under $10

HOT: Shanghai Street Dumpling, 342 Little Bourke St, Melbourne

January 18, 2012 ⋅ One comment

A couple of years ago RM and I had a week’s holiday in Shanghai. We ate ourselves silly in all manner of restaurants, with a particularly memorable dumpling gorge at Crystal Jade which is still my gold standard for dumplings worldwide (well, limited to the dumpling places that I’ve tried around the world). Shanghai Street [...]

HOT: Backstreet Cafe, 152 Kerr St, Fitzroy

January 11, 2012 ⋅ 3 comments

In Fitzroy, it’s another day, another new cafe…. Backstreet Cafe is the new project from the people behind Birdman Eating and it takes some of what’s great about that Fitzroy stalwart and extends it beyond – or more precisely below. More on that later. The cafe is located in a corner spot in amongst residential [...]

HOT: Huxtaburger, 106 Smith St, Collingwood

January 10, 2012 ⋅ One comment

Thanks to the folks at deliciously excellent Huxtable, Smith Street now boasts its own American-style burger and beer joint. It’s a small space across the road from the mother ship with a few outdoor tables and continues the Cosby Show theme with the moniker Huxtaburger. Cute! The menu is short and straightforward – there are [...]

HOT: Helados Jauja, 254 Lygon St, Carlton

January 9, 2012 ⋅ 5 comments

Happy New Year! Hope you had an enjoyable and relaxing holiday break. Apparently one of the best ways to stretch out that happy holiday mood is to continue one holiday habit in your everyday life. With Melbourne’s unpredictable heat waves, one holiday habit I’ll be continuing is daily ice-cream! Fortunately in Melbourne there’s lot of [...]

HOT: N. Lee Bakery, 62 Little Collins St, Melbourne

November 30, 2011 ⋅ Post a comment

Summer’s here, the sun is out! (Well, not today. But it’s Melbourne so the weather could change by lunch time.) Instead of eating your lunch at your desk, why not stroll down to Little Collins Street to N. Lee Bakery? Join the fast-moving queue of office workers, grab a $5.50 Banh Mi and eat your [...]

HOT: Rose Garden BBQ Shop, 435 Elizabeth St, Melbourne

November 23, 2011 ⋅ 6 comments

Rose Garden may sound romantic but it’s not the sort of restaurant where you’d take a first date. But go with your friends, your colleagues, your relatives, on your own – it’s that good! The small no-frills restaurant specialises in cheap, quick Cantonese fare. It’s a favourite amongst international students and office workers during the [...]

HOT: Phillippa’s City Store, 15 Howey Place, Melbourne

November 17, 2011 ⋅ 6 comments

When I worked in the CBD one of my shopping challenges was finding a good loaf of bread. I rarely had time in my lunch hour to travel to Queen Victoria Markets or battle the lines at David Jones Foodhall, which meant often I had to be organised enough to buy my bread on my [...]

HOT: Dandee Donuts, Dandenong Market, cnr Cleeland and King Sts, Dandenong

November 15, 2011 ⋅ 2 comments

The Saturday Age recently ran a ‘Five of a kind’ article on Dandenong Market describing five stallholders in the refurbished Dandenong Market, including Sataylicious which I’d recommended previously on the blog for their noteworthy satay sauce. Obviously there’s only room for five places to be featured in that article so let me redress the omission [...]

HOT: Sataylicious, Shop W3, Dandenong Market, Cnr Clow and Cleeland St, Dandenong

October 19, 2011 ⋅ 2 comments

Is it possible that I’ve found the best satay sauce in Melbourne…in Zone 2? Every family, every region and every country has their own satay recipe – and everyone has their favourite. I’ve eaten a lot of satays both in Australia and in South East Asia and I’m so excited about discovering the spicy satay [...]

HOT: Cafe Bursaria, Como House, cnr Lechlade Ave and Williams Rd, South Yarra

September 12, 2011 ⋅ 2 comments

The website of Cafe Bursaria has the tagline ‘South Yarra’s best kept secret’. You know what, I think for once that kind of puffery is true. I lived in South Yarra for four years, within cooee of Como House, and I’d never heard of, let alone stepped inside, Cafe Bursaria. Which is a shame because [...]