Any place with crab bruschetta is a friend of ours! This was amazing. It had slivers of crispy wafer like bread topped with avocado and a tangy crab mix.
Read MoreBISTRO GUILLAUME - SOUTHBANK, MELBOURNE
The perfectly cooked Berkshire pork was served with choucroute - a type of cabbage dish a bit like sauerkraut - and sauce charcutier.
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RARE STEAKHOUSE - MIDTOWN | MELBOURNE CBD
The Angus Porterhouse (350 gram) medium with a Black Pepper sauce cooked to perfection - a tender, juicy quality steak.
Read MoreBRUNETTI - CARLTON, MELBOURNE
Brunetti204 Faraday St
Carlton, Melbourne
Brunetti is an institution in Melbourne for desserts and coffee. They have a few shops around the place but their flagship store in Carlton is their most popular and most well known venue.
Its a sprawling place that covers what appears to be the space for three shops. Outside is a sea of small concrete tables where you take your treats. There may be table service but its hard to tell so your starting point here is to first grab a table and then send one or more of your party on a recon mission to check out the food options inside. The place is busy but generally service is quick.
Mlady had this tasty treat. The whole thing was delicious even though I have to admit she probably chose it almost solely based on how it looked (as she loves chocolate) and fortunately she wasn't disappointed.Sometimes the choice process offers so much and then lets you down when you actually taste it - but not on this occasion.
This dessert was extremely rich, but light and fluffy.
Appearance was also good too - it just invites you to pick it - particularly if you like chocolate - which a lot of people at Brunetti seem to prefer.
I fancied something a bit more citric and the lemon brulee tart was just what I wanted and needed. It had a bite to it - but you wouldn't order this dish if you didn't want this as it's expected.The pastry was great too - nice and crisp without being overly brittle and it was certainly not to thick either.
We topped it all off with some hand made chocolates. There were so many food options it was hard to choose.
If you're dining in Lygon Street then save some room after your mains and head to Brunetti for dessert. Its not expensive, the food is great and the choices are impressive. Its succeeded for a reason.
TIAMO - CARLTON, MELBOURNE
303 Lygon St
Carlton, Melbourne
Tiamo, and its sister restaurant next door, Tiamo 2, both have nice large outdoor dining areas with smaller indoor areas. We were there on a particularly warm day so we chose to eat inside where it was a bit cooler. The subdued lighting and flow of air was certainly pleasant.
The place is covered in show posters and its windows are painted red and have snippets of graffiti on them. Service is fast and friendly even though it's a very busy place.
We were after simple and quick meals on this occasion - however the speedy service here ensures you never wait long.
Mlady had here usual penne - this time with Napoli sauce - a traditional Italian tomato sauce with basil. It was well prepared.
The pasta was well cooked and the sauce was tasty. Its a basic dish that was nicely done. The serving was a reasonable size but a bit more sauce would have made the dish even better.
It was very reasonably priced as well.
My choice was the cannelloni - described in the menu as pasta tubes filled with mince meat and spinach and topped with Napoli sauce.The filling was substantial and had nice flavours, there was plenty of Napoli sauce and the overall serving size was good.
We both left reasonably satisfied from decent meals at decent prices.
Bread is also provided to every table and they bring extra if you want it - a nice touch. They have a simple but adequate wine list as well.
Tiamo is a decent place for well priced Italian food.
THREE BAGS FULL - ABBOTSFORD, MELBOURNE
60 Nicholson St
Abbotsford, Melbourne
Three bags full is somewhat isolated. It's in a lovely old building and has a strip of outside tables as well along the edge of Nicholson Street.
The place has become quite popular for its fresh take on breakfasts and lunches and also of course for its coffee which is sourced and roasted by Five Senses.
We were brunching there on a lovely sunny day and were lucky enough to grab a coveted outside table.
Being the healthier of the two of us Mlady chose the toasted muesli with honey labna, seasonal fresh and poached fruit.
It was certainly a colourful dish with the bright fruits standing out against the muesli and labna.
The whole combination also tasted great as well and was reasonably priced at $10.50.
I love pretty much anything with truffles so the truffled eggs - poached eggs on toast with prosciutto and truffled pecorino - leaped off the page at me.
This was absolutely delicious. The eggs were perfectly cooked and the blend of flavours was wonderful. This was one of their more expensive breakfasts at $16.00.
Three Bags Full is a pleasant but slightly out of the way place. It has great service, lovely fresh food and decent sized servings.
COOKIE - MELBOURNE CBD
252 Swanston St
Melbourne CBD
Cookie is ridiculously popular right now and as a result its impossibly hard to get a booking there. We'd drifted from brunch to shopping and on to a very early dinner so we lucked out and scored a table. Soon afterwards the place was full.
Cookie is upstairs and takes up the entire first floor of the building it's in. There are a few outside tables on the narrow balcony overlooking Swanston Street but its mostly indoor seating. The extremely high ceilings give the whole place an open airy feeling.
The menu has small dishes, medium dishes and large dishes. We started with the prawn and glass noodle firecrackers with avocado and coriander sauce. This was from the small dishes section of the menu.
Three torpedo shaped rolls arrived nicely wrapped and accompanied by a lovely dipping sauce. The prawn meat was juicy and cooked perfectly and it went very well with the crisp pastry.
I had expected the avocado and coriander dipping sauce to be spiced up a bit but it was subtle with only a hint of coriander and no extra spices or chilli.
This starter cost $14.50.
We then moved on to the fat rice noodles with duck, cabbage, green peppercorns and basil. This dish was fantastic both in appearance and taste.
The duck was beautifully tender - and there was actually plenty of it as well - and the entire flavour combination worked perfectly. The textures were also great with the tender duck and noodles offset by the crunch of the cabbage.
