Melbourne

A couple of us from work had decided to head out for a bit of a project lunch. Close to the office is Rice Paper Scissors which I’d walked past often but never went into so today we decided to head on in. To make life easy for sharing we got the 5 dish banquet … Continue reading Rice Paper Scissors, Melbourne, Australia

After an afternoon at the footy watching Hawthorn capitulate yet again we headed to the western side of the CBD in search of dinner in the small laneways. Just off Lonsdale Street between King and Spencer Streets is a little laneway called Rose Lane and on this laneway you’ll find a Korean Restaurant called Korean … Continue reading Korean Table, Melbourne, Australia

I had a first this evening. I’d never had Pakistani food before and we headed to Khabbay on Lygon Street in Carlton. From what we’d heard Khabbay is well know in the Pakistani community for good, authentic food.

I had a day off work to do some running around and I found myself in Malvern at lunch time in between chores. A quick look at the map pointed me towards a close by Vietnamese pho restaurant so I headed on in.

Shanghai Street is a small chain of restaurants in the Melbourne CBD specialising in dumplings and buns. Tonight we’d be eating at their Little Bourke Street restaurant.

It was a weird summer Saturday afternoon in Melbourne. It was very quiet due to the burgeoning number of omicron cases sweeping through except for the “Freedom” super spreader demonstration that came through the city just after lunch. Anyway, once the Darwin Award nominees had finished their march past a mate and I decided to … Continue reading Errol’s, North Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia

After having endured the longest COVID-19 lockdowns on the planet Melbourne was starting to come back to life so a couple of us decided to venture out to North Melbourne to check the menu at the Three Crowns Hotel as we’d heard that the kitchen was good.

With Melbourne out of the third COVID lockdown I decided to head over to Benchwarmer to grab some takeaway craft beers, have a beer and to try their new, Japan inspired menu

It was my birthday and I was 21 yet again and this year a couple of us headed up north a kilometer or so to La Luna. La Luna is Adrian Richardson’s restaurant. For the uninitiated Adrian Richardson is a resteraunter who has had TV shows such as Secret Meat Business, and Good Chef Bad … Continue reading La Luna, Melbourne, Australia

With Melbourne in a snap, five day COVID lockdown, I decided to try takeaway from a closeby Japanese restaurant called Tokyo 7. The restuarant is between A’Beckett and Franklin Streets down a new laneway called Frederick Way. Frederick Way comes out on Franklin Street just opposite the Queen Victoria Market.

Melbourne was slowly coming back to normal after a pretty quiet Christmas and New Year, and a mate and I had decided to catchup for a beer and dinner. We started at The Drunken Poet near the Queen Victoria Market for a couple of medicinal Guinness’ and then we needed to find somewhere for dinner. We … Continue reading The Kathmandu Cottage, Melbourne, Australia

I’d tried eating here a couple of times but it was always booked out, so today as I walking with a mate to grab a drink I suggested that we pop in and try to book a table for dinner and managed to grab a table for 7:30. And I’m glad we did as Hakoya … Continue reading Hakoya Izakaya, Melbourne, Australia

The alleged old chinese proverb says “may you live in interesting times”. While there’s no known link to an actual chinese proverb, 2020 has certaintly been an interesting year. The year started off with me finalising my mid year European holiday plans – a 4 week sojourn through Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany and The Netherlands. … Continue reading Wasn’t 2020 a crap year!

Day 3 out of COVID lockdown had more Melburnians out and about on Friday afternoon so a couple of us headed out to a Thai restaurant opposite the Queen Victoria Market on Peel Street.

After 112 days of lockdown Melbourne has started to rouse from it’s slumber. A couple of us were looking to get out and about in the slowly opening city. We ended up at Hana’s Kitchen for a Japanese meal.

With Melbourne in stage 3 COVID-19 restrictions looking at stage 4 over the next couple of days I thought it would be an opportune time to introduce you to a great bar, now operating as a bottle shop that offers delivery to the local area, that opened at the wrong time. Benchwarmer is just northwest … Continue reading Benchwarmer, North Melbourne, Australia

Half way between The Mitre Tavern and The Irish Times is another bar called Dikstein’s Corner Bar.

