The 126 restaurant tips and how we are incorporating it here.

Earlier this year we were given a 126 restaurant tips guide by AGFA but we have been too busy with the Melbourne Marathon to really promote good practice.

On Social Media
We have Instagram, twitter and Facebook. Many restaurants these days try to promote their wares on social media which gives them a competitive edge. Most restaurants have Instagram and many well-known ones invite their bloggers out to share and like their dishes.

Some restaurants respond to negative criticism and ask for help which is the right thing to do for their business. The good business manages their customer reviews well on Zomato and Facebook and they follow their customers.
Email sales are a must for any good business.

Ambiance matters
For a restaurant to do well ambiance matters. People don't want to go to a dirty restaurant.

Costs and the Good food and wine show
Paying the correct wage is a must. If restaurants don't pay the correct wage then the staff are not happy and will want to work elsewhere.
The cost of the food reflects on the quality of it.
Buying good wine for most upmarket places is a must.

Business plan
Each restaurant should have a good business plan and one that is five years long. It needs to be really detailed down to the wire.

Other events and promotions
Successful businesses nowadays have a stall at the many local markets such as the farmer's markets. This is a good way to promote dishes to new customers. This is a great way to get new customers in the door.

Most cafes and restaurants are featured on Groupon, LivingSocial and the Entertainment book and you can buy one off us here. You can read about what we are doing to help the Salvos here.

The Food Truck park

This is a great place for all the foodies alike and its in Preston near the train station. They have a Facebook page and dogs are welcome. There is no atm there but there are banks on High street where you can get cash. Most stall holders are cash only.

They are open for lunch and dinner from Wednesday through to Sunday.

Bike racks

sign

Coffee cart- this wasn't there the Thursday that I went

 Here the food trucks keep changing. I went there twice. First time to try the chips in the night and the second time was for something else. The first time I went it was already after 7:30pm.

The chips were great and at $3 they were a steal.

The second time I went was for the food on a Sunday night dinner during the warmer months. Here I saw a lot of dogs and people. Even got to pat a few.

Rice balls

This time I tried a Jian bing (Chinese pancake for $8). It was huge and yum. It was from the Happy Panda. The Happy Panda is run by an Australian couple.

Of course I had to have my chips and these were in a small size for $5.30. Who would charge a ridiculous price like this???? I would have expected good chips with some seasoning but no such luck.

The Nutella pizza was good and worth the $10 I paid for it. It worked well with Billy's ice cream van vanilla bean flavour. For $5 the scoop was huge. I really loved every mouthful of dessert.

Nutella pizza-yum

Do stop by the wonderful food park with your date as it is cheap date to remember. Do check them out on Facebook as the trucks rotate on a daily basis.

Some food trends at Melbourne's restaurants and what they mean

 Students when in Melbourne there are some foods that you need to adapt to, particularly if you are from an Asian country.

Here are some Melbourne foods and trends that you need to adapt to when living here.
1) Pork Belly Sandwich- never has a day gone by when I have not been in a cafe that does not serve this as most cafes do nowadays.

Image courtesy of foodnetwork.com

2) The Roti wrap. It is just roti bread filled with all sorts of things inside. Like a normal wrap except thicker

Image courtesy of theveganartisan.com

3) Mexican food- most cafes now have this option and Melbourne has a lot of Mexican food such as Tacos, Burritos, Nachos etc. Now I have tried Nachos before and basically they are chips served with salsa and sour cream and guacamole. You would use your hands for this hence it is messy.

4) Organics- a lot of cafes have now gone organic which means that some of the food maybe more expensive.

5) Baked eggs- I tried this about two years and love it. It is a full meal within itself and it comes in bowl with tomatoes, eggs and maybe beans and chorizo (Spanish sausage). It is a spicy dish and its meant to be.

Image courtesy of tastykitchen.com

6) Pides- yum. They are basically Turkish bread with filling inside.

Image courtesy of 123rf.com

7) Soldiers- they are just thick pieces of toast cut into strips. You can drip it into the yolk of a hard boiled egg

Image courtesy of reddit.com

8) Paella- this is a Spanish rice dish. It also has seafood in this.

9) The gastropub burgers with chips. I've noticed that this is a trend lately.  The first time I tried it was at Red Brick Road and it was actually very filling. Its like your average burger but smaller.

10) Bombolini- these are Melbourne's handmade doughnut balls. Yum

Bombolini. Image courtesy of tastespotting.com

 What sort of foods have you tried in Melbourne apart from your typical Asian food?

Indian night at the Couch

RNIS was invited by Chai Junction to this free event

The event was held on a windy Thursday night at the Couch where 200 people turned up for a night of fun and dancing. And eating.

