under $20

HOT: Eat Drink Man Woman, 413 Brunswick St, Fitzroy

June 13, 2011 ⋅ 5 comments

On the site of the much maligned Retro cafe on Brunswick Street is a new project from Daniel Schelbert, the short-lived head chef from Hare & Grace. The dingy saggy couches and stained ripped vinyl chairs have been replaced with sleek marine palate of black, cream, gold and blue. The expansive space is dominated by [...]

HOT: The Art of the Brick, Federation Square, Melbourne

June 5, 2011 ⋅ 12 comments

For a grown woman, I get inordinately excited by Lego. Witness me lining up whilst 8 months pregnant to get into Brickvention, Australia’s premier Lego fan convention. So as quickly as you can say ‘Lego Technic’ I hit the purchase button for tickets to The Art of the Brick, an exhibition of large-scale Lego sculptures [...]

NOT: Julio, 171 Miller St, Fitzroy North

June 2, 2011 ⋅ 8 comments

Last week The Age’s Melbourne Magazine published its list of top 30 Melbourne cafes. Obviously such a list is going to create some controversy but as I scanned the names I nodded in agreement with most of their choices. Then I got out my diary to make a note of the cafes that I had [...]

HOT: LuxBite, 38 Toorak Rd, South Yarra

May 31, 2011 ⋅ 8 comments

A few months ago I lost my head at a charity auction for Twestival and placed an outrageous winning bid on a macaron tower by LuxBite. Fifty macarons, all to myself! *mwah-ha-ha-ha* There’s been a lot of hoo-hah about macarons in Melbourne and the consensus from the blogosphere seems to be that South Yarra dessert [...]

HOT: The Green Grocer, 217 St Georges Rd, Fitzroy North

May 26, 2011 ⋅ 2 comments

When Stuff White People Like author Christan Lander visited Melbourne in 2009, he went in search of the whitest suburb in the city. He landed in North Fitzroy. To be precise, he landed at The Green Grocer ‘a trendy cafe-slash-grocer. It’s the sort of place that sells organic vegetables, bio-dynamic meat and expensive pots of [...]

HOT: Monk Bodhi Dharma, Rear 202 Carlisle St, Balaclava

May 24, 2011 ⋅ 2 comments

What do you expect to find in a supermarket carpark? Cars, trolleys, a rubbish skip and maybe some delinquent kids? Certainly not the coolest cafe-in-a-brick-shed in town. Monk Bodhi Dharma sounds like the temple for some Eastern cult, but in fact it’s a fabulous rustic cubbyhouse cafe nestled away from the bright flourescence of the [...]

HOT: The Maling Room, 206 Canterbury Rd, Canterbury

May 18, 2011 ⋅ 2 comments

At first glance, the sign for The Maling Room looks like The Mailing Room. Which is an apt name for the airy cafe housed in a Victorian era former post office, its faux majestic columns hailing the entrance to the little village street known as Maling Road. Maling Road is a favourite pram-pushing destination for [...]

HOT: North Cafeteria, 717 Rathdowne St, Carlton North

May 10, 2011 ⋅ One comment

North Cafeteria is small and straight to the point, just like this review. It’s located on the northside of town. To be specific, it’s a favourite with the locals of North Carlton, right in the heart of sedate Rathdowne Village. The cafe is essentially one room with small corridor of outdoor space at the back. [...]

HOT: St Ali, 18 Yarra Place, South Melbourne

May 9, 2011 ⋅ 3 comments

No doubt many of you have heard of St Ali, the cafe and specialty coffee purveyors who are one of a handful of places responsible for Melbourne’s love affair with ‘third wave’ coffee. Well, I don’t drink coffee, so this puts me at a disadvantage when a reviewing a place such as St Ali. However, [...]

HOT: Gypsy Hideout, 68 High St, Northcote

May 2, 2011 ⋅ 4 comments

Sometimes a wrong turn can be the right decision. I was cycling along the Merri Creek bike track one afternoon, intending to head up to CERES. However, at the junction for the path heading north I heard the loud rumble of excavation works and chainsawing and so I decided to take a right hand turn [...]