The Mitre Tavern is touted as the oldest building in Melbourne and has stood on this site since 1868. A classical Gothic facade on the outside, and low doorways, and undulating floor, inside a testement to its age.

Saturday lunchtime, COVID-19 lockdown, feeling hungry after a quick shop. Heading home I knew there was a chinese restaurant on Wills Street so I thought I’d swing by and see if it was open.

Melbourne has some really good Irish bars, and The Irish Times on Little Collins Street is no exception.

I’ve always viewed Hardware Lane between Bourke and Lonsdale Streets as a bit of a tourist trap. The restaurants and bars along this stretch are good but you’ll probably end up paying a “tourist tax” as the prices are a little on the high side… and don’t get me started on the touts! A little … Continue reading Il Nostro Posto, Melbourne, Australia

Biolermaker House up near QV in the Greek Quarter is another great whiskey bar – up on par with Beneath Driver Lane.

I recently welcomed my second half century and some good friends wanted to take me out for a feast. I choose Korean BBQ and they chose Hallah close to the Queen Vicrotia Market.

Docklands in Melbourne has been slighed as a bit of a wasteland in the past. It’s certainly not as attractive food and beer wise as the main CBD on the eastern side of the railway lines. But one shining light is an Italian restaurant called 90 Secondi.

The QT Hotel on Russell St, where the Greater Union movie theatres used to be, has a modern rooftop bar called Rooftop at QT.

After our beers at Temple Brewing we made the short walk across Lygon Street to an Italian resturant called 400 Gradi. It was probably just 100 metres away. As I would find out later 400 Gradi is a chain of half a dozen or so restaurants – we visited the Brunswick one.

A couple of kms up Lygon Street, about 25 minutes on the after work peak hour tram, is a small brewery called Temple Brewing.

Beer DeLuxe is, as the name suggests, a bar for beer lovers. For many years Federation Square was derided as a bit of a wasteland and inner city blight, but thankfully there are now some decent options for food and drinks.

Another good rooftop bar in the Melbourne CBD is on top of the Imperial Hotel on the corner of Bourke and Spring Streets.

For as long as I remember the forecourt of the RACV Club building on Bourke Street has been a bit of a wasteland. I don’t think I ever saw anyone out there. The club obviously recognised it was a great space that was under utilised so they’ve opened up a bar called Bourke Street Green … Continue reading Bourke Street Green, Melbourne, Australia

Apart from a little sign high up towards the awning on Swanston Street there’s not much pointing you towards Goldilocks, a small, but very good rooftop bar.

Just up the road from Tsindos is another great Greek restaurant called Stalactites. It’s a bit of a Melbourne institution.

Melbourne summer weather… you have to love it… 10 degrees one day, 37 the next, and lets’s throw in a thunderstorm and hailstorm or two for good measure.

Lonsdale Street in the CBD opposite the QV complex is Melbourne’s little Greece and is where you will find Tsindos.

Hopscotch is a bar and restaurant in Melbourne’s Southgate precinct just south of the river across from Flinders Street Station.

I’ve always been partial to Vietnamese food. Melbourne has some great Vietnamese restaurants and O’Kane Vietnamese Restaurant on Sydney Road is one of those.

North Melbourne has a very good selection of small, but excellent, bars. Prudance is one such bar.

Errol Street in North Melbourne is a short, but interesting, tram ride from the Melbourne CBD on which you find the Town Hall Hotel.

I’ve been to this interesting place a couple of times now.

Father’s Office in the QV building at the corner of Swanston and Little Lonsdale Streets, overlooking the forecourt of the State Library, has been one of my favorite places for a drink for a while.

Budapest is a little bit out of the city in Elsternwick just a stones throw from Elsternwick Station

Another excellent little bar in the city is Troika Bar on Little Lonsdale Street.

It was the Thursday before Christmas and The Coopers Inn was going off. It’s right next to Telstra corporate headquarters.