Indians love to eat and they love their spicy food. Here the food from Delhi Rocks was not too spicy and in fact Delhi Rocks had a discount for students which is half price meals at their café in the city (deets are down the bottom).

Sadly Melbourne doesn't have that many Indian places in the city. They are all either in the west, south and north of the city.

I really loved their samosas without the sauce. The curry in there was really good and I'm glad that Delhi Rocks catered to the vegetarians that night. I also enjoyed the fried onion.

Who could say no to sweets? Certainly not I and I enjoyed the gulab jarmun (which is a round sweet in syrup). The Asians from China might not get it and the other things but they were good.

But first up was spring rolls and mini samosas which by 6:30pm everybody seemed to favor these.

Then came the Bollywood dancing which was fun for all and many students participated.

Many thanks to the Couch and Chai Junction for having me.

Pinchy's

As part of Melbourne Food and Wine festival

Pinchy's is an American food truck based in Elwood and they do handmade lobster subs.

But RNIS went to the free lobster day in Carlton. And they had a good time. This was sponsored by the Bank of Melbourne.

We only had to wait ten minutes and there were only just a few others. We had expected a big turn out today as to who can no to free food and drinks?

There was a line but it seemed to move quickly.

My lobster sub was great and I loved the potato chip twist on the side. Also the homade granita was good too. And unlike other granitas was easy to drink as this one had no ice to it.

This lobster was not sickly sweet like some of the other ones and the seafood was fresh. Very fresh. The roll was soft and I loved the pickle on top as it gave it that salty tang.

Ratings: 15/20- do visit the actual Pinchy's store. But the only thing is they run out of stock sometimes. That's how good they are.

A Global Gathering

As part of this year's Melbourne Food and Wine festival.

A Global Gathering is all out foodie event which is spread out all over Bridge Road. From free food to $5-$10 tasting plates there is something to please everyone. Even the pickiest of eaters. There was free face painting for the kids.

My four stamps

Free popcorn

Free face painting

It is only a short tram ride away from the city. At the Information hubs we collected our passports and stamp form and off we went. If you got four stamps like we did then you would be in the running to win a SMEG kitchen pack from Harvey Norman, which leads us to our first stop for free food.

1) Harvey Norman
Harvey Norman offered free chippolatas and tastings of their stir fry. We couldn't stay long but they did offer free cooking classes and the bake off at 12pm.

I really loved that sweetness in the stir fry and the onions. The sales rep from SMEG said it was 4 mins to make the stir fry and it worked a treat.

The stir fry for everyone

2) Three One 2 One café

The entrance

Salt and sugar

This place was just literally across the road from Harvey Norman, but due to the heavy traffic it was hard to cross. Maybe they should have closed off that whole road and then have lots of roadside stalls.

The café is pretty homely and they make their own jams and have about 21 varieties of sauces for people to peruse on their dishes. I had the mushroom arachini which had that subtle taste of mushrooms and it was not too overpowering. I also loved having the chilli jam on the second ball= yum

3) Bouzy Rouge and their salt cod ball ($2)
What attracted us to this place was the paella and the look of the balls. It was on the way to Osteria. The balls were full of flavour and many people got attracted to the paella. The paella smelt good but we had to leave room for other things.

Wine lis

The cod ball tasted like cod and cheese, match made in heaven.

4) Osteria la Passione 

This café is just a few blocks away from three two one and here we had the cold meat plate for $5. It was $10 just to add the drink as well. We loved the cold meat platter as it was yum and the meats were very fresh. I think it was lamb. We also enjoyed the baked bread and the balsamic vegetables which were drizzled on top of the meat.

Before going in we tried their extra virgin olive oil samplings and bread and gosh it was sooo strong.

This café was very homely, it reminded us of regional Italy and we loved the products on display.

Before we got to number 5 we checked out all the BBQ displays with Gypsey and Mosquito barbequing wallaby and Big Boy's special of $7 for their special chips.

We also checked out Slowpoke's free masterclass.

5) Laikon Deli
This place has been going strong for almost forty years and they sell heaps of fresh Greek food in which you can take home or eat outside.

We got the cone and loved the olives and the freshness of the salad. Yum! I say. And the man that served us was very friendly.

By then the street was getting busier. Oh well only one more stop.

BBQ at Gypsey and Mosquito

6) The Groove Train

This is the last stop and I was really disappointed with my eggplant chips. Although nice it was a little bit bland and it took waaay longer than I had expected. The service was very slow for a not so crowded place. I had always wanted to give this place a go.

I had expected stellar chips as that is what I got everytime I had been to the other Groove trains. But these ones were not even crunchy.