Showing posts with label Melbourne. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Melbourne. Show all posts

6/10/2020

Nutrition Station, Niddrie, Melbourne (permanently closed)

Fresh good quality food. The staff is helpful and customize meals without fuss. Friendly atmosphere. I had a veggie burger with sweet potato chips and it was quite lovely. However, the placed lacked ambience or character. Despite the place being semi-empty, the service was unacceptably slow and the staff had limited English. The meal was also a bit tasteless and poorly seasoned. Overall, not worth my money. 
 


 

2/11/2020

12/22/2019

12/09/2019

Biagio's, Niddrie, Melbourne

The place has an amazing vibe, atmosphere and old-European bar-cafe style that attracts patrons like bees to honey. The service is really friendly and accommodating, however, service is extremely slow even when the place is not even half-full and the food was average. I had a burger menu and the burger was burnt, the fries were dreadful and the burger was not really well assembled. I haven't returned since, and the good looks will never satisfy my belly.

11/30/2019

Oliver's Patisserie & Cafe Niddrie, Melbourne

This is an unpretentious place, a typical neighborhood decent bakery and cafe. Their coffee is smooth. They have a great variety of gourmet breads baked on site every day, as well as what I call 'tradies lunches', and a good selection of freshly baked cakes, which are lovely. The cruffin in the photo is delicious. The place has no character and the sitting arrangements inside are not very inviting or cozy. Not a remarkable place or gourmet place, but very good every day hangout. 

11/16/2019

11/11/2019

Parisian Baker, Essendon Vic, Melbourne

This is one of the most popular bakeries on Keilor Rd Essendon for many reasons. The wonderful location and European vibe to start with. But, most importantly due to the quality of the breads, pastries, croissants and cakes they bake on site. Their coffee is a good smooth coffee. I have been going to this place for many months, and I love their pistachio and raspberry croissants, pain a chocolate, and some of the smooth cheese cakes on sale. The staff is friendly and efficient. and I have barely had any issue with them. The bakery is packed during weekends. A very pricey place.

8/08/2019

Publique Bakery, Preston Market, Preston Vic

I have been there three times and ordered different pastries. All are fantastic. My fav are the chocolate twisters, totally fab, but everything I've bought from there have been great. Danish are wonderful! The place is a small dispatch, but the guys behind the counter are really nice . Pastries have a great price for their quality. Good coffee The place is inside the Preston Market and, although there is a pubic seating area in front of it, it would be great having something more secluded and a bit more charming. For the rest, this is my go-to pastry place in Preston. 
 

1/27/2019

Phat Stacks Burgers, Camberwell, Melbourne

Phat, pink and juicy meat pat. Gold, coloured or normal buns. Big size, well assembled. Fully satisfying, Fully yummy.

The chips are absolutely top-notch. I would visit just to have a basket of those. Golden, crunchy outside and soft inside, and so yummy overall.

The staff are delightful!, Genuinely umber-friendly, and they treat each and every customer as a visiting king/queen.

Pity that my belly is not bigger, because some of the stacked burgers and humongous shakes are just one of those things that you cannot let pass.

The Bakers Wife, Camberwell, Melbourne

Out of the beaten track, this vibrant full-of-character cafe in Camberwell matched my expectation.
The place is really charming, modern and accommodating.

The staff are a bunch of good-looking genuinely friendly hard-working chaps, and they made my experience something really enjoyable.

The menu had a mix of classics and innovative dishes, and they have specials of the week. Plus a large selection of baked sweets.
 
I had one of the specials, the octopus dish, which had a very tender flavorsome octopus, not chewy at all, on a bed of lentils, fennel and citrus mayo. The dish was generous in size and fully satisfying regarding flavour. However, I missed a bit of more texture in the dish, and a bit of more citrus anything, as the wedge of lemon and mayo were not enough, at least to me.

As a dessert I had one of their wonderful apricot tartlets. It was uber-fresh, fluffy, moist and full of flavor. However, I was disappointed that, despite apricots being in season, the tartlet had a compote of apricot not full pieces of the fruit. I think that would have got the tartlet to the next level. 

My iced latte was very good and a great size!

I loved the cafe, the staff and their food options. A bit of more finesse and they would get a five star from me.
  

The Meat & Wine Co, Camberwell, Melbourne

Upmarket place in the heart of Camberwell, Meat & Co honors its name by offering pieces of meat cooked to perfection in very classy settings. 

The menu is varied and scalable regarding size of the meat you want, variety of meat, and cooking of the meat.  Their dishes come with salad or fries, and the sauces have to be ordered as a side, as well.

Their selection of wines and drinks is also very good.
My meat was cooked to perfection and it was, in fact, the best thing of my meal. Truly satisfying, juicy and yummy. The fries were totally average and don't make any favor to the meat or the restaurant. The garlic sauce I ordered was very delicate, so in my case the garlic flavor was good but not enough.

I love that they have good meat knives and fabric napkins, something I don't take for granted.

I found the place good-priced for the quality of food and drinks you find. I had the smallest cut of meat and I left fully full and satisfied without being ripped off.

Staff were very professional, courteous and polite, but also a bit uptight and not specially friendly.

