Sauced Pasta Bar

This Sauced Pasta bar is in Camberwell and is part of the Tastes of Camberwell which is a month long event. I discovered it just last week when I was passing by to go to the market.

They are a stones throw away from the train station.

Sauced is a pasta bar- they don't do pizza here but all the pasta is made by hand. And they are featured in the Entertainment book and Meld is selling them. If you buy one off Meld you will be supporting their programs that they do for International students as well as their work on their site. With the voucher you can get a buy one get one free offer.

Unlike Vapiano the prices here are reasonable and you can add extras to your pasta meal. And they have a kids menu- Vapiano does not.

The manager that served me was very friendly towards me.

My pasta Aglio e Olio was lovely except they used linguine insteadof spaghetti and they were all stuck together. It reminded meof Chines noodes. They put a lot of olive oil and garlic in there. Unlike Vapianos theirs is subtle. And there is lovely bread which was crusty.

Rating: 13/20- ok pasta. Could have been better if there was more chilli. They hads lots of subtle chilli and cheese in there.


Do come by for your pasta fix.

Tim Ho Wan

Tim Ho Wan is a new dim sum place in the city and it has been opened for a few months now. They are really busy for lunch and for dinners and on the weekends it is the worst time to come. When they first opened I wanted to go in but didn't have the patience to wait in that very long line. Around 2pm they quieten down and its a good time for a late lunch or an afternoon snack.

The service was ok- it is just write down the items on a sheet of paper and then pass it to your server. And then like yum cha they will tick off the items once you receive it.

The bathrooms are outside in a laneaway outside China Red

Here I had their monthly special of crab ball and their vermicelli rice roll with peanut sauce. This is one of their specialities. Here this was $5.80 and it was on the small side. But on the up side I didn't mind the peanut sauce.

Sauces

Chilli crab balls

The chilli crab bites (balls as they might call it) were equally as great. This was their monthly special and when I saw it on the menu I just had to have it. The other table got waaay too much tantalising food and they had to take theirs home.

But my tea took a while to come. It was $2.50 and I thought that it would come waaay before the other courses. But it was good though and it comes with refills which is great to hydrate me.

Do come to Tim Ho wan if you can but avoid the busy times as you might have to queue up. And your whole group needs to come together or otherwise they will not seat you until everyone is present.

Camberwell Fresh Food Market

The Camberwell Fresh food market is one of Camberwell's best kept secret. Here they have lots and lots of fresh food as well as great meats. They are not as big as Prahran or the Queen Victoria Market but foodies will like it there.

They are a few blocks away from Camberwell train station (zone 1 and about twenty minutes from the city). They are also featured in the latest foodie event in Camberwell where foodies can discover the place themselves along with others along the Burke road strip.

I tried to find it on the Sunday that I was here but they were not open.

There are 15 stalls in all and not that many places to sit in. Most people get takeaway and go outside. In the market everything is cheap.

Here I had sushi from Yoyo's for $5.

They were dried out and awful. I had the cooked tuna and the salmon sushi. Whilst they are good for you, these were tasteless except for the fresh fish and avocado.

On Fridays and Saturdays there are gourmet hotdogs on sale for $3. They were yummy and the meat was fresh, In fact the butcher makes them. You can choose to have it with or without sauce. I chose without as that is healthier for you and I like to try things in their natural flavour.

Do come by to this secret foodie place as it is really good. The only thing is that they are not open on Sundays. Oh well you can find the Vintage market there.

Tokyo Table

Here there is a new Japanese BBQ place in Glenferrie road where all the students were. We were going to go Camberwell but seeing how long the queues of cars were and the fact that we had to get replacement bus service meant that Camberwell was unviable. We also had to come back at a decent hour as someone has to work the next day.

This place is not on zomato yet and it should- but its a few doors down from Ajisen and across the road from Santoni.


We saw the big sign outside and that enticed us to go in. Inside it was warm and cozy and full of customers eating yanniku (Japanese BBQ with meat and make your own sushi- although one table could not work out what to do with theirs even though it was in the menu. So they left all their rice- what a waste).  Luckily though the waitress explained to the next table how to cook their food.

The first to come was the complimentary tea and edamame. The edamame was cut really roughly, it had some rough edges. But the tea was really nice.

