Arabasque cafe

This cafe is a little place on Elizabeth St near RMIT Carlton Campus. I had walked by it a few times and saw that they were always empty. I had always wanted to try but from the outside, they looked more like a Shisha bar.

That is until I went in and found that they were a friendly and very homely cafe.

 The owner told me that they were busy at night as they are also a Shisha bar.

The service was very friendly and the prices here are student friendly. For a start, they don't charge any more than $13 for a standard breakfast with lots of food. Normally in the city, it is $20-$22. And that's without coffee.

They mainly are a vegetarian place but they have just a few meat dishes.

Here their food is really healthy and Jordanian style. I never had this style of food before so I cannot comment much. I had the Jordanian style eggs which come with hummus and pita bread. And there are lots of bread in their freezer out the back. I loved the Jordanian eggs as it was so healthy. And that hummus is just like the way that my mum would make this at home with all the good fats.

The long black was just ok, but I loved the little sampler of chocolate bread for $1. It melted in the mouth and was not too sweet.

I would recommend this place to my students and any International students who live in Melbourne.

Hungry Bear

Hungry Bear is a new pizza place in town and they offered free pizza to all and a second free furphy for me.

But we paid for the arancini and the first Furphy which was $6.50. The arancini was on the small side and was $7. The last time we bought this was at the End of year run party and they were bigger balls. These were tiny.

Salt

Furphy

Arancini

The place is small and the old Chillipadi used to be there. I guess Chillipadi couldn't afford the fees and they left shop. Now Hungry Bear takes place. The owner is a lovely lady and her husband loves drinking beer. They really do know their beer.

The free pizza I had was good but tiny. I guess they wanted to do guilt free eating as too many people are overweight. It was Christmas ham with pineapple. Normally after 5pm it would be $5. This sized pizza is normally $14. Their pizzas take 90 seconds to make and the ingredients are fresh. All the ingredients are already prepared. All they need to do is put it in the quick oven which tells the server when the pizza is done.

I have had Furphy before and enjoyed it. This was not too bad and they had some fruity notes in there.

If you are around and are up for a drink come on by. I hope that they are featured as a bonus offer in the Entertainment book. 

Shaw Davey Slum

The Shaw Davey Slum has been there for a while now and they are featured in the Entertainment book. They are a student pub in Carlton which has cheap happy hours.

However, they have a minimum spend in the book which I did not know about. It turns out that you need to spend $30 on food alone and not the drinks part.

We got the three dishes for $22 and another arancini dish as well as a spiced rum for me and a coke for him. For the three dishes we chose the house chips, arancini and onion rings. The onion rings were heavily battered and not very nice. I don't recommend getting those.

The house chips were good though. They were crispy and crunchy and I loved the spiciness. I'd be happy to eat these without the aioli.

I loved the arancini balls as they were quite cheesey and gooey and not hard at all.

My spiced rum worked well with all the food with the exception of the onion rings.

Do come by to this cheap pub on a Friday afternoon.

Crust pizza bar

Crust Pizza bar is a chain store in Australia. And they are featured in the Entertainment book for 25% off the total bill for takeaway and dine in. Excludes online offers.

Here I went to the one in Lonsdale st and it is smallish. They weren't very busy as it was a warm night.

According to their claims of the pizzas take ten minutes to make- mine took a little longer as it was seafood. It was $14 with the Entertainment book voucher. And they forgot to apply the discount. It took them a little while to remember and when they did they gave me a free fanta.

But the seafood pizza was very nice. It didn't have too much sauce which I liked and it had a lot of fresh seafood. The base was just perfect.

Do come by for your pizzas and remember to buy the book off us as you'll save lots when you go out.

Bellota Wine bar

I have been to this place a few times and am hooked on trying their wines. They don't have much in terms of food but they do have a lot in terms of wine.

