restaurants and cafes

HOT: Demetri’s Feast, 141 Swan St, Richmond

September 28, 2011 ⋅ Post a comment

Oh Demetri’s Feast. If only you weren’t so small. If only your food wasn’t so good. If only your service wasn’t so friendly. If only you weren’t so cool. Then it’d be easier to visit you all the time. Demetri’s Feast was crowned Melbourne’s best breakfast in The Age’s Cheap Eats 2010 and that accolade [...]

HOT: Queen Margaret, 356 Queens Pde, North Fitzroy

September 25, 2011 ⋅ Post a comment

The pizzeria Queen Margaret is not named as a reference to QEII’s sister, but to Queen Margherita of Savoy, the first Queen of the united Italy and for whom the magherita pizza was named. Queen Margaret boasts eighteen (!) pizza varieties on its chalkboard menu, spearheaded by not just one but three riffs on the [...]

HOT: Ilona Staller, 282 Carlisle St, Balaclava

September 22, 2011 ⋅ 2 comments

I can’t cope with Melbourne’s growing trend for restaurants that don’t take bookings (too uncertain, too impatient, too hungry). But I really wanted to have dinner at Ilona Staller. What to do? Answer – dispatch my Balaclavan friends R and A to plonk themselves at the bar at 6:30pm on a Saturday night while I [...]

HOT: Small Block, 130 Lygon St, East Brunswick

September 21, 2011 ⋅ Post a comment

Small Block is a cafe particularly well suited to the urban professional/hip and arty/young parents demographic of East Brunswick. To whit: attention to coffee – the blackboard shows the single origin bean of the day and gives a description of its particular qualities; an extensive all-day breakfast menu which has the locals lining up on [...]

HOT: Victoria in a Bento Box, Matteo’s Restaurant, 533 Brunswick St, North Fitzroy

September 20, 2011 ⋅ Post a comment

The Melbourne Food and Wine Festival doesn’t just run events for two weeks in March – the rest of the year they promote food and wine with themes and events such as the Spring Graze. The Spring Graze is a gathering of more than 60 events throughout September across Victoria, all with the theme of [...]

HOT: Bluebird Espresso, 134 Johnston St, Collingwood

September 14, 2011 ⋅ 2 comments

You had me at hello. There are some cafes which just grab you by the coat and give you a big bear hug, providing smiles and instant comfort. I loved Bluebird Espresso from the moment I spotted it – a retro blue bike chained to lamp post, colourful tulips bravely wavering against the grey grunge [...]

NOT: The Tea Room, Level 1 NGV International, 180 St Kilda Rd, Melbourne

September 13, 2011 ⋅ Post a comment

Oh I know, I should have known better. When you have a captive audience (hungry, footsore gallery goers) then there’s probably not too much incentive to provide a great dining experience at the in-house cafe. Other than Cafe Vue at Heide Museum of Modern Art and some international examples (notably Tate Modern and Musee d’Orsay) [...]

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 [...]

HOT: Squirrel Cafe, 23 Groome St, Clifton Hill

September 8, 2011 ⋅ One comment

squirrel /ˈskwər(ə)l/ Noun: An agile tree-dwelling rodent (Sciurus and other genera, family Sciuridae) with a bushy tail, typically feeding on nuts and seeds. Verb: Hide money or something of value in a safe place: “the money was squirreled away in foreign bank accounts”. Squirrel Cafe makes the most of its name by taking both those [...]

HOT: The Cutting Table, The Social Studio, 128 Smith St, Collingwood

September 5, 2011 ⋅ Post a comment

Since I wrote about The Social Studio almost 18 months ago the social enterprise has grown and developed. In terms of their cafe, it has moved from the back of the studio (where it was cute but small and hidden) to a bigger, brighter and more prominent site right next door. I’m so glad that [...]