The Curtin Hotel

We went there as part of our Friday Happy hour in which we order an alcoholic drink and food.

The Curtin is a great student bar just outside of RMIT Carlton Campus. During January they are really quiet and other times they are always busy. Back in my student days I never went because I never drank and their food was quite expensive. Now it is quite the opposite where they are under $15.

Normally the cocktails are about $12 but because of happy hour, they are $10. The place is open for lunch and dinner.

My bartender seemed to know a lot about wines and bourbon. Here I had a really good Margherita which was made with a great tasting tequila. In fact, it was strong. It had quite a bit of lime flavor in there.

You can ask for a bourbon and coke here but no one really knew that. The bartender knows how to make a really good one.

To compliment it I had the Mexican corn which was nice but I would have loved cheese and more paprika on top.

Do come by to the John Curtin Hotel for their happy hour and if you are in that area as it is a great student pub with lots of local acts.

Arabasque cafe

This cafe is a little place on Elizabeth St near RMIT Carlton Campus. I had walked by it a few times and saw that they were always empty. I had always wanted to try but from the outside, they looked more like a Shisha bar.

That is until I went in and found that they were a friendly and very homely cafe.

 The owner told me that they were busy at night as they are also a Shisha bar.

The service was very friendly and the prices here are student friendly. For a start, they don't charge any more than $13 for a standard breakfast with lots of food. Normally in the city, it is $20-$22. And that's without coffee.

They mainly are a vegetarian place but they have just a few meat dishes.

Here their food is really healthy and Jordanian style. I never had this style of food before so I cannot comment much. I had the Jordanian style eggs which come with hummus and pita bread. And there are lots of bread in their freezer out the back. I loved the Jordanian eggs as it was so healthy. And that hummus is just like the way that my mum would make this at home with all the good fats.

The long black was just ok, but I loved the little sampler of chocolate bread for $1. It melted in the mouth and was not too sweet.

I would recommend this place to my students and any International students who live in Melbourne.

Shaw Davey Slum

The Shaw Davey Slum has been there for a while now and they are featured in the Entertainment book. They are a student pub in Carlton which has cheap happy hours.

However, they have a minimum spend in the book which I did not know about. It turns out that you need to spend $30 on food alone and not the drinks part.

We got the three dishes for $22 and another arancini dish as well as a spiced rum for me and a coke for him. For the three dishes we chose the house chips, arancini and onion rings. The onion rings were heavily battered and not very nice. I don't recommend getting those.

The house chips were good though. They were crispy and crunchy and I loved the spiciness. I'd be happy to eat these without the aioli.

I loved the arancini balls as they were quite cheesey and gooey and not hard at all.

My spiced rum worked well with all the food with the exception of the onion rings.

Do come by to this cheap pub on a Friday afternoon.

Carlton Italian Fiesta and wine

The Carlton Italian Fiesta was on and it was all about good food and wine. Here the Italians enjoy their food and wine. They mainly enjoy pizza.

During the daytime, it was quite busy but at twilight, it was quite fun to dance, eat, drink and be merry. I have never been to one of these before but I do enjoy a good festival at night where there are no kids. Kids ruin my enjoyment- they run around with balloons and things and I do not enjoy.

But here at the Salumisti bar, it is peace and quiet and free canapes. But you have to purchase a drink. I purchased their on the TAP white wine which was good with my pizza and the anchovy canape. Other canapes featured pork which is Salumnisti's specialty.

There was a cheese one with a capsicum piece on top. That would work well with the Shiraz.

My pizza from 400 Gradi was good. It was doughy and cheesy just the way that I liked it.














Do come to next years festivities in Carlton as this year was great.

Lien Lien Cafe

I'm finally back after the Melbourne Marathon run. This run has kept me so busy that I hadn't had time to write much!

Or explore much!

Here Lien Lien cafe is near the Queen Victoria markets and they have great value food and drink. All of which are priced under $15 and is the perfect student eatery.

The place is clean and bright. Several times that I have walked past they were closed and I wanted to try them for some time.

