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.

Coffee and blogging

RNIS was invited by General Assembly and Allpress to this session. But it took us a while to write this due to Melbourne Marathon and other commitments that took us away from this blog!

This session took place in Allpress's coffee studio where participants tried their lovely coffees. Participants were also given a tour of their roasting warehouse where we saw the temperatures of their quality roasters go to 200C.

Allpress pride themselves on the quality of their coffee and they live and breathe it each day. Their guys are mostly from New Zealand. Here most of their coffee beans are from Brazil and are green before they are roasted. When they are roasted they smell chocolatey. Roasted the wrong way and they will smell bitter and burnt.

A good barista knows what they are doing and many of them take the time and knowledge to learn how to roast their own beans and make their own brews. Some of them like Axil goes on to do the world coffee championships. Axil came in second place.

A good site takes time to open and the cost and time to do the research. Most of the good sites in Melbourne are in the inner city area. In this area most people love a good brew in the morning. The barista gets up around 4am to make it to work and open by 7am. Most of the places shut by 3 or 4 in the afternoon.

Many thanks to General Assembly and Allpress for the invite and be sure to think about what the barista is going through before ranting online as online rants do hurt the business. The business and barista have worked very hard to please you and their aim is to please the people so that people will come again.

The Loft

The Loft is a breakfast place in Peter Mc Callum centre but they also serve burgers for lunch. Here they were busy seeing all the cancer patients, visitors and staff for the daily caffiene grind. I have been here a few times now.

You enter the Peter McCallum centre at the ground floor and then proceed to the lifts. There you press the number 7 and then a lift will take you straight there. I have found the lifts to be a little confusing sometimes but there is no other way.

The bathrooms are on the right of the lifts as you go out of them to the restaurant and are through a blue door. Pass the lecture theatres on the way and the kitchen and you are there. They are always quiet.

Here they have a cake counter and a coffee counter. You place your order at the coffee counter and they will give you a table number. Thus this is where all the sandwiches and lunch items can be found.

At the cake counter they do juices. Place your order for juice here.

They always have stellar egg wraps here which are made fresh on site each day. The desserts here look really good. I haven't yet tried any of them as I'm not much of a sweet tooth fan.

The long black that I had was really good today.

Do visit The Loft at Peter McCallum centre.

Zouki Cafe and shop

Zouki cafe and Shop is inside the Royal Melbourne Hospital and they are one big cafe and shop. I was on my way to work in the city and as part of marathon training had decided to walk an extra few km. I am doing the 42km marathon in October and as such am raising money for the Salvation army.

Here I had substandard eggs and mushrooms with onion and wholemeal bread. Zouki cafe also does sushi and other bakery items but being a marathoner was in the mood for eggs and brown bread which is good for the iron. I been researching stress fractures online and found that if you don't eat enough for your training you can get a stress fracture over time.

The eggs were the Ikea sort which was rubbery and plasticky in texture. They had been sitting in the bain marie for a while. But the bread was the fresh sort and it was great being toasted. The mushrooms and onions were jut ok but who can stuff these up. The eggs reminded me of hospital food which was very bland.

At least the coffee was good and I can see why there was such a huge line for it. You order and then pay for it and then they call your number. I got a soy flat white as per usual as I am trying to quit having normal milk and I love soy.

Next time I'll come just for the coffee and toast and not the eggs. The service there was just ok.

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.

Ibis restaurant

I only went there for coffee in the morning.

IBIS restaurant is part of the IBIS hotel which is on Therry Street in Melbourne. It is right near the Queen Victoria Market and I have passed by this place many times.

The tennis poster offering the shake

Here they do offer a Breakfast buffet but they already finished it by 10am when I arrived. It was ok by me as I had just had breakfast.

As it was a hotel restaurant their staff were quite friendly.

As it was Australian open, they had an Australian Open shake for $7. They also showed some of the Australian open on TV and they had ping pong tables in their restaurant where customers can play.

The latte was $4 and it was burnt and bitter. Although it had nice artwork.

Do come by for a meal or two.

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.

Woodside Green

Woodside Green is a small cozy cafe in Carlton. I had walked by but never really discovered it until now. Here they are run by the Irish and have so many photos and things up there.

Here they were really busy at 11am when I arrived with my friend. My friend paid for me and we shared a banana cake and he took back his coffees. He had an 11:30am appointment to be at. We also got coffees for other people. And other friends came by to get their coffees.