I’ve been eating at Papa Gino’s for the better part of 30 years and I still love their food. Thankfully my mates also love it so there’s never an argument when anyone wants to eat here.

Up on level 3, near the cinemas, is the Melbourne Central Lion Hotel that’s modelled on a typical English pub.

If you like pinball then you will like this place as it is, as the name suggests, a Pinball Paradise.

I am very much a sucker for a good curry as is my mate. Tonight we happened past the Gourmet Curry Hut in the Hub Arcade and headed on in.

I first ate at Mamak in their Sydney Chinatown restaurant a good 10 years ago. They eventually opened a Melbourne restaurant which I’ve eaten at occassionally over the intervening years.

Where else but Melbourne would you find an old caravan in a laneway in the centre of the city serving beers… welcome to Chuckle Park Bar.

I have a soft spot for Korean crispy fried chicken and there is a decent restaurant called CHIMAC up near the Queen Victoria Market on Peel St.

The Drunken Poet is an Irish pub just north of the city opposite the Queen Victoria Market.

If you’ve been to Melbourne you’ll know that the centre of the city is a maze of small laneways that host all manner of bars and restaurants. Bar Americano is off a laneway that’s off a laneway.

On rubgy world cup semi-final night The Lincoln seemed like a little bit of New Zealand in Melbourne.

Trunk is a restaurant bar on Exhibition Street that was the site of an 1850s synagogue – I’ve even heard of it as being the first synagogue in Melbourne. It’s now been restored into today’s venue.

Toto’s Pizza House on Lygon Street is touted as the first pizza restaurant in Australia, but I don’t know if that is myth or fact.

If you like laksa you’ll like Malaysian Laksa House on Elizabeth Street.

Workshop is another place I’d walked past many times but never went into. That changed during the week and I’m glad.

Sarawak Kitchen Express is a cheap and cheerful Asian eatery on Franklin St. We arrived around 7:30pm on a weeknight and the place was pretty empty. From memory there was only one or two tables occupied.

After Naked For Satan we headed to a bar closeby that I hadn’t been to for close to 25 years, The Rainbow Hotel. Walking in it looked almost the same as the suburban pub did all those years ago.

Today a friend suggested we venture out of the city to their old stomping ground of Fitzroy for some drinks and dinner. Our first stop was Naked For Satan on Brunswick Street.

If you went to RMIT in the ’80s or ’90s you undoubtedly would have had atleast one drink in a pub on Franklin Street called Mac’s (whose name still adorns the front of the building if you look up). Mac’s has been rebranded to Captain Melville and the grungy student vibe has been replaced with … Continue reading Captain Melville, Melbourne, Australia

Mahn Doo is a Korean Dumpling Bar and Restaurant in the centre of Melbounre. It’s literally a stones throw from my place and I’ve been past it hundreds of times but never throught to go in. This evening I was having a drink with a friend and we decided to give it a try.

Another place I’d walked past many times and never ventured into was La La Land.

A couple of minutes out of the city on the 58 tram route, just past Queen Victoria Market, is a great little “suburban” pub called Bobbie Peels.

I walk along Little Lonsdale Street several times a week and have walked past Water Flame atleast a hundred times and never went in. That changed today.

A Japenese restaurant opened up closeby a couple of years ago. I’d visited a couple of years ago and had some really decent yakitori so as I was out in town one evening I thought we might as well give it another try.

After our disappointing laksas we walked to Russell Street and went to the Melbourne Whisky Room which is the upstairs part of Whisky and Alement.

Laksa Bar is an asain resturant up near the corner of Exhibition and Little Lonsdale Streets in the Melbourne CBD. After a couple of drinks afer work at TRUNK with some current and former colleagues we needed to find somewhere to eat closeby. I’d walked past Laksa Bar many times, and it was always well … Continue reading Laksa Bar, Melbourne, Australia

Gypsy and Pig, located at the corner of Little Lonsdale and Hardware Streets, is a well patronised Japanese restaurant in the Melbourne CBD and it specialises in Japanese pork dishes.

