Melbourne 7 - Brunch at Trunks

Trunk American Diner
http://www.trunktown.com.au/

It's shocking to think that I've taken a month to blog only 4 days worth of eating in Melbourne.  I guess it shouldn't come as a surprise considering how much we ate but I'm somewhat relieved that I'm up to the last post for this particular trip.

We had checked out of our hotel and it was about 3hrs till our return flight... just enough time for a spot of brunch.

Melbourne 6 - Dessert at Spring Street Grocer

Spring Street Grocer
http://www.springstreetgrocer.com.au/

After our meal at Warra Warra, I found myself craving ice-cream. This might have something to do with the in depth dinner conversation we had about the quality of gelato in Brisbane versus Melbourne. Obviously my Melbourne buddies were adamant that what we considered good gelato in Brisbane was ass water compared to what they had on offer. I got a bit offended at first but the promise of top quality gelato lured me into wanting to try a place they suggested. We headed for a night time stroll through the city and ended up on Spring Street.

As the name suggests, Spring Street Grocer is a gourmet grocery store complete with its own veggie section and cheese room. I had a quick look around but my main focus was on the gelataria, which was outside at the front of the store. Apparently one of the 'disadvantages' of getting ice-cream here was lack of choice in flavours but because I'm very simple with what flavours I like to taste, this wasn't a problem for me at all.

Melbourne 5 - Dinner at Warra Warra

Warra Warra Korean Kitchen
http://warrawarrakitchen.com.au/

After one failed attempt to meet my friend Doc for brunch (I simply couldn't wake up in time), we rescheduled a catch up, this time at the safer evening time slot. We were both in the mood for Korean and he suggested Warra Warra.

Melbourne 4 - Shabu Shabu Lunch at Momo

Momo Sukiyaki and Shabu Shabu
http://www.momoshabushabu.com.au/

Fast forward to the Sunday of our friend's wedding. We were in holiday mood so we probably got out of bed around noon, just in time for lunch. The hotel Marc and I stayed at was just a street away from Chinatown (Little Bourke St) so that's where we headed.

There were restaurants galore but I wanted to make a decision before we became overwhelmed with options. We thought that Japanese sounded good and gravitated towards Momo. Upon studying the menu further, Marc was disappointed that it specialised in hot pot. As an addict of hot pot and all things soupy, I couldn't be more over the moon. Marriage may be about compromise but on this occasion I put my foot down.

Melbourne 3 - Lunch at Carmine's

Carmine's Bistro
http://www.carminesbistro.com.au/

Marc and I did the touristy thing while we're in Melbourne and decided to take a stroll along Lygon Street. Most online articles reported the Italian strip along there to be a bit of a tourist trap with inauthentic pizza/pasta combos churned out for unsuspecting interstate/international visitors. I could picture my true Melbournian friends rolling their eyes at how naive we were but I ignored that mental image and focused on enjoying my day. Marc and I like walking as a means to take in new cities so for us, it was a chance to venture away from our hotel.

I had been to Lygon Street once before with Kat for our weekend away in Melbourne, many years ago. I even spotted Stuzzichino, a cafe we visited at the time. I'm sure lots of things have changed since 2010 but I felt a bit of nostalgia all the same.

Melbourne 2 - Banquet at Rumi Restaurant

Rumi Restaurant
http://rumirestaurant.com.au/

Perhaps the most urgent meet up I had arranged in Melbourne was with Mochi, my old housemate and long ago co-eater on this blog. I told her as soon as our flights were booked to think of a restaurant we could try. Because this is such a vague request (especially considering how much Melbourne has to offer), I narrowed it down to middle-eastern cuisine.

We ended up trying Rumi which is a modern Lebanese restaurant in Brunswick East. This was a Saturday night and every restaurant we drove past was busy, busy, busy. Despite having a booking, our table wasn't quite ready but the Maitre d' was very apologetic. Honestly, we were just happy to all be catching up so there was no huge rush but I like when restaurants acknowledge service flaws.

Melbourne 1 - Lunch at Laksa Bar

Laksa Bar
108 Little Lonsdale Street, Melbourne CBD

It's the season for weddings! After Marc and I headed to Noosa for some friends wedding, we spent the following weekend jet setting to Melbourne for another friends wedding. Hey, it's an excuse for me to travel, eat and have time off work so I'm not complaining.

Melbourne is a good stop for us because as the years have gone on, more and more of our friends have dispersed out of Brisbane and moved interstate. The wedding itself was the highlight but we also took this opportunity to catch up with some old friends.

Melb in May 6 - Brunch at Auction Rooms

Auction Rooms - Revisit
http://www.auctionroomscafe.com.au/

This post starts along the same vein of my rambling here where I talk about how impressive it is the number of Melbourne restaurants I've managed to cover in just a few trips. Most of these are around the CBD so imagine my surprise in seeing that I got taken to one in North Melbourne that I've already tried before.

