under $20

HOT: Amsterdam Street, 1 Amsterdam St, Richmond

May 3, 2010 ⋅ 9 comments

Despite its bright red frontage, Amsterdam Street is not the kind of cafe you will tend to stumble across because it’s tucked off Church Street. But as a result it’s the perfect place hide by yourself to relax with the weekend papers. They have an extensive all day breakfast menu and for lunch they also [...]

HOT: Hung Vuong Saigon, 128 Hopkins Street, Footscray

May 1, 2010 ⋅ 2 comments

Today we have another guest post from Ceri aka Healthy Party Girl trying out pho in Footscray. Thanks Ceri! On a cold, rainy Saturday, my best friend convinced me to skip the planned movie and instead took me out to her favourite local spot for pho instead. We battled through Saturday market shopping traffic and [...]

NOT: Rich Maha, Shop 9, 343 Equitable Place, Melbourne

April 30, 2010 ⋅ 10 comments

I had my doubts about Rich Maha as soon as I saw their menu. Indian, Malaysian, Tandoori, Sri Lankan and Singaporean all in one place? Any restaurant which purports to serve all those cuisines at the same time is bound for trouble. Rich Maha does seem to be very popular with the lunch time crowds [...]

HOT: Red Door Antiques and Yum Cha Cafe, 1-3 McIlwrick St, Windsor

April 29, 2010 ⋅ 3 comments

I haven’t had dim sum in Melbourne other than at Shark Fin House for years. However, I was sufficiently intrigued by Red Door Antiques and Yum Cha Cafe to stray from my faithful yum cha restaurant and cycle across town to check it out. Red Door offers a small selection of dim sum in rather [...]

HOT: Dainty Sichuan, 176 Toorak Rd, South Yarra

April 27, 2010 ⋅ 4 comments

The serene entrance area of Dainty Sichuan, adorned with a small rock and water feature, gold fish and carved mahogany screen, belies the sweating and gasping going on in the dining room. For this place serves Sichuan food with the gloves off – chilli so potent that you can smell it in the air as [...]

HOT: The European, 161 Spring Street, Melbourne

April 26, 2010 ⋅ 7 comments

So, a pesky volcano in Iceland means that you can’t make it to Europe anytime soon. The solution? Get your dose of la dolce vita at The European. The European is a restaurant that embodies my most romantic dreams of the Continent. The glass doors, dark wood interior and black and white chequered floor transport [...]

HOT: Coffee Darling, 2 Darling Street, South Yarra

April 19, 2010 ⋅ 4 comments

Coffee Darling is the perfect cafe for its location. Firstly, it serves coffee (and other nice things) in a sparkling little spot on Darling Street, South Yarra. Secondly, South Yarra is the kind of suburb where two-syllable words like ‘darling’ get drawled out into four syllables ‘daaaarrrling’, usually accompanied by a couple of mwah mwah [...]

HOT: Ron Mueck, NGV International, 180 St Kilda Rd, Southbank

April 16, 2010 ⋅ 5 comments

I’m a bit late with this post given that the Ron Mueck exhibition at NGV International closes this Sunday – but if you have a chance get down to NGV tonight (it’s open till 9pm) or this weekend to see some really life-like giant people and miniature people. Ron Mueck is a Melbourne-born London-based sculptor [...]

HOT: Friends of the Earth, 312 Smith St, Collingwood

April 14, 2010 ⋅ 11 comments

I’ve previously blogged about the fantastic range of dried goods and produce available at Friends of the Earth, but last week was the first time I sampled some of the vegan/vegetarian food served in the laidback cafe. During the week you can get a mixed salad plate which has a bit of everything heaped on [...]

NOT: Breadwell, 135 Flinders Lane, Melbourne

April 13, 2010 ⋅ 9 comments

Breadwell? BreadNOT. This small café is popular with the lawyer/banker crowd down towards the Paris end of Collins St, and I’m not sure why because the food that L and I had for lunch was pretty poor. To whit – Breadwell’s ‘famous’ spicy meatballs with pasta ($20) and green lentil dahl with yoghurt and crispy [...]