Good Heavens is a roof top bar on top of Fancy Hanks where Tuscan Rooftop used to be. We headed up here as we waited for our table at Fancy Hanks to become available.

I’m very much a carnivore so when a friend suggested that we head to Fancy Hanks on Bourke Street for dinner mid mini rooftop pub crawl it didn’t take me too long to say yes.

I’ve been to Bomba rooftop a number of times now and they’ve doubled the size of the bar in the past 18 months or so. Bomba is up the east end of Lonsdale Street, pretty much opposite the Marriott Hotel.

I have a mission to try to find all the rooftop bars in the Melbourne CBD and today I headed off to Retro Rooftop which is, as the name would suggest, a rooftop bar situated on top of Club Retro in Lonsdale Street.

Cookie Rooftop has been through a refurb of late which has helped reduce the absurdly long lines that were the bane of drinkers lives in the past.

Whitehart Bar is on Whitehart Lane in the centre of the Melbourne CBD behind JB and Micheals Camera. It’s a newer container bar that has a non-smoking area downstairs and a smoking area upstairs. Think of it as a more upmarket version of the original container bar Section 8.

Section 8 in Tattersalls Lane is the original container bar. Two containers for the bar and toilets, shipping pallets for seats and 44 gallon drums for tables makes up a truly unique laneway bar.

Loop Roof is another great little laneway, rooftop bar in Melbourne. It’s on Meyers Place in the building next to Lane’s Edge.

Beneath Driver Lane is a funky little bar with a speakeasy vibe in the basement of the building next to Penny Blue on, you guessed it, Driver Lane, off Little Bourke Street opposite the old GPO.

Lane’s Edge is a small bar at the top of Bourke St that is reminiscent of the small beer gardens of your local pub from yesteryear.

Down a little laneway called Driver Lane off Little Bourke Street is a craft beer bar with an ecclectic fitout.

It had been a little while since I’d been to the Curry Vault in Bank Place but having seen an episode of the Travel Channel show Food Paradise International (episode Hot & Spicy Paradise 2) that featured the Curry Vault’s Lamb Vindaloo I decided that I had to visit again. The publicity must have worked … Continue reading Curry Vault, Melbourne, Australia

I don’t normally walk along Flinders Lane but have now been here two weeks in a row after Supernormal last week.

Are you a Whisky fan? Do you like tasting gems that you’ll probably never see again. If you answered yes to both of these then you should jump on the number 11 tram and head down to Brunswick Street Fitzroy.

Supernormal, on Flinders Lane, has been buzzing everytime I’d walked past it.

The Mint is a reasonable bar and restaurant situated in the gatehouse of the former Royal Mint in Melbourne.

I’d just gotten back from my second Japan trip and was on my way with a mate to hopefully watch Hawthorn continue on their journey for their 4th consecutive AFL premiership. I’d walked past this particular restaurant many times mid afternoon when it was closed, but this evening it’d be open and we’d be walking … Continue reading Dosanko Larmen, Melbourne, Australia

I’m not normally a brunch person, normally opting for a sleep in and then some coffee at home on a weekend morning, rather than having to do the whole shower and dress routine on a day of leisure. But today was different. A friend who was a former colleague from interstate was in town and … Continue reading The Hardware Societe, Melbourne, Australia

I didn’t even know that place existed until a friend suggested that we meet there for a late lunch. Magic Mountain Saloon is a Thai / Australia fusion restaurant. The meals are just scrumptious!

I have a mate living up in Brunswick, and rather than him coming into the city for beer and food I sometimes jump on the tram and head 20 minutes north. Brunswick is a quick tram ride up Elizabeth Street, Royal Parade past Melbourne Uni and then Sydney Road. The Cornish Arms is a largish … Continue reading Cornish Arms, Brunswick, Melbourne, Australia

Had lunch with some colleagues and a business partner at a restaurant in Southbank that I’d walked past a hundred times but that I’d never eaten at. Pure South ay Southbank is smallish and overlooks the Yarra.

