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.

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.

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.

MFWF: Script bar and bistro

Script bar and Bistro is in Southbank where Melbourne Uni is and the Arts centre. On a Tuesday night they were not too busy and I was waiting for a tram which was inconsistent to take me to Golden Fleece which seemed far from my running track.

They have been inside the MTC for eight years and love the patronage of the theatre goers.

Here they love their writers and their cheese. I could be in cheese heaven. But they only have a limited menu for dinner and no specials. Although I did spy a $14 burger special.

The atmosphere is relaxed.

So I chose lasagna which is vegetarian with lots of cheese  ($27 for a small piece)and a shiraz ($9) to brighten up a cold winters night.  The bread was good and the butter was very creamy. The salt was lovely.

The shiraz worked well with the lasagna and in the lasagna I could hardly taste the kale. It was overcooked.  There was a lot of cheese and I enjoyed it.

Oh well if you are going to charge $27 it should have been a bigger piece. Oh well I'll probably come for the wine and cheese instead.

Snippet: Think Asia

Think Asia is a fast food chain all over Melbourne and it's featured in many shopping centres. The one in Southgate was dirty and their staff were very rude to their customers asking them what they want and not waiting until they find their money. Moreover they do not smile.

I was served by this one rude Asian girl. Here there were meal combos and many people were buying them. I was only interested in the small plates seeing as many of them have sodium and other unwanted calories. I felt like I wasted $9.50 on a small plate with meagre servings. These were vegetarian foods with little protein. They could have added tofu to the mix for both the mixed veggies and noodles. The noodles were lukewarm.

I would not go back there again but would try other places in that vicinity.

Gochi

Gochi is in Crown and I read a few things from Escort and the Thief's blog about how good they were. Well for a start they were busy so that must be a good sign of good things to come. But if they were so busy I wonder why they allow for no table sharing. Certainly I would not have minded sharing a table and I even hinted to them about this

Well they do takeaway and dine in but dine is a bit more expensive. I know that Crown is a little bit on the pricey side, but why is it that dine is a little more expensive here?

For example the sushi bento is $18.50 to eat in, but takeaway is $16.50. I wonder why. The sushi bento didn't have much in it. It had 4 pieces of sushi, 3 nigiri, potato salad, chicken karriage and miso soup. The miso soup came after the box.

The other table complained that their food was too small and that they had to keep ordering more food. But then again I came at 7:30pm and they came a bit earlier say 7pm. My food didn't arrive until close to 8. If I am having a late dinner I don't like to eat too much.

The miso was stock standard and same as the potato salad. The chicken was nicely fried. Now normally I'm not a huge fan of meat but I was a little bit hungry. I would have thought that there was actual rice but no. They must have forgotten.

The sushi rice was really nice and had a nice amount of vinegar on it. But the fish was not fresh.

Rating: 10/20- poor meal, but good service. I wished that they were able to change my chicken for agedashi tofu instead. Most restaurants are happy to do this.

Oh well- maybe just for drinks then. :(

Bear Brass

I went to Bear Brass today

Bear Brass is in Southbank and has been opened for years. Here it is a tiny little bar in Southgate shopping centre along with PJ's and Miyako.

They have some indoor seating, but most of the seating is outside. It was really greasy and grimy outside but inside was nicer. They should really clean up the grime before people sit outside. It's such a shame as it was a beautiful day outside.

The waiter was a little bit surly. I came just after 12.30pm and it wasn't that busy. The waitress was friendly when she came to serve me my drink.

I had the fish and chip special for $15. It came with a lemonade, chips, salad and fish and two sauces. All of which I thought blurgh when I looked at the sauces. They looked like they came out of a bottle.

The fish was quite good today. Same as the French fries.

But the salad was underneath the fish and it didn't look as nice. In fact it looked a little overdressed.


But I loved the homemade lemonade.

Lighting

It is a bit out my way but because I had a drawing class down in Southbank I thought that I'd check this place out. Sadly to say that if it doesn't improve then there will be no customers except for the tourists. The location is the only thing going for it. That and the free wi-fi.

I will not be back unless they improve.