O'Connell's Hotel

RNIS was invited by Dimmi to spend $20 and they paid the rest themselves.

The O'Connell's Hotel is in South Melbourne and it's behind the South Melbourne Market. It took us a while to find and we did a run around it earlier so that we were not late. During my first year of the marathon, I learned that coming on time to everything is important. And it's not too late or too early.

The O'Connell's Hotel is like being in the tramcar restaurant. It has that fine dining feel to it. Here they have a huge wine list and a lot of good wines. I sampled a couple whilst there.

They do cater for functions and they have a lovely area outside.

To start off with I had the granita oyster ($4.5). Here they were really lemony and small and they had that lemony tang to it.

The complimentary bread was freshly baked and I really enjoyed the creaminess of the butter.

Then the main which is gnocchi ($22) was very cheesy and I liked it. Here they had a bit of kale in there to give it that crunch. The mint was very lovely in there.

And of course, to finish off I had the basil ice cream ($4.50). Here it was very minty and full of goodness. It was not too sweet.

Do come by O'Connell's Hotel when you want to celebrate something special. Oh and happy new year!

Bellota Wine bar

I have been to this place a few times and am hooked on trying their wines. They don't have much in terms of food but they do have a lot in terms of wine.

Their wines change weekly depending on what the Prince Wine store has on offer. I usually like white wines with oysters and raw seafood. It is the same with champagne. Then I like red wines and shirazes with pastas, cooked meat and seafood dishes. A riseling works best with prawn and chicken dishes.

The bar staff at the place is lovely and knowledgeable. Here they were training another new employee on all the wines and all the things in the shop. The atmosphere in the bar is warm and welcoming.

I love their oysters and the mingonette sauce as it worked well with the wine. The oyster itself does't seem to be fresh as I had a hard time getting it out of the shell.

The souradough bread that I had last time was lovely and divine.

Do come by for the wines and the tastings.

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.

Honey Bar revisited

Honey bar is in South Melbourne and you may recall the first time that I went there with the Voices bloggers a few years ago. Well they have been there for eight years and things have changed. No more expensive meals but specials and yes I can drink alcohol.

Which means trying their Kiwi cocktail which is nice for a summers day and it goes well with the mac and cheese bites. I loved that awesome apple sauce which had a hint of wasabi in it. My mate who came very late liked it.

The service was a tad bit slow but I think they had a function on upstairs thats why. Back in 2009 they never had many functions but now they seemed busy with their functions. Last week they had the Crosbie crew's function.

The panfried fish with potato balls reminded me of the Maori Chief's meal where the fish was fresh and the balls of ricotta and chive were just perfect. Add in a fried egg and its all good to go. The only thing that they need is spinach or brocoli and then it would be much healthier. I did like the tomatoes on top.

I loved those Mac balls for dessert. They worked well with the champagne which I think is a Moet. These were not too sweet but they were frozen in the middle. I loved that ricotta- it worked a treat with the honey. Now I see why they are so Instagrammable and popular.

Rating: 14/20- good food but slow service. The service at the bar was friendly though. Oh well perhaps we should try coming on a weekday dinner then and not Friday night.

Three Little Dumplings

Three Little Dumplings is a new place which has opened about six months ago.  Here they were not so busy on the dining front but they were busy with orders from Uber Eats and Deliveroo.

Here they are a cheap Chinese place with no msg in any of their stuff. But they microwave stuff as well as cook. Since I am going meat free this May I couldn't have any of the stuff at South Melbourne Market's night market as well as most of the meaty stuff here.

Here I had the prawn and chives dumplings and the tofu omelette. These meals came with free soup and tea or water. I loved them both but the prawn dumplings were a little bit on the smallish side.

The free soup was egg and corn with a bit of chicken soup. This was quite tasty. They should have brought that out first but she forgot.

The tofu omelette was moreish and it had a nice serve of rice underneath. They really do take care of their presentation.

Do come by this place when they are open. 

The comedy festival hits Melbourne

The comedy festival is on again this year and its bigger and better than ever. Here they have their own bar at the Malthouse Theatre and I went along one night to discover just how popular this festival is.

The bar gets really busy on a Friday night but during the weekdays they are pretty quiet. During the weekdays there are food trucks outside to boost patronage. There is a good selection of food inside too.

There are a lot of good Australian and international acts here and many people go there to be entertained. You get your ticket and then relax in the outdoor or indoor bar and then they call you when the show is about to commence. You can bring alcohol in there but no glass. Your alcohol is poured into a plastic cup and the glass stays outside.

