Network Pizzeria and Bar as a glimpse

This place is in Southern Cross Station and they have been around for a while now. I have been there twice. First for my green tea and the second time for the food.

They have always been a good bar and they used to have dessert but not anymore.

Here I really liked their $10 hotdog but was not a fan of their onion rings. It had a lot of batter and was very oily.

Shanghai Dragon Dumpling house

I have burned about 481 calories today on my practice run. It may not have been great but it was an easy run. At least I got my mojo back which is great. So of course to replenish the carbs used and the calories burned I had dumplings.

The place is in Prahran on Chapel st and there is one in the city.

They make all their own dumplings on site. The place was dead quiet for a Friday night except for a few Foodora orders.

Here I have not had the custard bao and I wanted to try these. These were yum and not very sweet.

I also had the spring onion pancake with an Asahi beer. Asahi is a Japanese  beer and it works best for Japanese food and not Chinese food. I was looking for the Tsingtao beer but they did not have. This Asahi was too heavy for the meal and I needed a lot of water to get it out.

Rating: 14/20- good but please add in Tsingtao beer and I might be happier. People please come and visit this place in Prahran.

Happy Camper Pizza at Welcome to Thornbury in short

Yes we went back to Welcome to Thornbury to this time try the Happy camper pizzas with cider. Happy Camper Pizzas are a food truck which goes everywhere. I have tried them before in Hank Marvin markets and am happy to say that they are the same good quality pizzas at reasonable prices.

I had the  Bulmer's cider which was pear and I loved it.

The pizza base was lovely and dough. But it was a little bit too much for me. There was a lot of cheese. And there was a lot of vegetables in it. There was a little bit too much artichokes and I loved the extra virgin olive oil.

The one that I had at Hank Marvin market was also good too. Do try them out wherever you are.

Tao Dumpling House

Tao Dumpling House is a new place in South Yarra. It is right near the train station. They had been open for a few months but I had not discovered them until recently. I probably just rushed by the place without looking on my runs.

The place was not busy and the staff were attentive. The manager was just ok.

Their dumplings are great and they do have half serves. Here I had their vegetable dumplings and they were freshly done. My dumplings came quick. And so were the prawn dumplings. The other group had a lot of food that they could not finish.

Then I tried other things. I came on Sunday night with Leandro and had the prawn crackers which were free during the weekend dinners and seafood fried noodles ($14). I also had a Savingnion Blanc which was chilled. This was great chilled as it brought out all the crispiness of the drink. The seafood fried noodles worked with a light drink such as this. This was light in flavour and the noodles were cooked well. It was a bit on the small side though. The seafood was fresh and the calamari was not too chewy. This is a sign that it was cooked just right.

Rating: 15/20- I like all. But I would love there to be more dessert and even a wine tasting event. They have a good wine list but the waitstaff have not much of a clue as to what works with what and what tastes of each wine is like.

The only thing that I would recommend is for them to recommend which drink works well with which dish. Luckily I found that one out via the Jacobs creek site which mentions all.

Siam Lemongrass

Siam Lemongrass is a popular student eatery in Hawthorn near Swinburne uni. Here they have all day lunch which is under $10. They had an award for the Age Cheap eats in 2012 and they are still going strong.

They share the bathrooms with Lido which is upstairs. Here the bathrooms are cool and spacious and they have a really cool bar upstairs.

Here I had a no frills Thai egg omelette and rice. I had been needing all the carbs and proteins possible for running and the new Lord of the Fries in the city was waaay too overcrowded with people getting free chips.

I really liked this as they did it freshly and I was able to try out the Thai chilli sauce which just amazing. Just as amazing was the salad under which had not much dressing to it. The rice was also good and extremely moreish.

Rating: 14/20- me likes simple food, Do come by especially for dinner as they have beer and wine and lovely dishes

Bon Fromage in short

Bon Fromage was a Parisian cheese and wine event at the old King and Godfree site in Carlton. Here they had loads of cheese for everyone to try from triple brie to vintage cheddar. Wines were $8-$10 per glass. It was cash only. Maker and Monger and Shifty Cherve were there to sell their cheese meals and blocks for all to buy.

Cheeses to try.

More cheeses on offer

Triple cream cheese- this was yum

The music there was just great

Here I loved all the cheeses on offer.

It was a pity that it was just on for the one weekend and not the two as proposed. Oh well if they do run it again I will surely attend again

Campari House's San Daniele pizza

Campari House is in the city and I have been here many times. Here the service is a tad bit slow but they are busy on Friday nights so it is best to book. Most people were drinking that night and some were already drunk.

Campari House has been refurbished. Gone are the days of the dark dim restaurant which was small. Nowadays it is big and there is lots of light to make it warm and inviting.

I started off with a chardonnay. This is $5 for members of the house. And on their birthdays there is the free pizza. I ordered a San Daniele ($24 for a small plate with not much cheese which is good). I loved all the ham on top as well as the underrated pear. I also loved the base of it. It was not too thin and not too thick.

