The Quarter cafe

This cafe is on Degraves st and it's very popular at lunchtime. And it is also popular with people at dinnertime. I walk past it when I go to the gym.

They serve your normal cafe fare.

The service here is just ok. And it was your standard lunch hour. Most people had meat dishes.

I have been here before for chips and coffee.

Here I tried their farmer's baguette. This is a vegetarian one with pumpkin and halloumi and onions. I couldn't get any of the meat dishes as I'm doing No meat may with Healthyintstudents.

This was a really nice baguette and it was freshly done. Here I loved the halloumi cheese and the pumpkin. They were just gorgeous with the caramelized onion.

Do come by for your baguettes

Dumpling World

Dumpling World is in Collins St where Southern Cross station is. They are mainly a meat-eating place but they also do vegetarian.

Tonight it was not too busy. Here there was one other table with Caucasians.

The bathrooms are out the back and are just ok. The service though was very swift.

I had their beancurd with hot chili sauce and rice. It was $11.80 and was really filling. They also put lots of MSG in there. The rice was quite alright.



But I did like their custard baos though. Here they were not too sweet and they helped offset some of the MSG and really hot sauce.

Do come by this place before you take the train home.

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.

Monkey King

Monkey King is a student type bar which has been around for a while. Here they have cheap drinks during happy hour so of course, I paid a visit during my happy hour day. They are in Melbourne Central. It was recommended to me by Luca of the Drinking Class in Melbourne for their $10 jugs but I never got around to it until now.

The bar was busy and they share a bathroom with the other businesses in the center.

I had their Monkey King brew in a cup and it was not too strong. It was good for a warm summers day.

It went well with the potato wedges which were $8.50 each and I could not finish them all. They were crunchy and I enjoyed the sweet chilli sauce with it.

Others had champagne and wine and no food. Next time when I am there I must try the baos and the onion rings as they do look good on the menu.

The Joint Bar

The Joint Bar is a little backpackers bar and I first discovered them when they had their many drink specials. They are one level above the bottle shop and you can see the tram stop from above.

During the daytime, they are not busy but after work, they are busy with all the punters wanting cheap drinks and the sun. They have an indoor and outdoor area.

On Friday I had their Captains Morgans spiced rum as a pick me up. It really made my day then. It was only $5. I saw the food menu and decided I would come back today. Here everything is so cheap and they have a burger and beer deal for $12. How awesome is that! Normally in the city a burger and beer costs $20.

They have Smirinoff for $4.80 and some of their wines at $5-$7 as well as all of their beer for $7 during happy hour and evenings. After 5pm pizzas are $4 each.

The toilets are outside in the stairwell and there is a sign pointing to them. The toilets were just ok.

Seeing as I have promised my readers vegetarian for the month of January I went for a vegetarian burger. When it came it looked alright but then after a few bites the patty was very watery and the bun went a bit soggy. They used one of the frozen ones. The chips were very salty.

I would only come here for the drinks and not the food.

The Imperial Hotel

RNIS received a free Good Food gift card, but they bought their own drinks.

The Imperial Hotel is in the city on the Parliament end. It was the end of the year and I invited kristian.barker to join me. He was yet to receive a present from me.

Here they were quite busy and it was quite some time before we got a table. They take the Entertainment book voucher.

Here food is really big. Kristian had two glasses of coke and I had two different types of beer. One was from Little Creatures and the other one was a City lager. The City lager tasted like weed as it was bitter. Kristian did not like this and after one sip he decided no more. As for my non-alcoholic, it was water.

We both had burgers and mine was vegetarian as promised to Healthy International students. This worked well with the Little Creatures Original Pilsner beer. I had been to Little Creatures before so I knew that this would work well with a burger. My vegetarian one had a hash brown in it which I thought was odd. Other than that I really enjoyed it. The chips were the frozen sort but they worked well with the HSP sauce.

Kristian enjoyed his burger and complimented me online. And he said thanks.

Do come here for good food.

Hungry Bear

Hungry Bear is a new pizza place in town and they offered free pizza to all and a second free furphy for me.

