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Sarah Cooks: Match Bar & Grill, revisited
Bars

Match Bar & Grill, revisited

6/27/2009 05:22:00 PM

The Nicola Six - A girl's best friend - Stolichnaya raspberry vodka shaken with lemon juice, summer berry cordial, strawberries and cucumber topped with local fizz

Match Bar and Grill
247 Lt Lonsdale St
Melbourne 3000
(03) 9654 6522
Website

You may remember that I had my birthday drinks at Match Bar and Grill earlier this year. And what a lovely evening that was. Shortly after, I received an email from the owner, Chris, who wrote:

As you mentioned you haven’t tried the bar and wine side of our business, I would like to invite you back so you can try some of our famous cocktails...

It took a while for me to organise a suitable time to visit - work commitments and a nasty bout of (non-swine) flu stood in the way - so it was only about a month after that email that we got to go. We (that is, myself, Su and Sandra) arrived on a Friday evening, after a hellish week of work, and bought ourselves a round of drinks as we waited to meet Chris.

I had a Silver Angel (left), Su had the Grapefruit Julep (right), and Sandra asked the bartender to make "something non-alcoholic", which turned out to be a refreshing mix of different fresh juices.

Silver Angel - Zubrowka vodka shaken with passion fruit, peach and fresh apple juice, topped with Champagne
Grapefruit Julep - Finlandia grapefruit vodka shaken with fresh pink grapefruit, lime and pomegranate juices and a drizzle of honey syrup

A short while later, we did indeed meet the lovely Chris, and had a short chat with him as he ordered us even more cocktails (eep!).

That massive glass you see at the top of this post was definitely my favourite of the evening, the Nicola Six. Champagne and strawberries, how could you go wrong? You can also get it in a regular single-serve size, if the big one is just too much for you.

Fa'afafene - 42 Below vodka shaken with lime and apple juices, honey and passion fruit syrups and a dash of grenadine
Match Spring Punch - The infamous Champagne punch - Wyborowa vodka, shaken with lemon juice, raspberries, cassis and framboise, topped with Champagne
Sosho Cooler - Finladia mango vodka and sauvignon blanc shaken with muddled red grapes, lemon and apple juices
Big Appleberry - Cognac shaken with muddled red berries and pressed apple juice

My favourite cocktails were definitely the champagne-based ones, followed by the Sosho Cooler, as I love anything refreshing and clean-tasting. I wasn't a fan of the Big Appleberry, but only because I'm not keen on Cognac. What we tried was only a small selection of their extensive cocktail and drinks list - click here for the drinks menu.

We also had dinner there - the pork chop for Su, beef burger for Sandra, and Leon's Original Superfood Salad for myself. That's right - I hear you gasp in disbelief - Sarah ordered a salad. It was delicious and, surprisingly, filing. And all the antioxidants must cancel out all the cocktails, right? Right...? Guys?

.... tumbleweed rolls past...

Well, maybe not, but it's a great salad regardless. I have since googled the salad recipe and have been making it endlessly, but that is a story for a future post!

The "chocolate something" on the menu turned out to be, again, a chocolate fondant with coffee ice-cream, and I was super-excited that I got to have my own one this time!
Deliciousness.

Match Bar is getting really popular - at least 3 people I know have had their birthday drinks there in the last couple of months - and it always gets packed on the weekends. It's easy to see why.

Sarah Cooks dined & drank courtesy of Match Bar & Grill, with thanks to Chris.

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4 comments

  1. It does look like a cool place - a nice combo of good food and awesome drinks. Looks like a place to visit for sure :-D

    all those cocktails too! I bet you were stumbling a bit after those hehe :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. well I've heard mix reviews about the food but your review I think just may have swayed me. even if its just for the cocktails...and after a few of them lets be honest any food tastes good.
    great review thanks

    ReplyDelete
  3. i still have trouble going past the zombie - they serve it in a big ceramic tiki "bucket" (it's the best word i can think of to describe it).

    it's one of those tiki cocktails where basically they put all the different rums they have into it, and a bit of fruit juice to make it drinkable.

    yum!

    the cocktails at 1806 are pretty good too...

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous3:51 PM

    Hey Sarah,
    seeing that you're a Match fan, thought I'd let you know that they have their own bloggers pages - one for restaurant and one for bars. All the lastest Match news will be on there ... if you loved the food before, you'll love it even more now that Paul Wilson has come on board: http://matchbargrill.blogspot.com/
    http://matchbarmelb.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete

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My email address is sarahcooks [at] hotmail [dot] com.