Here they have a great selection of wine. Some of the brands are more expensive though such as the Janz. My shiraz was only $7 and it was really strong. It would work well with the cheese plate that they have for $18.

Note it runs until the 23rd at the Malthouse. After that there will be other shows for you to go along to and the bar is always there for your drinks and food. Food is about $10-$26 depending on what you would like to eat. But do come for the drinks.

The Malthouse is on Sturt St in South Melbourne behind the Arts Centre.

Ilya Frozen yoghurt

There are two stores one in South Melbourne and the other in Elsternwick. RNIS bought a Groupon for $9 to spend $15 at this place for one visit and the other visit they paid for it themselves

Here not only do they do froyos, the South Melbourne store has salads and other raw and vegan desserts. Plus they use stevia which is a sweetener for those health addicts. They use real fruit and the less sweetened pearls unlike the bubble tea places in the city.

Front counter 

Froyo 

Mantra  

Both the times the service has been friendly. But the second time, the waitress did not smile. In fact she wasn't that friendly.

The Chia dessert was good, it was not too sweet and was light and refreshing. However I did add cacao in there. All the mango was down the bottom. It worked a treat with the kombucha. For those that don't know what it is, it is a less sweetened soft/fruit drink with all the fizz. This is the trend with all the health professionals.

Do read the other review on this place too.

Pho Cycle

Pho Cycle is one of the better places in South Melbourne. Here they renowned for their pho and some people took to Zomato to express their disgruntlement. They were on the quieter side for a Wednesday night and I was in the mood for some vegetarian pho.

 They had run out of sweet potato fries so they let everyone know that before ordering which is good. They have a limited menu and they don't do much dessert. Only tapioca pudding which is $10.

The bathrooms are out the back and past the kitchen. Whilst going there I passed a lovely arrangement of beer bottles. I thought this was cool.

The service here was friendly but slow. But at least I could smell my pho being made in the kitchen. Unlike what the guy said three weeks ago about his pho being salty after it was delivered, mine was not. Mine was the huge size for $12 which is good value for money.

It didn't have a lot of tofu in there, rather it had a lot of vegetables, spring onion and rice noodles. Lots of rice noodles is good for a runner like me. But too much soup is not. I couldn't finish all. I also enjoyed the pickled chilli in my soup. The other chilli was way too hot for me.

Rating: 14/20- the service has a lot left to be desired sometimes, but better pho than other places.

Bells Hotel

This hotel is in South Melbourne and they have pretty decent meals from what I have heard. Here they had $15 main meals for the members of the Crosbie Crew and $15 steak specials. They were pretty huge and I was not in the mood for huge. After all I have had a huge beer, chips and other things earlier on in the day.

So instead I went for the $8 kids fish and chips which was small but ok since it was delivered to the table closer to 8pm. I got here at 7:30pm when none of them arrived and they did not know where we were sitting. I also ordered close to this time.

From there on they got the tables mixed up and people's steaks and salmon did not come until after 8pm. I would hate to pay full price for the service and the smallish plates of steak with no chips. Oh well at least they were happy.

I got to try the coucous on someone's salmon dish and it was waaay too tangy. It also had a lot of dressing. My chips seemed ho hum and the fish was great. I also tried someone else's parma chips and they were pretty good. Perhaps there was two chefs in the kitchen each with very different ideas of quality?

Oh well its fine and dandy for the drinks and parma but not the service. And dang it took them time to get the heater to work.

Maori Chief Hotel

This place is Moray St in South Melbourne just one block away from Clarendon st. The place is hidden which means that not many bloggers know about it. I didn't find out about this until one of the Crosbie crew members invited me to their Parma/pub night. Apparently this happens once a month.

The place is run by the Kiwis and they do a good selection of wines and imported beers. But seeing as I might be having beer tomorrow night and a burger I thought I might like to keep it low for a while.

The fish and chips for $18 was reasonable. Although the fish was a little bit bland. Don't get me wrong- it was fresh, just bland. And the chips were ok this time, not like Goody's. They were actually nice and crispy.

I haven't had lemonade in a while so this was a first.

They had a $15 burger special and the burgers are massive. The group really liked their burgers. The burgers though were difficult to eat with fork and knife so most used their hands.

Maori Chief should invite some bloggers and host a bloggers night seeing as only four other bloggers know about the place. They should host this night on a quiet weekday night with dessert and their free tea and coffee deal.