Restaurant review: Taxi Dining Room

Alyssa: I know a lot of you come down to Melbourne for the occasional business trip, and if you're looking for a nice restaurant to swipe that corporate Amex, then the locals would recommend you try Taxi Dining Room restaurant located in Federation Square. The restaurant is architecturally designed with huge glass and steel structure looking out to the Yarra River and across to Southbank. Interestingly, dining during summer requires patrons to don sunglasses due to the glaring afternoon sun. And if you're caught short of a pair of sunnies, the place has an array of supply served on a platter!

"dining with borrowed sunnies!"

There are two main chefs on the scene: an Australian chef and a Japanese chef both working in unison to create an innovative fusion menu. A bit like Kobe Jones on King Street Warf, except this place is somewhat less Asian. Yung & I contemplated on their 9 course degustation menu, but found it a bit limited so we chose our own from the a la carte menu.



My usual entree favourite of pork belly was nicely presented and nicely done - very succulent. The other 4 entrees we had between us were also very nice including quail wrapped in filo paste (Yung's favourite), crayfish gyoza, kingfisher broth and the usual sashimi and sushi selection.



For mains, we sampled their trout dish and wagyu porthouse beef which were also nicely done although Yung complained that his beef had too much fat in it. My favourite part of the whole dining experience was desserts of course, and we shared a chocolate selection and a mille-feuille of fresh strawberries, pistachio cream and raspberry jelly. It was deliciously naughty. Overall, we would definitely recommend the place for a fine dining experience. It's not in the same league as Tetsuya's, but probably the best Japanese fusion menu that Melbourne has to offer.