Melbourne

HOT: Penang Coffee House, 549 Burwood Rd, Hawthorn

August 18, 2009 ⋅ One comment

Penang Coffee House is the kind of reliable takeaway that everyone wants in their neighbourhood. No frills plastic furniture, hosed-down tiled flooring, a good place to take kids, BYO and large servings of Malay/Thai/Indian/Straits food. RM and I shared a plate of run-of-the-mill samosas (5.80), a tasty but rather soy-soaked hokkien mee ($11.20) and a [...]

HOT: Vegie Bar, 380 Brunswick St, Fitzroy

August 17, 2009 ⋅ Post a comment

Amazing. Perennial Brunswick Street favourite Vegie Bar does not seem to have increased its prices since I last visited about three years ago, which probably accounted for the buzzing crowd of students, office workers and young cool funky types on a Monday night. RM ordered an Indian-spiced lentil burger but counterbalanced any unwanted health benefits with [...]

Ask the Doctor: Sunday breakfast in the CBD

August 17, 2009 ⋅ Post a comment

Help me Doctor!: Do you know any good Sunday breakfast places in the city with real food? I’m thinking along the lines of the breakfast I had recently in Barcelona: beans, asparagus, prosciutto, chorizo and great bread, of course . - Jenny M Your prescription: Oooh you’ve thrown me a curveball here Jenny M. Not many [...]

HOT: Monsieur Truffe, 90 Smith St, Collingwood

August 16, 2009 ⋅ 10 comments

Today it felt like a big bad wolf was trying to blow my house down. I literally felt myself being lifted off my feet as I struggled my way up gusty Smith Street, so it was a relief to duck mid-trip into the haven of Monsieur Truffe. As soon as I stepped inside this chocolate [...]

NOT: Provenance Restaurant & Bar, 288 Smith St, Collingwood

August 16, 2009 ⋅ 9 comments

I’ll admit that it may not be fair to judge a restaurant on its breakfasts alone, but we should have an inkling of the quality of the fare presented at Provenance when we spotted the ‘Chef wanted’ sign in the window. It wasn’t that the food was desperately terrible, more that it was not done [...]

HOT: Shamelessly Glitzy Work, Arts House, 521 Queensberry St, North Melbourne

August 15, 2009 ⋅ Post a comment

In my experience, fringe theatre can go two ways – quirky and interesting or really really bad. After the fiasco that was Spectacular last week, I was a bit scared about what the Arts House‘s second week of Green Saturday Matinees would bring me. The stage for Shamelessly Glitzy Work was decked out in a [...]

HOT: Steel Works, Guildford Lane Gallery, 20-24 Guildford Ln, Melbourne

August 15, 2009 ⋅ Post a comment

My second time to the Guildford Lane Gallery as an accidental visit after an abortive attempt to find a Laneway Commission in Guildford Lane. This time, the gallery was showing disparate works from a couple of different artists, with the ground floor occupied by Steel Works by Mark Cowie and Greg Cassidy. As I’ve previously [...]

HOT: We Are Sorry, 620-640 Little Bourke St, Melbourne

August 15, 2009 ⋅ Post a comment

One of the joys of Melbourne is that you never know what you’ll find down a hidden alley. Melbourne City Council knows that the alleyways are one of Melbourne’s attractions, so for the past seven years they have commissioned artists to produce site-specific works for laneways and other unusual urban spaces in the CBD. This [...]

HOT: Organic Wholefoods, 277 Smith St, Fitzroy

August 15, 2009 ⋅ 2 comments

I’m very fortunate that I have not one, but two organic and bulk food stores within walking distance from my house – Organic Wholefoods and Friends of the Earth. Like a bag lady I regularly carry a collection of clinking jars, plastic tofu containers and paper bags in case I suddenly feel the impulse to [...]

HOT: Lindt Chocolat Cafe, 271 Collins St, Melbourne

August 14, 2009 ⋅ Post a comment

Look out Max Brenner and Koko Black! The CBD has a new chocolate cafe and it comes from the Swiss maitre chocolatiers Lindt. I was very excited to discover that they were opening their first store in Victoria, as I’ve always made time for a pilgrimage to their Martin Place store during my visits to [...]