HOT: Alice in Wonderland featuring Little Creatures, Cafe Vue, Little Collins St, Melbourne

As I mentioned before, my birthday treat from my parents was dinner and drinks at Cafe Vue.

It wasn't as busy on Friday night as I was expecting, so we had our pick of the outdoor tables (with overhead heaters). For the next three hours, we tripped through Alice in Wonderland with drinks in hand, alcoholic for RM, non-alcoholic for moi.

First up was triangles of gruyere and mushroom croque monsieur topped with intensely fragrant truffles. A taste sensation of wintery earthiness matched with The Mad-Hatter's Tea (Pipsqueak apple cider with lime) and a blood orange juice and ginger beer concoction.

Then my favourite dish, steamed Angasi oysters with Chinese wine and brown bread. The juicy and creamy oysters apparently came from the best oyster man in Australia and each rested in an edible 'shell' - brown bread baked into the shape of an oyster shell. Served with a pint of White Rabbit ale and pineapple juice, chinotto and honey syrup mix which tasted surprisingly like the ale, without the beery bitterness.

'Cabbages and King...Fish' consisted of a topsy-turvy plate of chips that looked like fish and fish that looked like chips! The dish was served with a pint of Little Creatures Pilsner and a mocktail of mango puree, limonata, orange blossom water and soda water.

A bizarre March Hare's carrot and goat's cheese gnocchi with beetroot dressing. The 'gnocchi' was actually cheese that had undergone some chemical process so they were presented as little tubular marshmallows. The carrot had been cooked over many hours so it had infused the flavours of stock. A bit of magic went into the Pale in Thyme cocktail, which consisted of a pale ale with the initial bitterness removed by the flavours of thyme, leaving only the lemon myrtle flavour at the back of the palate. My drink consisted thyme syrup, passionfruit puree, lemon syrup and sugar syrup.

Finally, breakfast-as-dessert reminiscent of The Fat Duck. We each received an egg carton labelled Pullet Eggs (poulet, haha) where the eggs had been replaced with madeleines filled with lemon curd or topped egg shells filled with a layer of vanilla custard and tea jelly. Hmmmm.....

All in all, a very enjoyable night of creative and delicious food, lots of drinks and the great service typified by all my Vue de Monde experiences. You'll have until the end of July if you want to follow me down the rabbit hole.