95 degrees in St Kilda

95 Degrees is in St Kilda and they have been around for a while. It is cute kitchy café with lots of homely decorations.

It is rated one of the best coffee and tea places in Melbourne. Here they do filter coffee which I enjoy. Many of the locals would tell you its a good place.

The service was friendly but it can be disorganised when they are busy as I saw in one case. They forgot to put in a lady's order for two hot chocolates and meringues.

The first time I came here I had green tea and just relaxed. I was going to order food but the kitchen was closed (It closes between 3 and 4pm). The green tea came in a cute jug which makes it cool. I really did like the tea whilst here. But they are also a bar. Here they have a list of cocktails and martinis that they will make for you. I sat at the bar last time and had a lemonade. I was just in one of those moods after losing my running mojo and only burning 266 calories.

I wasn't in the mood for their cake just after having a huge ramen meal in the city and just burning a tiny amount of calories. But a lot of people went for their cakes and good ole fashioned apple crumble.

Do come by for your Melburnian espresso. Oh and btw they have $15 burgers for lunch.

Time out

Time out is a place in Federation Square which attracts tourists and families alike. Here they are featured in the Entertainment book. They are a Modern Australian café which is said to serve good food.

The place is relaxing inside with the TV showcasing the news and the AFL sometimes.

The nachos were basic but the service was good. It was $16 and normally other places charge about $10-$12 a bowl. The nachos were your basic Dorritos chips and the salsa was your basic Dorritos one which is canned. But the guacamole was good.

The place is on Federation Square where the Light in the Winter event was taking place. Here the place was full inside but not so on the outside. At the Light in winter event outside was full.

I was full afterwards.

Rating: 10/20- don't bother unless you want to order pasta which is expensive as and the pizzas on the other table looked really small.

The Pancake Parlour at Glen Waverley has a few highs

The Pancake Parlour has been around for a while and they have quite a fair few stores all over Australia. They are an Australian business which pays well. Curious Charlie gave me a free voucher for a short stack pancake and I paid for the tea.

The place is cleaner than most but the service leaves a lot to be desired. The Asian lady was lovely to her customers, but the brunette was a bit cold and really slow. It was hard to get her attention. She probably was working all day.

A short stack pancake consists of ice cream and two buttermilk pancakes. There is free maple syrup on the table so you can add some into your pancake. Maple Syrup is an American food. It is a natural sweetner and the pancakes were great with it.

The mother and the kid on the table next to me didn't finish their malts. I think that they didn't like it. The mother said it had been awhile since they last went to pancake parlour so the waitress suggested the pavlova which is a special one for the month of March and I suggested the short stack seeing as it was that good.

The tea was just alright for $5.20. I would have expected a better quality organic brand be used for that price as my tea was not strong

Rating: 14/20- good pancake, marred by slow service and ordinary tea. Oh well at least I was hydrated  for a while.

Royal Canadian Club: Huxtable and Huxtaburger

RNIS was invited to the club by Healthy student site and did not have to pay.

The Royal Canadian club is a pop up event in the city. It is in Birrarung Marr and its on whilst the tennis is on. Here many people relaxed over beer and food from Uncle, Estelle, Huxtaburger and huxtable. The ice creams at Messina were expensive at $10 a pint.

Here I tried Huxtable's lobster roll seeing as everyone said that this is good. Here it was cold but the lobster was fresh. I loved the soft sweet brioche roll that it was in. This was $15. The spiciness of the roll was simply addictive. I would have loved more but they are an expensive restaurant in Fitzroy.

Huxtaburger's chips were amazing. They were warm and I enjoyed the chicken salt. It was amazing without the sauce. This was a mere $5.

Many thanks to Healthy student site for the invite. Do pop by if they are around next year.

Taxi Kitchen

RNIS dined courtesy of Dimmi who rewarded them with a $50 voucher.

Taxi Kitchen is in Federation Square and they share with Transport bar. Here they are on the upper level and on a Friday night they were busy serving the big tables who all wanted the feed me. The Feed me was six courses and was waaaay too much food for us.

You can think of Taxi Kitchen as Laksa King except pricier. Their serving sizes are big but the mains is like $30-$50 per plate. Laksa King's is half of that price.

The service was great. The waitstaff were friendly and they recommended dishes to other tables. And the wine. But I had read the 57 blogs and Yellow Egg's review about this restaurant and knew what I wanted.

Taxi Kitchen is run by Tony Twitchett and on numerous occasions they were at the Taste of Melbourne festivals serving up signature dishes. One of them was the buns with salmon and macadamia nuts ($14.50 for 2 small ones which were yum). I remembered seeing this at one of the Taste festivals.

And then the pumpkin tortellini was quite small but very filling. The sauce was to die for. It was cheesey but not too cheesy. The tortellini was al dente and the pumpkin filling was lovely. It was sweet but not so sweet

And the shoestring fries with chilli was yum and very addictive. Once I had one I could not stop.

