Fitzrovia

Fitzrovia is in St Kilda and I ran past there several times. They are always busy so it is a sign that the food and drink are good. About 38 bloggers raved on about this place and their breakfasts.

It was really busy because of Pride March. I had to wait for about half an hour for a table. There was a special Pride March brunch but I didn't know until visiting. You had to book ahead for it. it was $50 for three courses and Bellini.  The staff seemed pretty busy in serving all those that had booked for brunch.

To start off with I had a CAPI water to cool off

And there was also a special pride menu for everyone else. And there was a special bar serving sangria. But I wasn't like all the queers. In fact, that menu featured a lot of meat dishes. So I opted for the regular eggs on toast with spinach on the side. Here my eggs were poached and the bread with butter was just amazing.

They pride themselves on making their own jam and condiments and you can buy some to take home. I did enjoy that tomato relish with the eggs and spinach. The relish added that wowness to the dish.

Even what was more amazing was the free watermelon on a hot day.

If only they had opened all nights for dinner I would have stopped by and grabbed my tea.

Schmucks bagels

RNIS was invited by Schmucks Bagels and did not have to pay for their meal

Schmucks bagels are a new bagel place in the city. In fact there are so many of them particularly near the law area. But how do we tell the good from the bad?

For a start my friend had his coffee and he said it was good. But upon the first time the waitress forgot that he has no sugar and so she opted to make another one for him. She offered the first one to me. I politely declined since this is Sugar free month, meaning that I cannot have processed sugars. I can still have my coffees, just no sugar.

Kitchen

That also meant saying no to the $1.50 cookie that my friend wanted. He liked it.

But I was happy with my cold pressed juice seeing as this was a healthier option for me. But upon seeing the label it said that it had 20 sugars in there. To me it wasn't too sweet.

For lunch I wanted to be healthy and enjoy my good fats so I opted for an avo smash bagel with egg inside. Here this was really good. I loved the creaminess of the avocado, although I wished that the egg had a bit more seasoning to it. It was bland. But I loved the subtle hint of onion in this.

The chips were equally as good and I got a goody bag full of snacks and chips to take home.

Many thanks for having us Schmucks. And do come by for your bagel. I believe that the city will be having their party on the 26th of September.

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 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.

Mama Bear

Mama Bear is in Flemington near a tram stop and a stone's throw away from Flemington Racecourse. This morning there was a power fault at Flemington Racecourse which brought my tram to a halt and several others rushed to get the train. It was a long wait for the next one.

Hence this is why I decided to visit the cafe. I have read that other bloggers really liked the cool vibe amoung other things. The atmosphere inside was homely and it had that rustic feel in a working class suburb.

Here they use locally source produce meaning that your food is always good. But they don't have filtered coffee though. Rather they do single origin long blacks and after reading in the paper that sugar and milk in coffees is not good for you, I decided to skip both.

And skip both I did because the coffee turned out to be really good. It was nutty and a bit chocolatey in flavour, making it pure gold.

My usual of scrambled eggs turned out to be quite good too. The plate was huge for $9.  They were creamy but some chives would have been nice. And I added in the apple cider sauce for an extra $3.50 as it was interesting and I really wanted to try it. It was quite eggy and there were subtle hints of apple cider. The parsley and herbs added a nice touch to the meal.

Rating: 17/20- do visit the cafe whilst waiting for the tram. You can get takeaway coffees too.

Union st Brewers

As part of Bupa's best blog competition for 2015

Union St Brewers is a place just outside RMIT University in Brunswick. They had just opened in November last year and I had decided to check them out.

They are a rather cozy open air cafe in which students can do some study in or hold group meetings in. There weren't many people in there after 11am which was good. I was able to ask questions and watch them cook my food and do my coffee.

My scrambled eggs were a little bit watery for my liking. I would have liked a little bit more milk and even some chives and onions to liven it up. But the chilli paste was good and it worked well with the feta and eggs.

The bread was a good Dench bread. The crust was hard to cut through but the bread was soft and doughy.

The filtered coffee was light and acidic. I don't know which blend it was as they did not say. The taste reminded me of flowers.

Rating: 14/20- tis a good place to hangout near Brunswick campus.