The green peppercorns, still on their stem, were a nice touch as well. The dish cost $22.00.
The chilli beef stir fry with beans and Thai basil certainly had chilli in it. You could both taste it and see it!
If you like your dishes hot then this one's for you. If not, but you still love the sound of this, fear not - the chilli's are large and can be easily set aside. It will still have a kick but nowhere near as violently! This dish was only $19.50.
We also ordered a side serving of boiled rice and roti. The roti was absolutely lovely - light and flaky and packed with flavour and good value at $3.50.
Cookie has an interesting menu which is large and varied. It's got great atmosphere, excellent food, good service and reasonable prices - particularly for the quality you get here. They've gone for a kind of pre-school/kids theme here with plenty of storybooks on shelves and pictures of dolls on some walls. Our bill even arrived inside a Peter Pan and Wendy Little Golden Book. It's one of the most popular places in town at the moment and doesn't look like slowing down.
MANCHESTER PRESS - MELBOURNE CBD
8 Rankins Lane
Melbourne, Victoria
You probably wont just stumble across Manchester Press in your travels. Most people that end up here are specifically looking for this place. It's not well signposted, it's not on a busy street and its not even clearly visible.
However, make the effort to find it in its narrow graffiti filled laneway because you will be rewarded. You will get great service in an interesting, cavernous yet pleasant setting with generous servings of amazing food.
After hitting the streets of Melbourne on a warm morning the calm tranquillity of Manchester Press was like an oasis.I started with the juice of the day. This was (I think) pineapple, mandarin and mint.
It was absolutely delicious. The flavours combined so well and it was so refreshing.
The fresh mint garnish not only looked good but added further to the lovely vibrant taste. It arrived quickly as well.
We both decided to have salads on this occasion. Mlady chose the beetroot and chickpea with mixed leaves, cherry tomatoes, red onion and fetta. It was the first to arrive and it was enormous. It would almost be big enough for two people to share. There was a generous serving of mixed leaves covered in chickpeas and cubed beetroot with halved cherry tomatoes, slivers of red onion and a massive mound of fetta on top.
It was fresh, tasty and filling and all this costs a mere $12.00. What a bargain!
Whilst I don't usually choose salads I do love smoked salmon.Manchester Press are known for their bagels but I ended up going with the smoked salmon and avocado with mixed leaves, dill mayonnaise, semi dried tomatoes and red onion.
I was stunned at the size of this dish - particularly the generous fillet of salmon that rested on top. All this was only $14.00.
Manchester Press is a lovely place. The service is excellent - they all seem to actually enjoy being there. The food is great - generous servings, good quality and very reasonable prices. It's very easy to see why this place is doing so well.
INSIEME RESTAURANT BAR - SOUTH YARRA, MELBOURNE
299 Toorak Road
South Yarra, VIC 3141
We were strolling down Chappel St doing some important shopping and I bacame desperate for a coffee. There are lots of small restaurants around the area but not a lot of plain cafe's. Anyway, we spotted Insieme and decided to give it a go - but just for coffee.
Its hard to say much about a place when you have only had coffee there. The coffee was nice, the service was fast and friendly and the place had a decent feel to it. We wondered what the food would be like - but really couldn't tell as we didn't have anything to eat. The menu looked reasonable though but there have been some mixed views about the food so who knows.
SUGA - MELBOURNE CBD
Royal Arcade, 335 Bourke St
Melbourne, VIC 3000
This is yet another quaint little shop in Melbourne's CBD - this time preparing rock candy. You can watch it being made too - they have their main bench area right in the front window of the shop so you can see the work as it progresses. They also make honeycomb here too - but you'll know this by the big "Honeycomb" sign on the front window!
They have a great range of rock candy here. You can buy it in small, medium or large jars and in combinations of three jars for a discounted price - well worth doing (as we did).
I felt like a kid in a candy shop - except I'm not a kid any more! We bought quite a variety here to take with us - and needed all our willpower to stop opening them as soon as we left.
Sadly we didn't try the honeycomb - if it had chocolate on it I probably would have!
The stuff here is great - the decor (lollies from wall to wall) is great and the floor show is interesting to watch too. Well worth seeing, buying and eating!
LA CITA - MELBOURNE CBD
11 Degraves St
Melbourne, VIC 3000
La Citta is a nice cafe/restaurant/wine bar. It has a pleasant atmosphere with their blackboard walls, visible wine bottles and plenty of timber offsetting the black colouring elsewhere.
The free range eggs on toast cooked to your liking certainly sounded good - and my liking was poached. I also chose to get a side of Istra bacon as well - which turned out to be a good choice. The eggs were cooked perfectly and the bacon was nice as well. The combination was tasty and cost $14.00 ($10.00 for the eggs and an extra $4.00 for the side of bacon).
La Cita is a pleasant cafe/restaurant/wine bar in a nice location with good decor, decent service and solid food.
LA PETITE CREPERIE - MELBOURNE CBD
Corner Swanston St And Little Collins St
Melbourne, VIC 3000
Wow, this place is great. Its the smallest of small booths on a busy street corner that gets a huge crowd there for hot steaming crepes - and once you try it you'll see why. If you've ever been to Paris you'll recognise this type of place - but while they are common there they are so rare here.
You basically just join the queue and place your order - but make sure you know what you want before you get to the front.
On the night we were there - a Friday night - the most popular choice by far was a nutella crepe. I couldn't resist as it brought back memories of Paris. It was excellent as well - and for a mere $5.00 was good value - although they are cheaper in Paris at around 3 euro.
La Petite Creperie is a great snack stop - or dessert stop - on a night out in the city. Well worth a visit!