Today I tried to use my myki card for the first time and I was less that thrilled with the experience. Myki, for non Victorians, is an ill conceived, incompetently designed and built, ticketing system that Victoria is trying to roll out that is currently several year overdue, hundred of millions of dollars over budget, … Continue reading My first Myki experience — not good

Another great meal at Cookie on Swanston Street this evening.

I’ve been to Supper Inn many, many times. I would hazard a guess that its getting up to 20 0r 25 times.

It amazing how dead the Melbourne CBD can be on a Sunday evening. Started off with a couple of beers at the Westin in Collins Street where we’d decided that a decent steak was in order for dinner. Headed over to The Meat and Wine Co at Southbank. However, the queue at the door told … Continue reading The Mill, Melbourne, Australia

I’d planned to head off to the Melbourne Comedy Festival this evening, but me being lazy I didn’t bother to try to book tickets until yesterday, at which time I found out that there are many, many people out there who aren’t lazy as I am, and that they’d already snapped up all the tickets … Continue reading Hairy Canary, Melbourne, Australia

I’d been to this restaurant probably 6 weeks or so ago. We were in the city on Saturday evening, looking for somewhere to get a beer and a meal. The beer was forthcoming at the Turf Bar (previously The Turf Accountants, site of the Great Bookie Robbery in 1976 during which $1.3 million was stolen, … Continue reading Korean Seoul Restaurant, Melbourne, Australia again…

Told you I liked this place! Had a colleague down from Sydney working on a project and we’d decided that a couple of beers were in order followed by a feed. We met at the Mitre Tavern and couldn’t be bothered moving too far, so I pointed up Bank Place to the Curry Vault and … Continue reading Curry Vault, Melbourne, Australia again…

A friend had told me of a great Indian restaurant in the Melbourne CBD. Yesterday I had the opportunity to give it a try, and I have to say that this is the best Indian restaurant I’ve  eaten at in Melbourne in a long, long time. The Curry Vault is in Bank Place near the … Continue reading Curry Vault, Melbourne, Australia

It was a public holiday in Melbourne, and the weather wasn’t too bad, so had lunch with a friend down at Docklands in Melbourne. Not having been to the restaurant area of Docklands before, we walked the length of the food strip and finally came to Melbourne Yacht Club Hotel. It wasn’t too busy (maybe … Continue reading Melbourne Yacht Club Hotel, Docklands, Melbourne, Australia

I’m off to New Zealand for a training course for a week, Auckland to be exact. So this morning started off in Melbourne, where I got up at an uncivilized 8am (for a Sunday) and ended up in my hotel in Auckland… and along the way I’ve had a heap of pretty good food. The … Continue reading It’s been a day of eating and drinking, across and between two countries

In case you hadn’t quite worked it out yet, I’m a sucker for a good slab of dead cow, medium rare. Earlier this week I turned the big “4 oh-no”, yep, I’m officially a dirty old man. To celebrate, or is that to commiserate, a mate who I’ve know for about 20 years, since Uni … Continue reading The Meat and Wine Co, Melbourne, Australia

A mate of mine had a night off from his missus and daughter, so we decided that we’d have a couple of brews and a bite to eat. Discussions were had over a couple of pints of Carlsburg to decide just where to eat. Rose Garden, Chili Padi, Supper Inn, Papa Gino’s… but then I … Continue reading Korean Seoul Restaurant, Melbourne, Australia

Cookie is a bar / restaurant on Swanston Street in the Melbourne CBD. You never know it was there unless someone told you as its actually on the first floor.

It’s been a while since I’ve written about a Melbourne restaurant… probably a testament to the amount of travel I’ve been doing lately, but since I’m on leave from work for a couple of weeks I thought I might as well share my local haunts.

What is it about Melbourne and good Chinese restaurants? I headed off for lunch today with my parents, two of my sisters, brother-in-law and one of the munchkins (one of my nieces) to have Yum Cha at the Dragon Boat in Little Bourke Street.

Supper Inn is a Chinese restaurant in the Melbourne CBD.