TOTE Bar & Dining — Restaurant in Melbourne

Located at the entrance to Moonee Valley, racecourse is the @totebar_dining

Starting with signature cocktails, I shared a Race Day Spritz, which was Aperol, Gin, Vermouth, passionfruit, and grapefruit soda. Yum!

Then I shared a Bloody Sangria, as this is a Spanish influenced menu.

The bloody sangria had grenache red wine, orange liqueur, bourbon, sweet vermouth, gin & lemonade. This was so refreshing & perfect for a summer's day.

Onto the food, we started with epanadas. They were light, with delicious soft buttery pastry and a tasty filling. This was a fantastic entree.

My scotch fillet steak was perfect. It just melted in my mouth. It was cooked to perfection, medium, and served with the most delicious sauce L'Entrecote.

This was the best steak that I've had in Melbourne. Yep, that's a big call, I know.

The 3 cheese tortellini w aged balsamic, golden raisin, and reggiano was a big vegetarian main. The pasta was al dente, and the sauce was full of seasonal greens and walnuts. Delicious

For dessert, I shared a warm sticky date pudding w vanilla ice cream. As if things couldn't get any better, lol. OMGosh, this was heavenly.

Not too sweet, the pudding was moist and light, and the ice cream was fresh, creamy, not sweet, and very tasty.

Everything was just perfect. By the time we left, this restaurant was packed, and it's not hard to see why.

Housed in an old tote building, I really liked the historic windows. They were very cool.

The service from both ladies was attentive and professional. We only saw them when needed.

I had the best experience in the most wonderful restaurant. With free off-street parking, I will definitely be going...

@totebar_dining 📍Moonee Ponds

➖ Straciettalla ➖ Tuna Tartare ➖ Steak Frittes ✔️ Pork Cotoletta ➖ Sticky Date Pudding

Tote Bar and Dining is a contemporary restaurant located at Moonee Valley Racecourse. The venue is actually a heritage-listed Tote Building built back in 1938, which has now been refurbished yet still keeping character, you will find tote numbers on every window. 🐎

In the Northern Terrace you will find a casual, bar area where you can enjoy some snacks and a drink by the fireplace. If you’re after something more formal there is the Dining Room, fit with luxurious leather booths.

For entrees, the Straciettalla cheese was fresh and light, best enjoyed with their bread, although we had an aversion to the peas. 🫣

The Tuna Tartare, while generous with tuna, left a perplexing impression due to what felt like a random combination of ingredients—cucumber, chives, and orange - resulting in a salad-like experience. 🤔

The Pork Cotoletta was our favourite dish of the night, crispy and thin. The Steak Frittes although beautifully seasoned was sadly overcooked to well done and placed on top of the fries making them soggy. The Sticky Date Pudding was super soft but had an insufficient amount of sauce.

Although we didn’t have any bad dishes, the cocktails were great and staff were lovely, our mid week experience was marked by prolonged wait times, with intervals of 20-30 minutes between courses and drinks. The noticeable difference in service raised questions about potential changes in management or staff, as previously I had rated it a 4.5. Hopefully whatever it is, it’s short lived and they are back to normal soon....

An excellent dining experience— from the quality of the food, the service to the ambience, I would highly recommend visiting Tote Dining & Bar

We tried their — ▪️Spencer Gulf kingfish crudo, turmeric, bronze fennel, native lime ($28) ▪️Heirloom beetroot, burrata, aged balsamic, hazelnut ($24) ▪️Glacier 51 toothfish, bug dumpling, shiitake broth, wasabi ($47) ▪️Gnocchi, autumn mushroom, mascarpone, chestnut, Reggiano ($32) ▪️Iceberg lettuce, feta, pine nut, dill, yoghurt ($10) ▪️Milk chocolate, honey roasted cashews and malt ($16) ▪️Yuzu, vanilla bean and yoghurt ($15)

Tote Dining & Bar is a modern Australian restaurant located right near the Moonee Ponds racecourse. We were greeted with fantastic service for our entire dining duration - staff were patient and friendly.

Every dish we tried was incredible and we absolutely loved everything we tried. The toothfish was perfectly cooked, slightly crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, and the flavours of the mushroom gnocchi was also great. We ended on such a good note with the stunning desserts, both were not only beautifully presented but had great textures and flavour combinations.

It’s honestly such a lovely restaurant and we had a fantastic dining experience. The high quality dishes is worth the travel - would...