HOT: Three Bags Full, 56 Nicholson St, Abbotsford

Three Bags Full is the latest addition to the industrial chic cafe scene that Melbourne does so well.
It comes with good credentials, as it’s run by the same husband-and-wife team (Sarah Foletta and Nathan Toleman) and their business partners Ben and Diamon, who are behind award-winning cafes APTE and Liar Liar. On the second day [...]

HOT: Cibi, 45 Keele St, Collingwood

I have two friends who are a couple. J is Asian and would like nothing better than a bowl of rice or noodles for breakfast. B is Anglo and in the morning the most substantial thing he can deal with  is eggs and toast.
I think I’ve just found the perfect place for them to have [...]

HOT: The Road

Today we have a guest post from our regular movie reviewer, Yalin, on the highly anticipated movie, The Road. Thanks Yalin!
If you’d like to become a guest-blogger too, just send me an email.
What distinguishes The Road (based on Cormac McCarthy’s novel) from other post-apocalyptic films is John Hillcoat’s focus on the realistic issues that humanity [...]

HOT: Old Town Kopitiam Mamak, Level 2, Shop 11 QV Square, Melbourne

If you had any doubt that food bloggers are influential people, then you’ve never been on Twitter.
Forget what The Age and old media is telling you. The hottest restaurant in Melbourne at the moment is the newly opened Old Town Kopitiam Mamak at QV Square. Not one, not two but seven bloggers (to my knowledge) [...]

HOT: Up in the Air, Classic Cinema, 9 Gordon St, Elsternwick

Up in the Air does the almost impossible – it makes redundancy humorous.
Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) is a corporate downsizing gun-for-hire who flies around the country firing employees for bosses who are too cowardly to do the dirty work themselves. He’s a smooth operator, full of pretend concern and oft-repeated platitudes but with just the [...]

NOT: It’s Complicated

Today, another guest post from our film reviewer Yalin. Thanks!
If you’d like to become a guest-blogger too, just send me an email.
I am a little confused with It’s Complicated, Nancy Meyers’ latest film. It’s blessed with great acting from Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin, but the overall feeling is fake and almost irritating.
Meyers [...]

HOT: Cafe Rosamond, Rear 191 Smith St, Fitzroy

Cafe Rosamond is a hole-in-the-wall cafe housed in literally two small rooms, and at 10am on a sunny weekday morning I discovered that many of the artsy skinny-jeans crowd of Fitzroy/Collingwood (who are these lucky people? what do they do for a living?) had cosied themselves into the wooden school chairs and small tables.

Looking for [...]

NOT: North East China Family, 302 Flinders Lane, Melbourne

I love dumplings. I like making them, I like eating them, I like sharing them. So imagine my joy at discovering North East China Family (Traditional Dumplings) right near my work when I met up with my equally dumpling-loving friend, A.
The restaurant was heaving during the lunchtime rush hour, and we had to wave a [...]

HOT: EC Pot Café Bar, QV, 200 Lonsdale St, Melbourne

Today we welcome a new guest blogger, a fashionista man-about-town who prefers to remain anonymous and will be using the rather salicious pen-name of LesKiss (for those who don’t know, Les Kiss was actually a NSW rugby league player in the 80s and 90s). Thanks LesKiss!
If you’d like to become a guest-blogger too, just send me [...]

HOT: Don Don, 321 Swanston St, Melbourne

Have you heard of the ‘sports icon’ Takeru Kobayashi? This Japanese man is one of the great champions of competitive eating (he’s now ranked second according to the International Federation of Competitive Eating, after an unheralded six years at the top).  I watched him in action in the documentary Crazy Legs Conti: Zen and the Art [...]