Riverland
Remember when I used to write enthusiastic posts like this about my running training? Remember how I was going to complete the 10km Run Melbourne course this year? Well, that didn’t happen. Which is a story for another day. Instead, I had breakfast at Riverland with my lovely friend T, while my Mr and her Mr completed Run Melbourne. Yes, I gave my Run Melbourne entry to someone else and sat on my ass and ate like a little piggy during the race. Yeah…..I know.
ANYWAY, the last time I visited Riverland, Mr and I had ridden our bikes into the CBD and had a delightful early morning breakfast after our ride. On that occasion I had ordered the ‘Riverland’ baked beans, and they were absolutely fantastic. On the day of Run Melbourne I couldn’t wait to order them again, this time armed with my camera:
Hmmmm. This was not the hearty dish that I remembered from my previous visit. Firstly, this dish seemed more like a tomato casserole than baked beans. The eggplant and capsicum were roughly cut into huge chunks and completely overpowered the dish. The texture of the beans weren’t quite right, and many of them were crushed beyond recognition.
I started to wonder if I had romanticised the dish in my mind? Perhaps last time I had been absolutely ravenous after our bike ride and anything would have tasted great?
I was pretty sure that I had taken a picture with my iPhone last visit, so I went through my phone and found it. This is the dish I ate last time:
Wow. How can a dish change so much in a matter of months? I wonder, is there this much variance in this dish on a day to day basis, or has there been a change to the menu? Or kitchen staff?
T’s breakfast looked considerably better than mine. She ordered the avocado spiced toast with poached egg, honey bacon and mapuche spice:
Look at all that sugary glistening bacon. According to T the bacon was delicious and the avocado to die for.
Our coffees were excellent. And we consumed many. We WERE waiting for people to finish a 10km run after all!
Riverland has so much going for it. You can’t beat sitting outside on their heated patio in the middle of winter, sipping coffee and watching the world go by. But unfortunately I do have to say that I left feeling quite disappointed. The baked beans had just been so GOOD last time. This time however, the plating had been sloppy and the balance of flavours was wrong.
I’m tempted to return, simply to suss out those baked beans one more time. I really hope that it was just a bad day in the kitchen. Because I do love Riverland.
Fingers crossed.
Federation Wharf
Under Princes Bridge
Melbourne 3000 (03) 9662 1771
Food gobbler. Wine lover. Kitteh keeper. Gen-Y. Fiancée. Twitter addict.
Fighting the war against Leggings As Pants one fashion victim at a time... 
Oh my.. I walk pass this all the time during my lunch power walks.. and I never dine here! But to be honest, I stink quite a bit by the time I get there.. ahahahah
It’s ok. You could sit outside. :D