Turf Bar

RNIS was invited by Dimmi to try their food but paid for their own drinks.

Turf Bar is on Queen St near Bourke st and it's a short walk away from Southern Cross station. Here they are an Irish sports bar with the focus on Guinness.

The bar was steady and the service was a tad bit slow. The lady had a hard time understanding the request for the bill.

It was parma night and they do all parmas for $15. In line with Healthyintstudents promise of vegetarian meals, I went for the vegetarian parma of eggplant with an extra of an egg. Here this was really good and I loved the crumbs on top. They were just perfect.

I did not like the fact that they have put extra salad on the plate. It made the chips a little bit soggy.

But I had a Guinness and it was $5.40 for a pot. It was to celebrate St Patrick's day which was four days ago. But I didn't want to celebrate it then.

Do come to the Turf bar for their cheap meals and drinks and do support Healthyintstudents and buy a book this year. There is a discount in the book for 25% off the total bill.

Diary of an Aspiring Loser: 10 Years and Still Going!

Diary of an Aspiring Loser: 10 Years and Still Going!

Spire restaurant

This place is in Mantra Hotel in Southbank. I happened to be at a conference that day.

Here I had coffee, tea and lunch in there. But they do have some boutique looking wines which I wanted to try.

Oh and they have happy hour from 4-6:30pm. Someone wanted more wine than they would have liked. But its no good for them.

The service there was very friendly. Pity is that they don't open for lunch. They only just open for breakfast and dinner. But they do lunches only when there is a conference on.

The people in my group did not like their meals as they did not finish them. Someone had a burger and did not finish it.

My soy latte was alright.

But the kale and beetroot salad was pretty good. Albeit a bit pricey for a small size but I got away with that and a bagel bought from outside. And it was what Healthyintstudents wanted anyway. Add chicken to it and it would have been an extra $4.

My tea was alright and it was $4 which was not too bad for a big pot. Normally at Lindt its $5.70 for one of these.

Do come by this place for tea in a hotel and for the comfort.

The Parkville cafe

I was at the hospital again. This time I was waiting for a tram which was waaay too slow (someone broke their foot somehow at the Children's hospital). So I decided not to wait and go and grab a coffee.

Then I remembered the Parkville cafe which is on the side where the park is. Here they sell healthy food and gluten-free stuff. I'm glad that the soft drink cabinet is behind the counter which means that people can't just help themselves to the sugary drinks. Healthyintstudents and I are against the sugary drinks and were right from the start. As a promise to Healthy International students blog, I said that I would go vegetarian and I did.

I had an avocado smash with eggs and feta and toast. It is not low carb but avocado is good for fats and is a vegetable. The sourdough was on the thin side which is great. I loved the goat's feta and I had been encouraging people to try this as it is awesome.

Usually, filter coffee is not $3 in the city. It usually is $5. When I saw the sign that filter was $3 I decided to get.

Most people got takeaway but I decided to have my meal in the cafe as it is quite warm and welcoming.

I got a small little gluten-free yoyo. As a health blogger, I am always curious about gluten-free food. It did look good.

Do come by this cafe when you are in the hospital as they are the healthiest places around.

The Louden Restaurant

The Louden Restaurant is in Mercure in the city. And they are a part of the Le Accor hotels program (a program which rewards guests in many different ways for their loyalty).

Here they don't offer much in terms of vegetarian food but they do have some meals which are locally sourced. And all of their wines are locally sourced.

Oddily the bathrooms are outside the restaurant. Turn right after the exit and you'll find them. You'll also find all of their awards on the wall.

The service was just ok. They did forget to record my booking (and I booked via Dimmi). And they forgot my wine until I had to remind them. It was a quiet night (it was a midweek dinner).

I had the vegetarian gnocchi. It was nice and the chickpeas gave it that crunch. It had that very subtle hint of pumpkin and it would have been better with feta and not the other grated cheese.

I loved the offering of lots of vegetables though and that lovely EVO did it justice. I love simple dishes like these.

