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.

Okra

RNIS was invited by Healthyintstudents site to participate and as such, they would appreciate the promotion of the Entertainment book.

Here they are located in Camberwell where the Rivoli cinema is. They are a hole in the wall place which is hard to find. And me being a westie found it hard to find.

On Sundays, they have their Hawkers market. Here all their dishes are $11.9-$18 and are not priced at the $30 mark.

The service from Laurence the owner was very friendly.

The bathrooms are upstairs and before you go there you'll see lots of pictures of Malaysia.

To start off with I enjoyed a Riseling. It worked with the Hainan chicken in that it balanced the flavors of the dish really well.

I loved their complimentary chips as they had that spicy tang. Lawrence the owner told me that everything is made from scratch. Even they make their own sauces.

Here the roti is really flaky and was not too sweet.

The Hainan chicken was ok but they forgot the soup and the rice was very overcooked. The chicken was a little bit salty from the sauce.

Many thanks to Healthyinternational students for the invite and do check out their site. Do buy the book from them as Okra has a 25% discount offer and other offers. If you buy now then you'll also receive a gift card as well as assist the Salvos over the Christmas period.

Runya's room

Runya's room was recommended to me by an Instagram friend.

I have been a few times now and love the place. They do have a good selection of great teas and I love their green tea.

So I went and got cozy in their little booth outside the place. The atmosphere is relaxed and the shop is tiny. But you can see all the cakes out the front as well as the desserts. They also do high teas and is a champagne bar.

I loved the scrambled eggs and the chilli hint that was there.

But their finger sandwiches were just divine. Here I shared them with someone and got 50% off the total bill thanks to Dimmi. The chicken one was really good. My friend seemed to like them.

We both loved the pastrami ones. And the fruit gave it that nice sweetness in between sandwiches. I think it was there to cleanse the palate.

The tortilla one was just delish.

He also likes the coffees at Runya's room as they are strong and lovely. He loves the lovely artwork on the coffees.

The high tea on one table looked really good, but pity that the Dimmi offer does not include these or drinks.

Do come by Runya's room and I will be sure to book their High tea sometime.

Lien Lien Cafe

I'm finally back after the Melbourne Marathon run. This run has kept me so busy that I hadn't had time to write much!

Or explore much!

Here Lien Lien cafe is near the Queen Victoria markets and they have great value food and drink. All of which are priced under $15 and is the perfect student eatery.

The place is clean and bright. Several times that I have walked past they were closed and I wanted to try them for some time.

The bowl of spring rolls and vermicelli was $10 and it was massive. I couldn't finish it all. But I welcomed all the vegetables underneath the noodles. The spring rolls have meat in them. It is a good thing that the waitress asked if I was allergic to nuts and I wasn't. So many Vietnamese places forget to ask about the nut allergy.

But she forgot to ask whether or not I wanted my spring rolls to be vegetarian. Luckily I'm a meat eater.

As for the long black it was a big cup for $3.50 and it was just right. The coffee was a little bit burnt.

Next time though I would love to try their $6 rolls. I wonder why this place is always quiet!