But we paid for the arancini and the first Furphy which was $6.50. The arancini was on the small side and was $7. The last time we bought this was at the End of year run party and they were bigger balls. These were tiny.

Salt

Furphy

Arancini

The place is small and the old Chillipadi used to be there. I guess Chillipadi couldn't afford the fees and they left shop. Now Hungry Bear takes place. The owner is a lovely lady and her husband loves drinking beer. They really do know their beer.

The free pizza I had was good but tiny. I guess they wanted to do guilt free eating as too many people are overweight. It was Christmas ham with pineapple. Normally after 5pm it would be $5. This sized pizza is normally $14. Their pizzas take 90 seconds to make and the ingredients are fresh. All the ingredients are already prepared. All they need to do is put it in the quick oven which tells the server when the pizza is done.

I have had Furphy before and enjoyed it. This was not too bad and they had some fruity notes in there.

If you are around and are up for a drink come on by. I hope that they are featured as a bonus offer in the Entertainment book. 

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.

Mr Burger

Mr Burger is now at Melbourne Central where all the cool kids go.

Here they had a poster in the lift saying free chips. You have to take a photo of it of course. I was at the gym on level 4 and saw it on my way down. So took the photo and I only had to pay for the burger which was $11.

I had the Mr Veg of course but went for the chips several times. Normally a pack of small chips costs me $3.50 and it comes with tomato sauce. But I never use sauce. I like food naturally as they are. I don't need to drown food in sauce like some people do. To me that is gross.

My veggie burger was darn good as always. As soon as you order it they make it and then they will call your name out. Already I could see that they had 4-6 burgers already lined up and there was a production line going.

Do come to this Mr Burger whenever you are in the city and need a break from study. They are just across the road from RMIT hence it is easy for students to get to.

D House cafe

D House Cafe has been around for a while but I never got a chance to try it until now. As a student these prices are reasonable.

They are the sister restaurant of the Pancake Dessert House eatery so I expected to see crepes on the menu for dessert. Instead I saw shaved ice which is a HK dessert.

At 3pm when I came they were steady. Here they specialise in the Hong Kong street noodle in which you choose three items out of 27 and your choice of noodle. Then they fullfil your order with soup. The soup of course has MSG.

Because it was no meat May everything I picked was seafood or vegetarian with rice noodles. The rice noodles was broken and slippery.

But the drinks and the chilli looked so good.

Do come by when you need a break from study and exams.

American Honey at Campari House in short

Campari house have released some new cocktails and not that many new eats. This week's theme is American honey. This honey is quite sweet and the gin is quite sweet and smokey. It is also a little bit spicey adding in that kick.

It was in their lounge that they had this event and many people turned up and got their free snack and drink. Pity that there were not any ribs as promised on their Facebook page.

But people were able to purchase drinks and food at the bar. Most of them were relatively expensive. 

Campari house is featured in the Entertainment book which you can buy off Healthy International students site and help them to support the homeless. The Salvation Army is a charity that supports the homeless and 20% off the sale of the book goes towards helping them.

Campari house has a discount of 25% off the total bill.

The popcorn on offer worked well with the gin. It was smokey in some areas and sweet in others.

Do come by Campari house for a drink and a pizza or two.

Red Spice's bar pop up Thursday

This is a free event where Red Spice showcases their alcoholic side with a snack. It happens on a few Thurdays of the year.

Pale Ale

A small sample of their latest ale

Red Spice is a South East Asian bar and restaurant in McKillop st just off Bourke st. Here the place is huge and they are featured in the Entertainment book which you can buy off Healthy International students site. 20% off all profits from the book sold goes towards helping the Salvation Army.

Red Spice have an offer in the book for 25% off the total bill.

There was a lot of action behind the bar. Pity that the place isn't bustling with people at this time. But later on at 6pm it became quite busy with people. All of the punters were looking for a drink or two. They do have a long wine and cocktail list and a lot of champagne.

They also have a lot of Thai inspired food and snacks.

Here I had a pale ale with a pork belly bao. The pale ale worked well with this bao as it brought out all the spiciness. The pork belly in there was juicy.

Do come by to their bar for a lovely cocktail or beer