They do stellar coffees but for some reason my mocha tasted more like a latte. I did however like the artwork presented. There was just a little bit of chocolate on top.

But the banana cake was really sweet and moist. Here they make it freshly on site. I loved the minimalist icing on top. I'm not a fan of lots of icing.

Do come by this place for your coffees.

Leo's Spaghetti Bar

Leo's Spaghetti bar has been around for 30 years now and is run by a lovely Italian guy who organised the meal for me. I was invited to try their menu and their takeaway service.

The service itself is prompt and they do take allergies into account. One lady next to us advised that she was allergic to calamari and they were happy to take this out.

I had a shiraz and he had water. The shiraz worked really well with the pasta dishes. It had that grapey taste and was really strong.

There were four entrees for me to try and I liked them all. I loved the goats cheese ball the most. Then followed by the garlic bread which was nice and very garlicky. I really didn't like much of the calamari- it was really chewy. And the spinach cannelloni was just alright.

The pastas itself are good but they had waay too much sauce and the penne pasta was overcooked. It was soggy. I loved the spaghetti marinara as they had fresh seafood and lots of olive oil on it. In fact too much. Too much of that stuff is not good for you. My housemate who got the marinara takeaway says that her pasta was overcooked and too much sauce to it.

Rating: 12/20- only for the drinks and the service with a smile. Do come by to this Italian gem in St Kilda just for drinks. You can take the tram there or you can walk/run there.

Poolside coffee

Poolside Coffee is a new coffee place in the Melbourne City baths. Here they do good quality coffee and blends which is what RMIT students love.

Poolside and gym lovers will also love the healthy treats on offer. Their piccolo is great and it should be for the price of $4

 The rice paper rolls (3 for $7) were really good and they were freshly made. They were really moist from just being made.

Poolside lovers will also like the friendly service and smiles that come with their coffee. They will also love the free flowing water- both sparkling and mineral.

My piccolo was not burnt and had chocolatey taste to it.

Do come on by and try their marvellous coffees and healthy treats. This is a good place for sugar free september.

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.

Degani at Royal Children's Hospital

I normally don't go to Deganis but I heard that the Royal Children's Hospital is raising funds for next years Good Friday Appeal and that the Streatsmart program is on again. I saw on Facebook that Degani is donating $1 per every coffee sold to the homeless people. Since I am raising money for them too I thought that this would be ideal seeing as the mentally ill, homeless, vulnerable people come here.  Do donate to my cause if you can.

Degani is hidden away on the ground floor and not in the food court but down the corridor along with the family room and HOYTS (who knew that they have Hoyts here)! It is nowhere near McDonalds and Shuji Sushi. It is outside the 55 and 59 tram stops.

The cafe was quiet just before 10am but then after 10am the hospital staff needed their hit so they all came here at once. Not so much the patients- I wonder why. I had the $9.90 deal of bacon and eggs focachia with a coffee.

People say that their coffee is bad usually and I would have to agree myself, but given that this is a hospital with mentally ill and vulnerable patients, I would forgive them. However they forgot my latte until I reminded them and then forgot that I wanted it eat in. But I let it slide- after all they deal with all sorts of people.

My breakfast bacon focachia was anything but a focachia. When I think Focachia I think of lovely think bread- this was thin and more like a roll. But still I can't fault the eggs and the bacon.

Rating: 12/20- give them some grace. Do come by if you love some peace and quiet

The Coffee Club at Airport West

This Coffee Club has been around for quite some time and it has been about two years now since I have last come. They have changed management as there were more Asian workers there than there was about two years ago. Two years ago it was all Australian staff which smile a lot.

Now the staff don't smile as much and seem to not get orders correctly upon the first go. The lady that served me did not hear two separate orders until about the third time I told her. She was Asian, maybe perhaps an International student? When the lady told me that the price of my order was $12, I thought that it could not be correct as I had ordered one latte, one sugar for my friend and they had given me money for theirs and then for me it was a latte no sugar and a vanilla kiss.  The membership deals are all the same and there is a new menu. I am keen to try this somewhere but not at Airport West.

I had a latte with no sugar which was fine but very strong. At the end though it was very bitter. The friend didn't seem to like theirs much as they did not finish it. I enjoyed the artwork on top. The biscuit was fine too.

Now make sure that all your staff smile and that they clean up mess promptly as I did leave mess from the cookie crumbs and waited ten minutes for them to clean this up.