12/15/2018

Noughts and Crosses Cafe, Flemington Vic, Melbourne

I've visited this place endless times, since they first opened in Flemington, and it is one of my fav cafes in the area. It has very chill-out premises and staff, and an always interesting menu. To be fair, they used to have more interesting dishes at the beginning, but everything I've eaten at this cafe has always been satisfying, with dishes well cooked and interesting. The last one I had, the pork shoulder was a great meal with the potatoes cooked to perfection. Patrons are always chill-out people of all ages. Not a hipster place, but a modern fav of mine. Nothing flashy, just consistently good food.  Coffee is good.

Short Black (Camberwell Vic)

3.5/5 
This a all-round Italian cafe, with ample premises and comfortable seating area, patrons of all ages and a large Italian and Australian classics menu, with generous servings. I had their hand-made chicken gnocchi with wine sauce and they were lovely, perhaps lacked a bit of finesse and were on the pricey side. Their earl-grey tea was great. I enjoyed my visit.

Port Of Call (Sandringham Vic)

This is really a great cafe, at a walking distance from the railway station. The place itself is very trendy, spacious, comfortable and has many different seating areas.

They have a large menu appealing menu, something that really excites me.

I ordered the chermullah chicken warm salad, and wow! Fabulous, really. Great mix of flavours, textures and overall a yummy dish. I thought the baked chicken was a tiny-bit drier than it should, but not really dry. Nicely plated, and the portion was generous, too.

I ordered one of their cold teas, the sparkly Toddy, and at 7 bucks the glass I thought it was a waste of my money, as it tasked basically of carbonated water, not much flavour. I thought it would be better with just ice cubes or the hot version, because this sparkly one is totally forgettable.

I loved their ambience, colour scheme, and upbeat music. I'll be back.
 

 

12/03/2018

Legacy (Camberwell, Vic)

I went out of my way to visit this place due to the high ratings. Based on what I got, the food is mediocre, portions small and my eggs were badly poached, almost hard inside, not runny at all. The kimchi hash was really good, nothing I have tried before and I really enjoyed it. The chorizo was just a thin slice of it, one. Overall, forgettable.

Good coffee.

The staff were genuinely friendly, accommodating and very attentive. In fact the staff were the best thing of my visit

The place is really vibrant and comfortable, with a great seating common area

Juno & May (Camberwell, Vic)

I had a pleasant visit for brunch recently. 

Juno & May's menu is large, varied and interesting. I had the sweet potato hash dish, and it was wonderfully presented, colourful and really generous in size. Overall was very nice, but lacking finesse. The hash was too dense to be a sweet potato hash, more like a gnocchi mix used as hash and with little sweet potato (or so it felt to me) and it was burned outside. There was a lot of thought about the mix of flavours put on the plate, but a bit of more thought on the textures of the different elements would have made the experience more enjoyable.

Nice coffee.

The place is really lovely, spacious and full of greenery. The ambience is quiet , relaxed and chatty, and, at least when I visited. Mum, grandma and family friendly. Perfect for a quiet pleasant catch-up during the week.

BurGround (Moonee Ponds, Vic)

I visited this place when they first opened and their burgers are really good, large and yummy! Their aioli, made in the house, is excellent. Their chips aren't crunchy enough for me, and forgettable. The staff were the kindest most loving people, really eager to please and very welcoming. The premises are ugly, sorry!, a bit too large, like a recycled shop that hasn't been properly furnished, so it lacked ambience.

11/17/2018

MOB (Camberwell, Vic)

Located in front of the Camberwell Sunday Market, this is a very vibrant large modern cafe serving healthy yummy food.

My smashed pumpkin (avocado is dead Melbourne!) with beetroot pure, goats cheese, crispy kale and poached egg on toast was fabulous. The serving portion was generous as well.

My coffee was also fab re taste and preparation; good body, strong flavour minus the bitterness. Hurrah!

Two main faults, there was a tiny egg in my breakky. If it had been a jumbo egg, I would understand, but this wasn't a jumbo egg, so why not adding two small eggs? I thought there wasn't enough animal protein in my dish. Of course, this is just my preference, and it might not be yours. The second downside was the size of the coffee cups, one of those I call doll-house-cups.

Service was fast and uber-friendly.
 
Standard prices.

Laurent Bakery (Camberwell, Vic)

I had one of the best cakes of the last two months in this branch of Laurent's. Le Jardin D'ete or summer garden wasn't only beautiful to look at, uber-fresh but also delicious, with many layers of yummy stuff and with the right amount of sugar. The place is really great, with many different areas: quickie family eat area, armchairs cosy classy corners, communal tables. I love the place. Service was fast and friendly but also distracted. I ordered an earl grey tea and got a green tea. No-no-and-no. Please listen to clients. I'll be back.

Hash Specialty Coffee (Camberwell, Vic)

The CBD Hash is one of my fav cafes in Melbourne, so I had great expectations about this cafe. Unfortunately, it falls short in all fronts if compared to the other Hash. As a stand alone cafe, this is a lovely place. The staff are really welcoming and genuinely friendly, the premises are very cool, and the menu is nice enough. My pumpkin croquettes on salsa were really lovely, as it was the coffee I had.