Good Luck Tea House

I got the $25 Scoopon which entitled me to spend $50 in store. But I also spent $12 of my own on another glass of wine and spring onion pancake.

Good Luck Tea House is on busy Chapel st and you would expect it to be busy with people as Chapel st is always busy, no matter what day or time it is. But Good Luck was really quiet tonight despite their Scoopon being popular. Their Facebook and Instagram are not popular and there are not many people visiting. In fact, someone said on Zomato that the food was bad.

Well, I digress. It was neither good or bad. Well, their signature Good Luck dumpling dish of 12 took a while to come and it was $28. Here the vegetarian, prawn and shark fin were cooked well. The siumai was a little bit undercooked as it was still pink. The Shanghai duck dish was ok. One of the chive dumplings was a little bit overcooked (it was a bit dry).This dish worked really with the pinot noir.

Sauv Blanc works well with seafood dishes and I had the scallop with ginger sauce. But the scallop was slightly overcooked and there was too much sauce. It overpowered the dish.

But I really liked the Spring Onion Pancakes. They were nice and flaky and really well done. This was the best part of the meal.

Rating: 11/20- soso.
But at least the service was friendly but very slow for a very quiet night. As for the bathrooms they are behind a door and up some stairs. And the floor of the bathroom is sticky.

Mappen Ramen

Mappen Ramen is in Bourke st. It is one of the popular Sydney Eats hence the Melbourne restaurant is always busy.

I was on my way to the Post office when I was hungry and wanted some lunch. I wanted something with no sauces and no sweets.

Here you order and then you get your topping and then pay. There are no reserving seats for anyone and I got mad when somebody did reserve it for three of their friends. He could have just waited for them outside or got takeaway as they do that.

I got the plain udon with miso soup and a seafood skewer, agedashi tofu, and curry potato croquette. Here they were fresh but the skewer was a little bit cold from sitting in the bain marie for some time. There was an okonomiyaki skewer but they had all runout.

The Agedashi tofu was alright but it came with no sauce and I wanted it that way as I am doing the Sugar-Free September for Healthy International students. One of the rules is that you can't have sauce unless it is homemade. It was fresh though.

The udon was silky smooth which is great. The miso was a bit too much though. But I loved the self-serve red ginger and tempura crumbs.

Do come by when you have time or for dinner.

Teatro at Southbank

This was supposed to my Week 46 treat as I survived the last 45 weeks of Marathon training. So I decided to go to Teatro a newish Italian place which Gastrology really liked.

Red Wine

Cutlery

Oysters

Cannelloni up closely

The bathrooms are on the right side of the kitchen as you walk in. The kitchen is an open one in which you can see everything going on in there.

The oysters were small but I really liked the sherry vinegarette sauce as it was so addictive. Here I had the Sydney Rock oyster and the Pacific rock one and they were so small. I have seen bigger at South Melbourne Market.Here these were $3.50 and $4 respectively.

They had their $15 lunch specials seeing as it was a weekday that I went. Here I had the baked cannelloni which was nice but a tad bit overcooked. And the focaccia was an extra $5 This was nicely baked a good dusting of salt.

The red wine worked well with the lunch and the cold weather today.

Rating: 13/20- if only their service was not slow. The place was quiet except for a big group of fourteen people and three other tables. One went up to pay.

Gru Thai

RNIS was invited to try this place and did not have to pay

Gru Thai is a new place in South Melbourne which is either liked or disliked by bloggers. Here they do authentic Thai but not as authentic as Cookie. They had several Groupons which bloggers and customers bought alike.

Here not only are they a restaurant but they are also a gift and grocery store. You can buy things to take home. And yes they do Menulog but we weren't allowed any takeaway.

First up were the drinks. And yes they were speedy but they were also very quiet for a Friday night. Here I got a strong tasting Thai lager and my friend had the coke. My friend wanted to leave really soon.

My friend had the Pad Thai and it was really good without the chilli sauce. Although the beef was slightly overcooked the noodles were al dente and it had a lot of wok hei to it.

I got the Thai fried rice which was vegetarian. This was bland and had no wok hei to it. All it was is just vegetables and tofu. There was no pineapple in there.

The roti was really thin and not flaky. I preferred Cookie's roti any day as it was flaky. This was not flaky but thick and eggy.

But I did like the prawn money bags though.

In the end I was full but not so full as to enjoy their coconut ice cream. This ice cream played on my tongue in terms of flavour and was not too sweet.

Rating: 13/20- its just ok, but do give the Pad Thai a try for yourself. As for the roti I prefer Cookie anyday.

The Loft

The Loft is a breakfast place in Peter Mc Callum centre but they also serve burgers for lunch. Here they were busy seeing all the cancer patients, visitors and staff for the daily caffiene grind. I have been here a few times now.

You enter the Peter McCallum centre at the ground floor and then proceed to the lifts. There you press the number 7 and then a lift will take you straight there. I have found the lifts to be a little confusing sometimes but there is no other way.

The bathrooms are on the right of the lifts as you go out of them to the restaurant and are through a blue door. Pass the lecture theatres on the way and the kitchen and you are there. They are always quiet.

Here they have a cake counter and a coffee counter. You place your order at the coffee counter and they will give you a table number. Thus this is where all the sandwiches and lunch items can be found.

At the cake counter they do juices. Place your order for juice here.

They always have stellar egg wraps here which are made fresh on site each day. The desserts here look really good. I haven't yet tried any of them as I'm not much of a sweet tooth fan.

The long black that I had was really good today.

Do visit The Loft at Peter McCallum centre.

Mr Burger

Mr Burger is now at Melbourne Central where all the cool kids go.

Here they had a poster in the lift saying free chips. You have to take a photo of it of course. I was at the gym on level 4 and saw it on my way down. So took the photo and I only had to pay for the burger which was $11.

I had the Mr Veg of course but went for the chips several times. Normally a pack of small chips costs me $3.50 and it comes with tomato sauce. But I never use sauce. I like food naturally as they are. I don't need to drown food in sauce like some people do. To me that is gross.

My veggie burger was darn good as always. As soon as you order it they make it and then they will call your name out. Already I could see that they had 4-6 burgers already lined up and there was a production line going.

Do come to this Mr Burger whenever you are in the city and need a break from study. They are just across the road from RMIT hence it is easy for students to get to.

Roll'd at Southgate

Roll'd at Southgate is one of the better Roll'd around. Here they do have the freshest of rice paper rolls that do not dry out. They also seem to be quite busy at lunch and dinner.

Here you order and you pay and then you get given a buzzer if you order hot food. I have had quite a few things here as I have been quite a few times.

Here I have had their pho and their sweet potato chips. You can buy a cup or a bowl of pho. I picked bowl this time for $12.50 and it had a tiny rim of dirt when it came. And it had a lot of msg, sigh. It didn't have much noodles or meat in there (mine was the mixed meat). There were pickled onions on top.

I still prefer the one at the Pho Flinders place- cheaper and no msg. Also, it is more filling.

But their rolls are decent though, albeit steep for $4.20. Roll'd you better up your game as Pho Flinders is beating you and they have two stores in the city. Both of them on Flinders st.