Their wines change weekly depending on what the Prince Wine store has on offer. I usually like white wines with oysters and raw seafood. It is the same with champagne. Then I like red wines and shirazes with pastas, cooked meat and seafood dishes. A riseling works best with prawn and chicken dishes.

The bar staff at the place is lovely and knowledgeable. Here they were training another new employee on all the wines and all the things in the shop. The atmosphere in the bar is warm and welcoming.

I love their oysters and the mingonette sauce as it worked well with the wine. The oyster itself does't seem to be fresh as I had a hard time getting it out of the shell.

The souradough bread that I had last time was lovely and divine.

Do come by for the wines and the tastings.

Clocks

Clocks is an old Pokies venue at Flinders St station. But did you know that they are also a bar? Well, it's true. They look like pokies from the outside but they are not.

Here they have old school drinks at old-school prices. We went there on Friday when it is wine and whine. Wine and whine is about promoting venues which have happy hour and drinks at reasonable prices. Food too.

I tried a Crown lager and he had a pot of Carlton. Both the drinks were $5.50. It is $5 for members. He also had a glass of coke.

We were served by a lovely English lady who enjoyed looking after the customers. He had been here many times.

We shared a bowl of chips and wedges. Here they are $6 and $7.50 respectively. They were good and they came out quickly after we ordered. We were hungry so we dived into them and they were divine. It's a pity that they don't do meals or spring rolls here.

Do come by for the cheap drinks and it is $5 for a one-year membership to this place which includes free food.

Sushi Hub

This new Sushi Hub opened up in Hawthorn a few months ago. Unlike the city one this one does not have wine and is a small store.

Tamago sushi

Gyoza

Salmon nigiri

Ikura nigiri

Miso soup

Tempura vegetables

Here there are many varieties on offer and you can even order main meals. I had the entertainment book voucher so I went with a friend.

The bathrooms are small and are out the back.

The tamago sushi fell apart. It had that rubbery feel to it. But we enjoyed all the seafood sushi and edamame.

The gyoza was cold. It had been sitting on the train for a while.

And the ready made udon was yum. Unlike the city store this came in a huge bowl.

I have never tried the ice cream in the city store. However I really liked this one here. I loved the crunch of the cornflakes down the bottom.

Do come by for the ready made meals and seafood.

Pinocchio

Pinocchio is an Italian place in South Yarra. Here they do good quality food but the service can be slow. They are right near the train station.

They have been featured a few times in the Italian Good Food week. And since it is good food week I decided to visit.

The entree of aranchini ball was lovely and addictive. It was crunchy on the outside and piping hot on the inside.

They have their $25 special nights which includes pizza and pasta on selected weeknights. Here I had the Aglio E olio which was a bit bland. It could have done with more olive oil. But still the pasta was al dente.

But the white wine went well with the food.

Do visit if you have the time and they are featured in the Entertainment book which you can buy off us and support the Salvos through their mission.

Lord of the Fries

There is a new Lord of the Fries open in Hawthorn right where Swinburne Uni and the Glenferrie station is.

We bought the $8 Scoopon for a meal which includes drink (water or soft drink), hotdog or burger and your choice of chips. It comes with the sauce but I am trying not to eat too many sugary things hence no sauce.

At the beginning, Lord of the Fries was just that: fries. Now they have their vegan burgers and hotdogs which people love. What would be nice is some lovely organic wines and beers on the menu. But I suppose a liquor license would be hard to get and expensive.

The vegan hot dog was the first time I've ever tried one so I cannot comment much to say that it tastes a lot better than the meat ones any day. They use vegan sausages which is just awesome. I have tried vegan sausages at the Cruelty-free shop when they do their BBQ.

But the sweet potato chips are to die for. They are crispy on the outside and not too oily which is great.

Do come by the Lord of fries in Hawthorn and Windsor as they are not too busy and they are welcoming. You're welcome.

Cafe Roc in short

The Roc Cafe and bar is in South Yarra and its in the Gold Class area. Movie patrons can enjoy a meal or a drink before their movie starts.