Marc's friend Bakon who lives in Melbourne claimed that brunch was his favourite meal of the day. Happily, it's also mine. I was looking forward to see which venue he was taking us to. When we pulled up at the worn brick building, I got a distinct feeling that I'd seen it before. Lo and behold, it was where Mochi took Nina and myself during my 2012 Melbourne trip as our last meal before coming home. Coincidentally, this would again be my last meal before boarding the plane back to Brisbane.

Melb in May 5 - Dinner at Guhng

Guhng (the palace) Korean Restaurant
http://www.guhngkorean.com/

Now that I've developed a full-fledged Korean food addiction, I couldn't last a whole weekend without the stuff while I was in Melbourne. Marc's friend organised a group dinner for us and some other friends at Guhng for Saturday night.

Our table was for 8pm at night, which is a late dinner for me so even though I had been literally eating all day (here and here), I was ready for lots of meat by dinnertime. One of my best mates Howl met up with us beforehand and we had a couple of sneaky glasses of red before braving the Melbourne cold and walking to the restaurant.

Melb in May 4 - Lunch at The Hardware Societe

The Hardware Societe
118-120 Hardware Street, Melbourne CBD

My highschool friend TRex made the bold move to relocate her life to Melbourne. It was a big change but I don't think it was a high risk decision for her because this girl has Melbourne tattooed on her soul. I knew even before she officially changed addresses that she would suit the city like a duck to water. Everything that Melbourne is known for: culture, music, food and style, are just part of who she is. Needless to say, when we decided to meet up for lunch in her new hometown, I was keen to hear her recommendations.

I had heard of most cafes that TRex listed for us to try but I chose Hardware Societe because I have a slight personal vendetta with it. I once tried to go there (can't recall exactly which trip) but I literally just could not find the place. I have since mentioned this fact to other non-locals who have tried to eat there and they had the same issues. This time, TRex met me at DeGraves Place and we walked there together so I was in safe hands.

Melb in May 3 - Breakfast at Bowery to Williamsburg

Bowery to Williamsburg
16 Oliver Lane, Melbourne CBD

You would think that a big, satisfying dinner would leave me unenthused about breakfast the next day. I had a lovely, filling seafood meal at Claypots on Friday night and woke up starving on Saturday morning. If ever there was evidence that eating big quantities of food makes you want to eat more all the time, this would be it. I was so hungry that my persistent nagging forced Marc out of bed and out for breakfast with me, even though this is something he hates to do.

By the time Marc was finally ready to leave, I had already researched and mapped out the best and closest destination that would be open at the time. I chose Bowery to Williamsburg because it was a convenient stroll from our hotel. The cafe is located in a tiny alley called Oliver Lane, which is literally blink-and-you-miss-it. Typical Melbourne laneway culture.

Melb in May 2 - Dinner at Claypots

Claypots Seafood and Wine
213 Barkly Street, St Kilda

There is no one I trust more to give me a good restaurant recommendation than Mochi. Even though she hasn't lived in Brisbane for 2+ years now, I'll sometimes still take her word on where to go for breakfast or Asian cuisine. As my dining sista-from-anotha-mista, we have very similar taste and preferences in food. Whenever I visit Mochi's new home turf, Melbourne, I know that she'll have something good in store for us.

I act like a pure tourist when I leave Brisbane and as such, I've only stayed within Melbourne city. As far as I knew, the CBD WAS Melbourne and as built up and extensive as it is compared to Brisbane, I knew that it would have much more to offer. Mochi drove us out to St Kilda, an inner city suburb she described to us as the Melbourne equivalent of West End in Brisbane. The drive was longer than I expected, which highlights just how much geographically larger Melbourne city is than Brisbane city.

Melb in May 1 - Spicy Fish Restaurant Revisited

Spicy Fish Restaurant
209 Little Bourke Street, Melbourne CBD

For someone who hasn't been to Melbourne THAT many times in her adult life, I sure get a lot of deja vu when I walk past the restaurants. Could it be that I'm such a glutton I've fitted into 3-4 trips what most people can't consume in their whole lifetimes? Whatever the case may be, I met up with Marc for lunch in Chinatown and walked past at least two restaurants that I pointed out as "I've eaten here before". Finally, I spotted Spicy Fish Restaurant and long story short, I had a dream about spicy fish literally the night before so it was exactly what I was in the mood for and we went in. It looked instantly familiar to me and when I did a quick search on my own blog, it was revealed that I had eaten there before (previous post here). Hungry Kittens might be useful for you readers in determining which restaurants to go to but it's also my own little memory bank for places I've been in the past.

This will be a short post because as soon as I realised it wasn't new, I didn't do my usual comprehensive set of photo snaps. I debated with myself whether to write another post at all but in the end decided to do so because the last one was from 2011 and also, I didn't get spicy fish that time. Actually eating the spicy fish at Spicy Fish Restaurant is important enough to write about.

Melbourne in May

The city of food and friends...

My lack of travelling this year is driving me nuts! I can't be the only who uses holidays as milestones for the year. How many of you guys keep telling yourselves "Only 3 months until Africa" (for example) to bait your soul after a long, tedious week? Having something to look forward to makes the bad parts of life bearable.

