Giant steps / Innocent Bystander
336, Maroondah Hwy
Healesville, 3777
(03) 5962 6111
Innocent Bystander.com

It’s been such a long time since I did a blog post! It’s been so busy around here but I think I’ve finally been able to get things sorted out. If you haven’t noticed, you might like to click through to the blog and check out the new layout. I’ve finally moved servers too, and that resulted in broken links coming in from Urbanspoon which will hopefully be resolved soon.

I have lots of posts to write and hopefully will be able to get them all organized soon but let’s start the ball rolling with a review of my visit to Innocent Bystander in Healesville.

Thanks to traffic, we were unfortunately half an hour late for our booking. When we arrived, our table had been given away (the restaurant did try to contact us, but phone was on silent, whoops). They apologized and promised us the next table available which came up in about 3 minutes. Good service, checked!

We were started off with sourdough bread and olives. Absolutely delicious sourdough bread at that. Speaking of bread, Innocent Bystander had the most amazing looking bakery which also smelled amazing. Take a look:

It looks good, hey?

The chips came along and they were sprinkled with truffle salt. And they were the yummiest, yummiest chips on earth. There’s something incredibly addictive about them! I am totally getting truffle salt and going all crazy all over them. Even now, I feel like driving back there just for those chips. Hmmm.

The mains came and we started with Duck and mushroom pie with carrot mash. This was carrot mash at its best, amazing texture and beautifully done. The pastry on the pie was really well done, crumbly and a dream to bite into. Unfortunately the inside of the pie was rather dry and not very memorable.

We also ordered the Coconut braised beef brisket with green papaya salad and & toasted peanuts. And unfortunately the beef brisket was a bit like the pie in that it was dry. But the accompanying green papaya salad was to die for. Amazingly fresh, the clean and refreshing taste that cuts right through… I was in love!

Innocent Bystander is also really famous for their pizzas. So we couldn’t let this visit go by without a Pizza on the table. We ordered Roast mushroom, ricotta salata, white truffle oil, garlic & Parsley. And I guess you can’t always order winners. K had tried their pizzas before and had been suitably impressed. But unfortunately while I normally adore mushrooms, there was just something not quite right with this pizza. The mushroom flavours overpowered anything else on the pizza and I’m not sure what mushrooms they were, but they weren’t the normal mushroomy flavour that I adore. Alright, that’s pretty vague, but all I can say for sure is that it wasn’t as great as I’d hope it’d be.

When the mains were done, it was time to pull out the desserts.

Flourless Chocolate cake with Vanilla Ice Cream – so so rich and so chocolatey! Wasn’t my dessert to gobble down so I can’t tell you too much about it, but I do know that the Vanilla Ice cream was fresh and extremely delicious.

The lemon tart was sweet and sour in just the right amount. Enough to make me gasp and pucker up but not too much that I didn’t want to eat it anymore. I don’t quite like sour things, you see. But Lemon tart is often the few exceptions I have. The pastry was so crumbly and just heavenly. A dessert that is A+++, that’s for certain!

If you are in the area, do check it out. White Rabbit Brewery is just next door together with the Beechworth Bakery. Both absolute delightful places to visit and eat and drink! (Especially the pale ale from White Rabbit – to die for).