SFO777

Thanks so much BBB. Your cutlery comment so spot on. I was wondering where I had seen them before.
Agree on the flatter dish as well... makes taking photos a lot easier as well.

BingBongBoy

Exactly! They don't think about things like that when they go down the bowl route...

Looking forward to the rest... ^

SFO777

Yarra Valley Wine Country
near Melbourne, Victoria

Since our rooms weren't ready, we had breakfast in the small Lyall restaurant. Our rooms were ready at around 11AM and after a short nap and a shower, we were ready for our 2PM tour of Melbourne with our great driver Barry. The tour included different areas of MEL including the Docklands and the CBD and then over to the beach, where we stopped for drinks and pupus. I'd post pics but quite frankly, we didn't find Melbourne itself all that interesting.

But just outside of Melbourne is the wonderful Yarra Valley wine country. Just as Napa is to San Francisco, the Yarra Valley wine country is less than an hour from Melbourne. Our first stop was the beautiful Domaine Chandon, the 4th of the worldwide Domaines that includes Napa, Argentina and, of course, France.

















On our way to lunch, we stopped at a small winery...



Before arriving for more tasting and lunch at Yering Station.



Spectacular scenery and one of the most sensational menus and meals of the past year. Kudos to Chef Laura Webb-James.







The 2010 Yering Station Reserve Pinot was outstanding.



Each and every dish was both a visual and taste delight.

Our starters were Scallops, smoked jalapeno and corn salsa, avocado, creme fraiche, corn wafer...



... and Cauliflower, pannacotta, tempura florets, chanterelle mushrooms, shallot souhise.



Mains were Panko and olive crumbed veal rib with summer vegetables, marsala jus...



... and Baby snapper, prawn cocktail, creme de cuvet fumet.



And we cheated on the Atkins today with wonderful salt and vinegar thick cut chips.



For dessert, the hazelnut, caramel marshmellow and salted popcorn candy bar with popcorn ice cream was simply out of this word.


What an absolute delight. For anyone visiting Melbourne, a trip to the Yarra Valley and lunch at Yering Station is an absolute must.

`X'

Thanks for the Pics of the Lyall been wondering if was as good as its meant to be. Sometimes its hard to tell (specially when I am meant to be selling it).

That Dessert at Yering Station looks amazing!

ROCruiser

Wow! Really enjoy reading this TR, and those great pictures, goodness! thank you so much!

SFO777

MEL Qantas Club and
MEL Qantas Business Class Lounge

One of the largest airport lounges I have ever seen, anywhere. Does anyone departing MEL not have lounge access? This is a combo lounge, Qantas Club up front, and the Business Class Lounge way in the back. Separate lounges but, with a common kitchen, no discernible difference in food and beverage between the two.







Qantas Club lounge, up front.









So big it has its own shop.





Business Class Lounge, at the back of the Qantas Club. Since the FCL is in a separate International Terminal, OW Emeralds on domestic flights only have access to the BCL, which has numerous seating areas and free food, drink and wi-fi.













Dining area...



With a nice selection of light snack items, soups, stews, cheese, antipasto.





OK, I realize that we're excited about inflight entertainment but considering that it has only been installed on a single aircraft, this really is one of dumbest ad banners I've seen in a while.

deconz

Awesome trip report!!!

The ad banner refers to streaming of entertainment to iPads owned by Qantas in a trial before being rolled out on just the 763 fleet. They reckon this is a cheaper option than fitting in seat PTV's in aircraft they expect to soon retire. Unfortunately it does not include access to the net!!!

SFO777

QF 434
MEL-SYD
767-300 with semi-sleeper seats (went mechanical at T-30)
737-800
February 24, 2012
1:00P-2:25P (sked)
1:50P-3:30P (actual)
Seats 2A, 2C, 3A

What is it with me and MX'd 767s? First my YYZ-YUL AC 767 was swapped with a 320 and now my QF 767 is swapped for a 738.



Seat and cabin are similar to AC's domestic J class 319/320 seats.





Outstanding service today from our friendly FA. PDB with real glass, not the plastic glass most NA airlines use for PDBs.



Curtain drawn immediately after take-off although there is no cabin dividing wall but rather a dopey curtain like AC and DL MDs.



Beverage and lunch service from the cart.



Choice of three light mains today... cod, barramundi or duck salad.



I went with tasty duck salad and couscous.





The lemon merengue tart was excellent.



Not sure if Virgin's new J class domestic service was the catalyst but this was very nice J class domestic service for a little more than an hour flight. Much better than anything that any NA carrier provides on a similar route.

SFO777

Thanks X! I would definitely recommend The Lyall. Staff is great, especially Mon and Shawn, who helped arrange all of our excursions. That Yering Station dessert was every bit as great as it looks!

Thanks ROCruiser, glad you enjoyed.

Thank you deconz and thanks for the clarification. Understand now. So not even wi-fi.

matthandy

Ahh, the MEL Qantas Club (aka, the Qantas Pub)! Many a time I have retreated there after a long week working in Melbourne. It's like a second home.

Depending on the time of day, they usually provide some hot food such as pasta and pizza. Also, there are little extra treats near the coffee areas.

In Sydney at least, the drinks are different. The J Domestic lounge has the same drink selection as the International J lounge, at least it did in September.

Looking forward to the rest!

amaroo

MEL QP is large! Makes sense.....MEL-SYD is one of the busiest & more importantly one of more profitable routes in the world.

IIRC, SYD QP is larger.

LHR/MEL/Europe FF

and I actually thought the photos made the lounge look quite nice!!

in reality the furniture in the main club has seen better days, the floors often have crumbs and other stuff, and there is a snake type queueing system just to get to the bar (very cheap). the food in the main lounge can be pretty average.

the state of the lounges in Sydney and Melbourne are the reasons I have will forego club membership in future.

matthandy

If only they would refurb them in the style of the Perth lounge, much nicer.

BA5E

Your hotel in Melbourne looked really sweet, very homely, makes i imagine a change to go to a small hotel and not a huge chain. Loved the pictures of the yarra winery, have not visited a winery in oz, have done a nappa valley one, next time we are in oz, next year, will have to make a point of going to a winery. The food looked amazing i could almost taste, it made my mouth drool, those chips also looked amazing.^

BA5E

Loved the next installment with all the pics of the MEL lounge, it certainly does look good, but as other people say a bit drab regarding the furniture, still suppose that is not the seat for the next hour or 8 hours, just a place to plop ones self for a short time. The food though did look good. Now i look forward to your visit to syd and meeting up with Matt, enjoy the rest of the trip^