They also do functions and serve the Gold Class patrons. The bar is just exquisite.

Here I had a Chardonnay and fish and beef tacos. They have happy hour where all the wines are $6 and tacos are $2 each.

The fried fish taco was really good but the beef one was a bit soggy. The fried fish one was really crispy.

Do come by for a quick drink before the movie starts. We promise that you'll enjoy coming here

Carlton Italian Fiesta and wine

The Carlton Italian Fiesta was on and it was all about good food and wine. Here the Italians enjoy their food and wine. They mainly enjoy pizza.

During the daytime, it was quite busy but at twilight, it was quite fun to dance, eat, drink and be merry. I have never been to one of these before but I do enjoy a good festival at night where there are no kids. Kids ruin my enjoyment- they run around with balloons and things and I do not enjoy.

But here at the Salumisti bar, it is peace and quiet and free canapes. But you have to purchase a drink. I purchased their on the TAP white wine which was good with my pizza and the anchovy canape. Other canapes featured pork which is Salumnisti's specialty.

There was a cheese one with a capsicum piece on top. That would work well with the Shiraz.

My pizza from 400 Gradi was good. It was doughy and cheesy just the way that I liked it.














Do come to next years festivities in Carlton as this year was great.

The Colonial Tramcar restaurant

RNIS received free gift vouchers as an XMAS present and did not have to pay. But they only received two vouchers for the late night dinner service which would have been approximately $145 and lasted three hours.

The tramcar restaurant is small and so they have two tramcars. On each tramcar, there is about 2-4 staff working there and two of them mingle with the people. We were there by 8:15pm for the late night dinner service.

Oh, it was fun exploring the city at night with unlimited drinks. And there were a few birthdays on board which was celebrated at the end of the meal.

There is a toilet for each service and it is small.

To start off with I had champagne and he had juice. The champagne is from Rothbury and is an NV Curvee. This wine was fruity and went well with everything that I had. Dining at its finest.

There were dips and crackers and one of them was a roasted eggplant dip which I liked.

Salmon mousse

The dinner roll was soft and warm which I enjoyed.

The charcuterie that he had was terrible. He didn't like it one bit. I tried the bread and I got to admit it was very chewy. My salmon avocado mousse was fine but they put too much avocado in there for an entree. And that orange sauce was weird with it.

Then my chicken with bok choy and mushrooms came. I was not a fan of that chicken, it was overcooked and there was way too much sauce overpowering the mushrooms and bok choy. He didn't like the steak- it was too chewy and there was too much butter on top.

Cheese platter

Then the cheeses came. It was brie and cheddar and they were store bought, probably from Coles. The crackers too were store bought. But I enjoyed the cherry jam. It had that nice tartness and sweetness.

For dessert, we had the tasting platter. It was a very sweet and rich chocolate tart and a light and creamy pannacotta.

To end there were tea and coffee.

Many thanks to the Colonial Tramcar restaurant for having us and they are in the Entertainment book for $30 off the entry for two adults to their late night dinner service so do check them out and if you haven't already do purchase the book from us.

Hot Poppy Cafe

This morning I went to Hot Poppy cafe for a coffee and breakfast. I was sick of the guy playing music on my tram and annoying everyone.

Hot Poppy has been around for a while but I never got to visit it. Here they are a homely cafe which offers breakfast.

I had my usual of soy latte and instead of my usual eggs on toast for breakfast, I decided to have corn fritters. I did this as part of my challenge for November which is to be a healthier, happier me. I am not doing this for the money but I would love to learn stuff.

The corn fritters with the jalapenos were fantastic. Here they were cooked well and they had a tiny bit of goats cheese goodness in each of the balls. Here the balls worked really well with the jalapeno sauce.

The soy latte was full of cream just the way I like it. Except there was not much of a soy taste.

Do come by the Hot Poppy cafe if you are waiting for a tram and need a coffee in a hurry.