The wine that I had was a chardonnay. This went well with the pasta and it had that light, fruity taste to it. It also smelt fruity.

Not bad for a hotel restaurant and my first one being a Le Accor Member.

Menousai Mugen

Menousai Mugen is in Bligh place just off Flinders Lane. It was a bit hard to find at first but after a few times I found it.

It is a small place but it is popular with all the bloggers on Zomato. They have two storeys (one in the basement and the other one on the ground level). The basement is a lovely place to go to.

Here they pride themselves on Ramen and ramen is not cheap to come by. Seeing as it was days after the Japanese festival I had a hankering for Japanese food and beer.

It was not busy but it did take them a while to get to me. Here I had their Wafu ramen and a pot of Thunder road beer. Being a Japanese place I would have thought that they had Japanese beer.

The ramen here was good but on the smallish side. It was slightly chewy but that was to be expected with Japanese ramen. They could have given me more than one piece of meat, broth and noodles for $18. But I suppose someone has to pay the rent on this side of the town.

But I did like the broth though. It had a lot of pork flavour in there.

If they were on Liven that would be awesome and then they could have more customers. Oh well, til next time.

Phat burgers and the Eat Club app

RNIS did not have to pay for their burger as they used the Eat Club app but they paid for their chips and beer.

The Eat Club App is really easy to download and its available from the Google store. Download this app and you'll never miss a deal. Here they have loads of free stuff such as free burgers. Earlier this week there was free burgers at New York Minute but I was just too busy.

Phat burgers is a new place in Camberwell and are really close to the station. They are on the other side of Camberwell station from Okra.

The bathrooms are up some wooden steps hence heels are not ideal.

Here the staff was down to earth and friendly. They have $6.50 beers and I tried a Belgian one which was awesome with my Vegan burger. It was wheaty with lots of malt down the bottom. Most people were happy with just beer and burger. The chips were equally awesome and I would have liked to have tried their Tomato sauce but I am on a Febfast diet with Healthyintstudents and our aim was to cut out all commercial sugars.

It was busy but the food came out quickly. You order and pay and they will give you a number. And they yell your numbers out.

The Vegan burger has not much sauce but a sweet beetroot patty and a big mushroom which is good for those on a Febfast diet and can't have sauce. The Brioche bun was sweet but yummy. I would recommend that Here's the veg visit this place as they love their vegan burgers.

Criniti's

Criniti's is in Southbank and it has received some bad reviews about their food on Zomato. They are featured in the Entertainment book for 25% off the total price.

We had received a $20 Dimmi voucher to use on food and we really wanted to try the pizza since the last time I did not get to.

Watching them make the pizza is really fun as shown in the clip. First of all, they do the pizza dough and then they put the toppings on. And then it goes in the big wood oven and you can smell that smokiness. It is always fun watching them do the 1-meter pizza for the groups. It is soooo big.

To go with the pizza I had a glass of Peroni and I paid for that.

I had the cheese pizza with an olive tapenade base. This was really nice and I enjoyed the buffalo cheese and all that cholesterol after not having much. I liked that not everything has a tomato sauce base which is lovely. This is true Italian style.

I could have had the doughnuts but seeing as I am on a Febfast diet I could not.

Do come by this gem for a mid week dinner and not during the weekend as they have a surcharge then.

Waterslide Hotel (picture post)

RNIS was invited to their launch party and did not have to pay.

The Waterslide Hotel is on the corner of King and Flinders st. They are around the corner from Southern Cross station.  Here they serve really great food and drink and they have had a makeover.

Red Wine

Hotdog stand

My hotdog

I think this was lamb kofta

Gin

Vegetarian skewers

More vegetarian skewers

I was invited to their launch party for some good times. Here they have a hot dog station among other things.

 I really enjoyed the hotdog and the wide variety of drinks on offer. They also had other canapes and sliders and I had two of them.

Here I enjoyed their gin and red wine and I would have loved to try a Pimms.

Do come by for some great pub food and thanks for the invite