The bread was warm and very inviting. It normally comes with oil but it came with this nice creamy butter with pink salt on top.

Rating: 18/20- more fries please. And do book ahead as it is a small space.

Arbory

Arbory Bar is in the city outside Flinders St station. It has been blogged about by 24 other bloggers who were either invited or just enjoyed the good food.





The atmosphere is superchillax during the day and then at night it becomes electric. Waiting outside the bar on Platform 10 at night the bar becomes lively and interesting for all to see. Hence this is why we wanted to do this for sooooooooooooooo long.

The entrance is on the Southbank side near the entrance to the station from Southbank.

Like Ponyfish Island service is at the bar. This is an outdoor bar.

Here their burgers were the fancier version of McDonalds. This is said in a good way as I enjoyed the grilled mushroom and haloumi burger. Friend had the fish burger and she enjoyed it too. She also enjoyed her coffee.

The crinkle cut chips were yum with the sea salt and siracha.

Rating: 15/20- love the burgers. They were great. Would love to try other food and drinks. We were going to try breakfasts but breakfast was over by the time we came which was around 11am.

Do come here for drinks and breakfasts

The Gallery at the Pullman Hotel

The Gallery is a newish restaurant at the Pullman which does buffet on Friday, Saturday nights and Sunday lunches. The buffet is about $89 which includes wine and tea and coffee. But seeing as we love deals we got this on Living Social.

Here the wine was champagne and it was sweet. This went well with the oysters and prawns that I had. It also worked well with the sushi that I had. Unlike the time at Season's providore where I did not enjoy the wine as it was a bit full on, here it was much lighter and better. And I finished it before the mains.

Seafood

The cheese station

Lobster Thermidor

The wine station

 I didn't enjoy the sushi so much. It was dry and the smoked salmon from the seafood bar was also dry. But the onion rings and vinegarette was great.

The main meal

Unlike Melba they have no dumpling station. Instead they focus more on the hams and the Western food. There is a focus on French cheeses. My brie was really good and worked with the champagne. Unlike Melba or Collins Kitchen, they only have one soup and no Asian station. This was the ox tail soup. This soup, I found it to be too bland for my liking. Soup should be nicely salted and flavoured.

I sampled ham and enjoyed it. It was moist and very smokey in flavour.

The bread was freshly baked.

I really enjoyed the vegetables and the salmon. The salmon was cooked well and the vegetables were fresh.

Out of the desserts I enjoyed the pannacotta. It was light and fluffy. And very creamy. It was also white chocolatey sweet. The mango mousse was just alright.

Mango mousse and pannacotta

Rating: 14/20- love the buffet and the lobster thermidor. And if NQN came to Melbourne, can I recommend the Pullman as a place to stay and enjoy the buffet?

The service was very lovely there and the wait staff were willing to talk and smile.

The Quarter

The Quarter is a small place in the heart of Melbourne in Degraves st. Here it reminds me a little of Paris. It is near Flinders st station.

I went there twice

They take paypal, cash and credit cards. The service was rather slow for a 3pm visit when there were not that many people.


 They are a small place in the heart of city. Here everything is beautiful.

First time was with a friend and the second time was alone. The wedges in the bowl for $9 was just great and it worked well with the chilli sauce.

The second time I went there for a late 8pmish supper of prawns, saganaki and bread. Saganaki is a greek cheese. It was just divine. I finished the whole plate. This is how much I really enjoyed it on a cold winter's night.  The tomato sauce was just rich and very simply good food.

The lady's pasta with chicken looked really good. I would eat this but except I'm not a meat fan so much.

Rating: 16/20- cozy me up with good cheese, a book and wine anyday.

Lentils as Thorncote

There is a new Lentils brewing in town and RNIS had heard about it for a while but forgot that it was sitting in their Facebook feeds until now. And after the Vinitalia event and gym we went. We had paid for the meal online.

Love the cute sign

Flower hanging

Dogs

Soft toys for the kids

Lentils is a vegetarian café which is a pay as you go café. It supports the homeless people and people needing jobs. You can volunteer at Lentils if you want. They pride themselves on fresh and organic produce and having fun in the kitchen.

But it was busy and crazy busy. Things in the kitchen and on the floor were super disorganised. I waited and waited ages for mains and dessert. Service was really hard to grab hold of and once we did it was all good.  Meanwhile there were people after me who got food first.

When the main came it looked really beautiful on the plate and tasted good. Everything was fresh. But waiting for the dessert took ages and ages but at least we got some samples of the cheesecake base.

The chai was really beautiful and creamy and the music was just great.

Rating: 10/20- please sort out your teething issues or otherwise you might just end up like Abbotsford café which is down the drain. The locals might not like you.