Because Marc and I are planning a big trip next year (not quite as big as 3 months in Europe but still big), we are making sacrifices this year to save, save, save. It all got so boring for me that I desperately searched for some interstate CPD courses I could do as an excuse for some 'light' travelling. A couple of my closest friends (shoutout to Howl and Mochi xoxo) have fled to Melbourne so that's where I aimed to go. Luckily I found something interesting that spanned across 2 days and thus, gave me a reason to book a long weekend away.

Melbourne in May 5 - Breakfast at Auction Rooms

Auction Rooms Cafe
http://www.auctionroomscafe.com.au/

On our last day in Melbourne, we could have either slept in and gone straight to the airport or wake up early and have breakfast somewhere on the way. Of course we chose to get breakfast.

Mochi had shown us 2 cafe options the night before and being lazy and indecisive, Nina and I  gave her the 'surprise us' routine. At 7:30am sharp, she picked us up from the city and off we went to our unknown destination.

Melbourne in May 4 - Dinner at Vegie Bar

Vegie Bar
http://www.vegiebar.com.au/

Something strange happened to me on the Sunday we were in Melbourne. After a ginormous meal from Vue De Monde, we went back to the hotel and napped. I woke up STARVING. What the heck? Did the food evaporate from my stomach? I WISH it were that easy. Who knows. Maybe my appetite just grew 10 fold. In any case, it was 8pm and I was growling for food.

Mochi arrived at our hotel with a short list of possible options. There had been talk of going to Chin Chin but the no reservation policy made things inconvenient. We called anyway and were told there was roughly an hour long wait for a table. Uh, no thanks. I'm not sure I'd wait an hour for a table on a normal day and especially not when I have a dire hunger situation happening.

Melbourne in May 2 - Cockails and Tapas at The Long Room

The Long Room
http://www.thelongroom.com.au/

Mochi was our perfect Melbourne host, painstakingly planning our itinerary and arranging our shopping and dining trip. Our Saturday night was a large group event, starting with a late dinner in the form of tapas from The Long Room, followed by more cocktails (we ended up heading to 1806 for that).

A few of us were a bit hesitant about The Long Room as we headed down. It was located downstairs and had a nightclub feel to it. The cuisine was confusing, with a sushi bar immediately visible on the right and Spanish tapas items on the menu. It was East and West, not quite mixing into fusion cuisine, but rather, random dishes of both made available in one place.

Melbourne in May 1 - Chef Lagenda for Lunch

Chef Lagenda
http://cheflagenda.com.au/

I have seemingly gone straight from my Singaporean and Malaysian posts to Melbourne (there are several Melbourne restaurant posts to come), with a pitstop at De Vietnamien. If you think I've been busy, I've probably been even busier than you think. Truth is, my Sydney trip (Marque and Subsolo) came before Melbourne but I got those posts out of the way first.

These days, I seem to be spending an awful amount of time in airports. I booked Melbourne to take advantage of the QLD Labor Day long weekend and my friend Nina decided she could make it too. We were on different flights there but managed to score the same flight back. I usually transit through quite smoothly (although I do get selected for 'random' explosive checks and bag searches more than seems reasonable for a 'random procedure') but my flight to Melbourne wasn't so.

After an initial 30min delay, I boarded the plane (around when it was originally scheduled for take off). All the passengers all got comfortable in their seats and waited. And waited. After another 30min or so, we were instructed to disembark the plane. I had my earphones half in so I'm not sure exactly why - something about an unscheduled maintenance. The result was, I had to get my hand luggage again, get off the plane, walk to a different terminal, wait for a new plane and repeat the procedure.

Melbourne June 2011 - Dinner at Melbourne Vietnam Noodle House

Melbourne Vietnam Noodle House
251 Swanston Street, Melbourne



Our last meal in Melbourne was one we tried to make the most of. We circled throughout the CBD, passing many restaurants over and over again. During this time, our appetites were ruined by intermittent snack breaks (we had pork jerky and bubble tea) and so, enthusiasm for food decreased.


A dash through Hardware Lane left Byron and I feeling frazzled and harassed. I know that it's normal for restaurants in Asia to have people out the front trying to lure/drag people in with hot specials but it doesn't happen in Brisbane and I was surprised to see it in Melbourne. Restaurant after restaurant launched their offers at us to try to get our business.

It was a shame because until those acts of desperation, I found the restaurants appealing.

Melbourne June 2011 - Yum Cha at Dragon Boat

Dragon Boat Chinese Restaurant
203 Little Bourke St, Melbourne

Lunchtime on Sunday was a bit annoying for me because I didn't actually 'plan' it (i.e book anything) but I had sorta... planned it, with an idea of where I wanted to go.


My intentions were for either Cumulus Inc or Hardware Societe but after dinner at Grossi Florentino the night before, and crepes in the morning, we were put off the idea of an overly 'involved' lunch. Something light and casual seemed much more appealing than sitting down to a menu.