I also loved having the fresh chilli on my base. It was quite nice and not too spicy.

Rating: 15/20- loved it. It worked really well with the chardonnay. The only improvement that I would love to see is in the service

Bells Hotel

This hotel is in South Melbourne and they have pretty decent meals from what I have heard. Here they had $15 main meals for the members of the Crosbie Crew and $15 steak specials. They were pretty huge and I was not in the mood for huge. After all I have had a huge beer, chips and other things earlier on in the day.

So instead I went for the $8 kids fish and chips which was small but ok since it was delivered to the table closer to 8pm. I got here at 7:30pm when none of them arrived and they did not know where we were sitting. I also ordered close to this time.

From there on they got the tables mixed up and people's steaks and salmon did not come until after 8pm. I would hate to pay full price for the service and the smallish plates of steak with no chips. Oh well at least they were happy.

I got to try the coucous on someone's salmon dish and it was waaay too tangy. It also had a lot of dressing. My chips seemed ho hum and the fish was great. I also tried someone else's parma chips and they were pretty good. Perhaps there was two chefs in the kitchen each with very different ideas of quality?

Oh well its fine and dandy for the drinks and parma but not the service. And dang it took them time to get the heater to work.

Mama Pho

Mama Pho is the latest Vietnamese place to hit Highpoint. But is it any good? We put it to the test.

Mama Pho is in the food court area near Crunch. So you can expect all the fitness freaks to go there after their gym session. They specialise in rolls and noodles.

After 1:30pm the place was steady with Caucasians so I wonder where it went wrong. I thought that if it was the best Vietnamese place in Highpoint it would have lots of Vietnamese there. It is after al supposed to be a healthy eating place.

I had the prawn rice paper roll ($3.20 for one with sauce included). This was freshly made. Here the prawns were fresh.

On the other hand the spring roll bun ($11) was not great except for the spring rolls. Everything was doused in too much fish oil, which by the end I could not finish all due to that overpowering smell. And taste. It did not take too long to come which is great. You order and then pay and then they will call you when it is ready.

Rating: 10/20- inconsistent and sloppy service. The lady at the front counter almost overcharged another customer and there was someone who ordered a meat bun but did not get it. But do come here for their rice paper rolls.

Burgerlove

Burgerlove is in the same area of St Kilda as Metropol. In fact it is right behind it. But it was tricky to find at first. In the end though thanks to Zomato I found it.

I first heard about it through Scoopon. And through there they sold me a $7 burger, chips and drink. Well I did not mind that they forgot my drink. Rather I wished that they did as I was happy to drink water. I did do wine earlier.

The toilets are at the St Hotel. I really didn't want to go there just to use their bathrooms as last time it was really overcrowded. Nor did I want to cross that road to get there.

Here the burger was just alright. It was $7. The beef patty was nice and juicy though and the bun was alright. The chips were nicely spiced with that paprika.

Do come on by to this place. Oh and by the way they do Ubereats which Groupon has a deal for $3 for $17 spend.

City Orchards Garden

City Orchards Garden has been around for a little while but then they started to do dumpling and snack deals which aa_dancefit on Instagram said was quite good. He enjoyed the food and all. You have to book the table and I got to say that Tuesday at around 7:30pm they were not busy.

I have to disagree with aadancefit though- I didn't really enjoy the food as much as he did. The snack set comes with tea egg, 2 spring rolls, one big BBQ pork bun (you don't normally buy them in Footscray like this), chicken skewer, fried rice, four prawn and pork wontons, one supposedly homemade dumpling, chicken and corn soup and vegetables. The drinks are not included and tea was not on offer- I wished that it was.

Beer

Spring rolls

This all you can eat is $19.90 and it is like a yum cha where they come around and serve you the food. But I didn't want seconds. I bought a Tsingtao beer to go with all my foods. But somehow it worked best with the wontons, the homemade dumpling, the tea egg and the skewer

The homemade dumpling fell apart- it was the frozen sort. I would have expected it to be the fresh sort. The chicken skewer was nice but it had too much spice to it which overpowered it by a lot.

tea egg and wontons

I really enjoyed the wontons and the tea egg. Although I have to admit I hated taking the shells off- it was so messy. The wontons were good though. The fried rice was just ok but it was too much for one person.

rice

The BBQ pork bun was really nice though. It had some nice filling in there. The vegetables however were the frozen sort. I would have liked this with a bit of oyster sauce in there. But the chicken and corn soup was not too bad.

Rating: 10/20- I expected better. When I go yum cha I have dessert as well. Also I would have loved there to be complimentary tea. Maybe when they have these things and the har gou and siu mai then they should think about inviting some bloggers down for beer and yum cha.

The service was alright though. The manager seemed a little bit surly.