My bento was just ok. It was $10.90 and it was the tonkatsu. The miso soup was really salty and much more powdery. But the tonkatsu was tender and there wasn't a lot of rice. The tonkatsu was nicely crumbed. Moreover there was a lot of the fruit sauce.

The salad was just ok. But I did like the egg in there.
The agedashi tofu came as well and it had no moving bonito. They were two big pieces. But it was drenched in sauce and dressing from the salad and the vegetables was just the same.

Rating: 13/20- it was alright for the price
Next time I would go for the yanninuku which looked like a lot of fun or a big bowl of ramen. They do have sushi rolls but the ones at the front counter looked dead.

Riverland Cafe and Bar

Riverland has been around for quite some time now (apparently five years, I'm told) but I hadn't discovered it until last year. They are in an old style building and like Arbory most of their seating is outdoors. But they do have outdoor heating for in Winter it can get really cold. There is limited shade though.

I declined going in for a while as it looked waaay too expensive. But having Arbory's burger and paying that price I figured that it was okay for them to charge it. Rent in the city is quite high and they need to survive.

It was a busy night and punters were watching the footy and cheering on their team. Most of the punters went for beer and many of them had burgers.

Well I had their famous beef burger ($19.50) which was just ok. The chips were good though and the egg mayonnaise although good had that weird tang to it. I couldn't put a finger to it. The beef was slightly rare- it had that pink colour inside. The bun was a little bit sweet, but I did enjoy the onion jam in there at the end. The onion ring however was soggy.

Rating: 14/20- it was ok. I would be happy coming here for a drink and ice cream in the summer. I think I prefer Arbory's burger anyday.

Grill'd in Moonee ponds

There is now another Grill'd and this time its in Moonee Ponds near Essendon. I don't live too far away and I haven't been here up until now so what's the excuse? Well I just hadn't got around to visiting that's what.

I visited twice; first time with a friend and the second for a snack. The first time with a friend we came for lunch and had burgers. I had my vegetarian one and he had the Melbourne one. The both of us thought that our burgers were just ok even though mine was really filling. My friend thought that the sweet potato chips had no crisp and was really oily. I kind of enjoyed the oiliness of it as I needed a lot of fats after sweating it in the gym.

And then I decided to give them another chance. That is when I came for my snack size chips knowing that I needed more sodium and carbs as a runner. I had the sweet potato and zucchini fries. Both filled me up but boy they were a bit stingy on the donation card until I asked them. And same as the water.

But the sweet potato fries were nicely salted and crunchy not like the last time that they were soggy. I really liked the Murray river salt that they put in there. I also really liked the zucchini chips as well (except for the puddle of oil on the bottom) as they were nice and crispy and really hot. This worked well with the chilli mayo as an extra kick.

Oskar Pizza

Oskar Pizza is in North Melbourne right outside a tram line. Here they are known for the best Italian pizzas and they have been following me for some time on Instagram.

It was when Metro had decided on the replacement bus service that I had decided to give it a shot. I didn't want the inconvience of having to take a train, then a bus and then another bus. Besides North Melbourne station is about 5-10 minute walk away from here

Here the place is small and intimate and so is their menu. This is good in a way as they can just focus well on a few things and do really well with them. We didn't mind the wait as the pizza turned out really good. Really good pizza takes a while to make. Some people complained but most enjoyed their food including us. Our pizza took twenty minutes to make.

Our pizza was a small roast pumpkin pizza ($17.50) with balsamic vinegar in it as well as cheese and onion. The balsamic vinegar was very subtle which we liked and there was lots of garlic in there. The base was a little bit doughy but we did not mind one bit. At least the vegetables were fresh and we saw it go into the oven.

Then for dessert we had two scoops of Fritz's gelato for $10. Fritz have just won the best award for their ice cream hence this was well worth our money. Here it came in a small but cool looking glass which made the dessert look very tantalising. We would have ordered the Nutella pizza but we were happy with ice cream. We chose the pistachio and the macadamia flavours and they worked well together like a marriage made in heaven.

Rating: 15/20- good wish more people knew about this place.

Degani at Royal Children's Hospital

I normally don't go to Deganis but I heard that the Royal Children's Hospital is raising funds for next years Good Friday Appeal and that the Streatsmart program is on again. I saw on Facebook that Degani is donating $1 per every coffee sold to the homeless people. Since I am raising money for them too I thought that this would be ideal seeing as the mentally ill, homeless, vulnerable people come here.  Do donate to my cause if you can.