The bowl of spring rolls and vermicelli was $10 and it was massive. I couldn't finish it all. But I welcomed all the vegetables underneath the noodles. The spring rolls have meat in them. It is a good thing that the waitress asked if I was allergic to nuts and I wasn't. So many Vietnamese places forget to ask about the nut allergy.

But she forgot to ask whether or not I wanted my spring rolls to be vegetarian. Luckily I'm a meat eater.

As for the long black it was a big cup for $3.50 and it was just right. The coffee was a little bit burnt.

Next time though I would love to try their $6 rolls. I wonder why this place is always quiet!

Uni Curry Cafe

Uni Curry Cafe is in Melbourne Uni and I was around visiting their Farmers markets for some tasty snack ideas.

Here they have two curries and rice with mango lassi for under $10. But everything that morning was meat. As I was trying to stay true to the No Meat May challenge I had the salt and pepper fried fish with a pakora and lots of rice. In fact too much that I kept some for dinner that night.

The fish was a bit overcooked. It was tough in texture. But the pakora was good. It didn't have too much salt which I liked. I love to taste the flavours of the vegetables which was sweet. I also love how they didn't put any msg in there.

The rice was just rice.

Do come by for a student cheap eat when you are strapped for cash but still like your curry.

Animal Orchestra

This place is right outside Melbourne Uni in Carlton. As a student I did not get much of a chance to visit as RMIT is in the city.

The place is in a small old style house which makes it really rustic. Inside it is cool and chic like the 70s.

For a Wednesday morning the place was packed full of students and academics gettings their coffee fix. The barista was friendly.

 Here they have really cheap meals and breakfasts. At a normal cafe a plate of baked eggs with bread is about $18-$19. Here it is $13 and it is filling.

I did need my omega 3's and eggs as a runner doing her first full marathon hence the baked eggs with salmon. This turned out to be a great choice. Here the salmon and eggs were just lovely in  their pan. The souradough was freshly baked.

My soy flat white was great. I enjoyed the really nutty taste of the soy.

Do come by to this cafe when you are at uni or in the hospitals.

Podium

This coffee place is in Carlton where the Audi car dealership is. I didn't need to go to the car dealership but saw a $3 breakfast special sign outside which is good for all students. The $3 breakfast special is for the egg and bacon muffin or mini Turkish roll. And you have to buy a coffee first. This offer is only valid until 11am on weekday mornings.

The place is huge and inviting.

They are popular with RMIT students and staff. Ever since the move more and more students and staff have been frequenting here. There aren't many coffee places in RMIT Carlton campus.

Here the coffee was pretty decent although the artwork was messy. I had a latte with no sugars as per usual.

The egg and bacon Turkish roll was quite good although a little bit cheesy and a tad bit too much bacon. Some BBQ sauce would be nice in it.

Do come by to this cheap eats cafe on the weekday mornings.

Tiamo

Tiamo is a fine Italian institution where it is said that they serve the best coffee and pizza. Well is it true? We shall see.

The outside

 About 20 other bloggers wrote about how good or bad the place is. Meld Magazine loved it where as Wince from the Hungry Excavator didn't like it so much and same as Gastrology. It is run by real Italians and it has been open for many years. There are lots of photos on the wall about the restaurant's good times. It is owned by an Italian couple.

It was busy on a Wednesday morning at 11am with the phone ringing off the hook with bookings for lunch and dinner.

Here I had the Italian espresso for $2.70 and it was just perfect. I also tried their nutella pizza for $13. What a bargain. Normally at Max Brenner's it is about $17-$18 and it has the same amount of toppings as Tiamo. Here Tiamo's has a much chewier base than Max Brenner's. The ones at Max's tend to be dry or burnt. The base of the nutella pizza is thin and I was able to easily cut through it with the sharp knife.

The chocolate was heavenly and the strawberries were fresh.

The coffee smelt nutty and tasted nutty.

Now if there was a Zomato invite I would be always happy to come and try the other pizzas and breakfast items as the boss's breakfast of baked eggs and antipasto looked really good.