.90. These are the Western styles you can choose from and there is also a choice of Asian styles too which are priced at the same but influenced by Asian flavours. Bargains within themselves and it's prime time to take part.

As we were going to be eating like the riches we decided to make it even more worth while with champagne and oysters to start (oysters not apart of the festival). It's Friday and we may as well celebrate the end of the week shouldn't we?

We don't get to enjoy Cray very much so we decided to go with the 1/2 Cray and remind ourselves how sweet and succulent this crustacean is. Choosing from either Mornay or Garlic Butter at Margo's we choose the Garlic butter.

Although the flavour of our cray was sweet, I do have to make mention that I possibly would not have baked my cray then put the garlic butter on top. I would have cooked the cray with the garlic butter to enrich it even more. But never the less it was still pretty awesome to be enjoying Cray, oysters and Champagne.

If this wasn't going to be enough for you and wanted more of a seafood feast then go for the Seafood plate with a 2 tired hot and cold platter. Filled with mussels, prawns, fish, salmon, bugs and more it looked mighty tasty and enticing, but prepare to get your hands dirty with this platter too.

If you were looking for a quiet place to dine and indulge in, I would have to say side step Margo's. With the poker machines behind you, and the chaos of the amount of people in the restaurant it can become very noisy. Unfortunately waiters couldn't keep up although the meals were coming out fast, the tables weren't clearing fast enough. This unfortunately was the let down as we were surrounded by dirty tables the entire time, I felt like I was in a seafood mess hall. But this would be my only complaint I would have really. You have to remember also that you are in the the centre of the casino too, so there is no day light so track of time could slip away, and it may also make you a little drowsy with out any sun light coming through windows like restaurants usually provide.


I must say though Margo's do have a very appetising standard menu too and have a great showcase of fresh fish, meats and coruscation's for you to admire when you walk through to your table. Reasonably priced and good servings were seen coming from the kitchen, so it could be worth a shot for me to go back and see what they really have to offer from there menu.

If I've enticed you to check out the remainder duration of the festival I've added the link for you to give you details and venues. Remember though they may not take bookings too, so make sure you get in early so your not going in at peak times of service like 1:00pm or 7:00pm. It's a great thing to check out and enjoy fresh seafood and I'll do it all over again too. Take this as an opportunity to check out some of the venue's you'd never see yourself going to at Crown or have been on the 'one day' list that you may have. It's good to adventure into the unknown sometimes, and you never know..... you  may find your new favourite place at the same time.


For more details on the Seafood Festival venture too:
http://www.crownmelbourne.com.au/special-offers/2259/special-offers

Margo's
Crown Entertainment Complex
9292-7046
Margo's on Urbanspoon

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