I'm in two minds when it comes to Son In Law #Collingwood. I really want to love this place; it exudes a fun vibe and the decor is bright and colourful. I also love the fact that they have an in-house fairy floss maker who has an obvious talent in bringing to life almost any japanese character from the Sanrio stable in sweet form. It is a unique idea and a great marketing strategy, but unfortunately I can't ignore the fact that I found the food here to be hit and miss. Even the signature dessert is not executed that well which is a pity because from a visual point of view it looks terrific however flavourwise not so. But more on that later.
In an effort to be as fair as possible, I returned on three separate occasions and tried new dishes from the menu each time.
There are some dishes that did deliver like their namesake, the son in law eggs were delicious so too were the deep fried crunchy chicken ribs with a citrus chilli marinade and whilst the green curry chicken could have had a better balance of curry paste to coconut milk, it was still enjoyable and the vegetables and protein were cooked tender enough. The thai fried rice however was lacking flavour and on the bland side as was the pad thai which needed more tamarind.
Onto desserts, and the menu reads "house made magic ball with crepe cake" which is essentially a crepe cake of your choice housed inside a chocolate dome head of various cartoon characters and animals including Pikachu, Doraemon, Miffy, pandas and pigs.
Whilst the magic ball looked cute and enticing, the novelty of it wore off the moment I took a bite of the outer shell of chocolate. The chocolate surrounding the cake was not pleasurable to eat, it was definitely not good quality chocolate, it tasted like compound chocolate in fact and the sauce that accompanied it was not pleasant either.
The crepe cake inside however tasted good and for me was the most enjoyable part of the dessert. It is unfortunate that the main attraction, the chocolate dome that looked so visually appealing on the plate, was the thing that actually let the dish down.
If they could nail this element together with the sauce then they would have a winning dessert.
Son In Law #MelbourneRestaurants have definitely cornered a niche market when it comes to their fairy floss drinks and magic ball dessert and I think it's great that they are trying to stand out in this way but unfortunately the food overall did not meet my expectations as much as I was hoping it would.
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