Degani is hidden away on the ground floor and not in the food court but down the corridor along with the family room and HOYTS (who knew that they have Hoyts here)! It is nowhere near McDonalds and Shuji Sushi. It is outside the 55 and 59 tram stops.

The cafe was quiet just before 10am but then after 10am the hospital staff needed their hit so they all came here at once. Not so much the patients- I wonder why. I had the $9.90 deal of bacon and eggs focachia with a coffee.

People say that their coffee is bad usually and I would have to agree myself, but given that this is a hospital with mentally ill and vulnerable patients, I would forgive them. However they forgot my latte until I reminded them and then forgot that I wanted it eat in. But I let it slide- after all they deal with all sorts of people.

My breakfast bacon focachia was anything but a focachia. When I think Focachia I think of lovely think bread- this was thin and more like a roll. But still I can't fault the eggs and the bacon.

Rating: 12/20- give them some grace. Do come by if you love some peace and quiet

Bridie O reilly's in Brunswick

RNIS scored a free $4.50 parma but they paid for their own drinks.

Here the parma was one of the best and the place was super busy with about 200 parmas being given out. The parma deal was advertised on Facebook on Monday and already 200 people snapped it up. Many including us have booked a table knowing that it would be quite packed to the rafters.

Bridie O' Reilly's is an Irish pub said to serve good food and drinks at decent prices.

Bridie O' Reilly's is near everything- train, tram, bus you name it and it is at the start of Sydney Road.

The bartender was overworked but he seemed friendly.

The lines moved quickly and the parma was given out in no time. It was prepared a few hoours earlier and same as the salads. But I already had my salad and there was no need for another,

The parma was alright though. It was hard to cut without the correct steak knife as it was so thick. The bird was cooked right through. Pity that salad was an extra $2. They forgot to ask if I wanted garlic bread, but luckily I did not mind as there was plenty. It was an extra $6 just for it. The chips were just ok though, not super fancy

Do come to Bridie O' Reilly's for their super cheap meals.

Rollo's kiosk

Rollo's Kiosk is in Marine Parade right next to the skate park. Here they are an old school like tuckshop with limited foods and lots of lollies. I was running along and I saw this place. Normally when I go by it is shut but today they were open for lunch. And lunch is what I wanted to cure a hungry stomach after all that running.

I was in the mood for eggs and the last egg and bacon roll I had. This was rather nice. Here the tomato chutney was homemade and not like the ones you see in a jar. Here we enjoyed the crinkle cut chips. These were nicely salted and they didn't need the tomato sauce. we were very happy people.

They do smoothies and milkshakes too but I learnt that they can be a bit on sweetish side for some. And they are a massive 600-700 cal per serve.

Do come by to this lovely and cheerful place after your run or skate session.

District Five Bistro

RNIS was invited to dine here and did not have to pay

This place has been opened for three months so the owner James was looking for people to review his place. James and his team are mainly Vietnamese.

Here they are an open pub which took over from the Old Ascot Vale Pub. Their next door neighbours the Tram Bar sells the drinks and provides the lively entertainment after 8:30pm each night. We enjoyed the entertainment very much.

Mon's Adventures on Weekend Notes really liked it.

There is a steak guide for those that don't know which steak to order.

They are known for their $12 steaks, a thing that James said that everybody likes. Normally you would pay $20+ in a pub but this is cheaper. You order and pay at the bar and then they give you a buzzer. Whilst waiting for my steak  I watched the chef make it and he did a bloody good job of it. The chips were nicely seasoned and there was not too much of them. The salad was fresh and didn't have a lot of that dressing

But the piece of steak looked small but it was moreish. The mushroom sauce was really nice.

For the entrée we had the Asian roast pork which was yum. Here they did the lovely pickled vegetables and the roast pork was homemade.

We also loved the cake which was a sweet way to finish off the night.

Rating: 16/20- liked the steak. Do come by for their steak. There are also other things on the menu such as their parmas which are huge and their fish and chips.Many thanks to James for the invite.

Next time I'll come for the beer as well which looked amazing but I couldn't have it due to training the next morning