Mr Hives Kitchen and Bar

amouse bouche

black and blue tuna

smoked rainbow trout

crispy little pig

asparagus and smoked egg

48 day aged grass fed rib eye

special-beer can chicken

praline souffle

mr hive's chocolate bar

special-eton's mess

I had a wonderful night catching up with some dear friends yesterday. It was a gorgeous day and although I spent the better half of the day at work, I rushed home at 4pm for some express beautifying before heading out for a long overdue catch up with my best friends.

We went to Mr Hives at Crown for this special occasion. It was one of my dear friend's birthday and what better excuse to get dressed up for some fine dining.

BTW, I wonder if there are copy right issues if I use some of my friend's SLR food photos. They are so much better than my ordinary digital camera. I would credit her here except I think she'd like to remain anonymous.

Anyway, to begin-I love the dining area provided by Mr Hives. It was spacious, modern and very welcoming. We were sat next to the window and had the warm glow of the afternoon sun against us which was just glorious.

We basically decided to share the entire meal, opting to choose a few entrees, mains and desserts, all to share. Overall, we loved the entrees, the crispy little pig was something special and incredibly tasty. highly recommended.  The tuna was great and the rainbow trout was solid.

For mains, we had the special-beer can chicken which was served on a very impressive wooden board complete with wedges, chicken thigh pieces, gravy and  beer shots. I thoroughly enjoyed this main. The chicken especially was juicy, succulent and tasty. The beef was a tad disappointing. we paid about 75 dollars for 500g of beef and to be honest, I've cooked a better steak at home with ordinary supermarket cuts of beef. Perhaps we left the beef for too long before eating (we attacked the chicken first). In any case, we found it to be quite pedestrian, and lacking in flavour and finesse.

Dessert was generally a hit. I loved Mr Hive's chocolate bar and for anyone with a sweet tooth, it comes with my highest recommendations. Eton's mess and the souffle was also nice.

Overall, we were happy with the service provided at Mr Hive's. We had a great waiter called Sunny and he was welcoming, funny and helpful. No complaints there! Will I return to Mr Hives? Probably not in the near future. Mr Hives is a good, solid restaurant that I would recommend to anyone but Melbourne's culinary market is so saturated that I have a hard enough time visiting all the other restaurants beckoning for my attention.