Inkr7

Inkr7 is a tiny little cafe in the heart of St Kilda, which does really good coffees and cheap meals according to the Age.
I went there with my Japan Club yesterday at 2pm and found that they do brunch all day. It is about a 5 min walk from the 67 tram and a ten minute walk from the Esplanade where the Sunday market was.
It looked really tiny from the outside, but at the back there is a courtyard.
They do accommodate for last minute bookings.
The specialise in teas and juices as well as coffees. Hence I ordered a green tea ($3.70, but I got refills for free) and some of the others ordered juices and smoothies. In fact where we were sitting we can hear the noise of the blender going in the background. It was so noisy.

Service was friendly. It was not so attentive at times. They kept on forgetting whose food and drinks are whose and we had to keep on reminding them where they belong to. Other than that it was not too bad.
I had the $12 eggs benedict which consisted of one egg and wee bit of bread which was small. At $12 this is too steep for what I got. The egg was a bit overcooked but the rest was just fine. The egg was a bit runny.  The thyme should have been mixed properly. I kept on eating the stalks by accident and I had to spit one of them out.
One of my group didn't like the strawberry smoothie. He said it was way too sweet. I tried it and have to agree with him about this.
A few of my group ordered Pide. A Pide is a turkish bread sandwich with lots and lots of filling inside. It is big. It came with salad and some of my group didn't like the salad.
All in all I don't mind coming here to try the wraps as they did look yummy. Many thanks to the Japan club for organising this.

Twenty & Six espresso

Twenty & Six espresso has been hyped about for some time. They had been opened for a year now and already they are really busy during the weekends. Not to mention the many blog posts, reviews and awards that they got for being the best coffee in North Melbourne.
It is like the espresso room in that they specialise in coffee and that the decor here is homely. They do have a courtyard out the back but it is not opened to the public. It is only for private use. I would have loved to have sat in the courtyard and played with the cat out there.
This cafe like others in North Melbourne is dog friendly.

But the music inside is way too loud for my liking. It gets busy on Sundays and was so when I came so it is best to book ahead of time.

They do brunch all day and the people here are down to earth.

Everything here is organic. The coffee beans are from Proud Mary with some of them from Seven seeds. I had the filter pourover ($8). It was the Don Pete Natural Geisha blend which was winey, cherry like, vanilla and flowery. It reminded me of Japan and their cherry blossom season.

It was here that I had the soba noodle salad ($17.90). You can substitute chicken for tofu like what I did if you are vegetarian. It was fresh but it was overdressed. And it had way too much ginger in it. But I loved the fresh, marinated tofu to it.

I'd love to come back to this place as it is a great place for coffee like many of the others in inner Melbourne.  I'd love to get the chance to try out the sweet Balinese rice. And maybe suggest the Japan club come for breakfast.

Shanghai street

Shanghai street is a dumpling place in city just past Elizabeth st. They are ranked number 74 on Urbanspoon.
It is a popular place for all the locals to go to with dishes less than $12. The serving sizes are big, but you can share with someone. It is rated highly in the Age Cheap eats 2012.

At 2pm when I came it was still pretty busy from the lunch hour.
 There were queues everywhere. They need a bigger shop. I had to share tables with someone. Usually I don't mind but I had to do some work today I felt a little bit queasy having that person look over my side of the table.

The dumplings here are good. The free tea only so so. Mind you it is only self serve at the far end which I had no idea. The cups were still wet from just being washed.

They also sell noodles and rice... but I had lunch a little while ago and just wanted a break.

The service was pretty bad and there was one lady who kept her mouth open for most of the time I was there. It was unslightly. Gross. Someone needs to tell her to close her mouth. She was the one that served me.
I waited a while for food.

I ordered the Spring onion pancake, custard buns and spring rolls. That came out to $15.10. The plate of spring onion pancake was huge for $6.80. The basket of buns was in a big basket.

The custard buns were the best ones I had so far. So was the pancake. But the spring rolls were a tad bit soggy. :(

 My bowl was just a tad bit dirty... but I'll live to see another day.

Good dumplings, but there just needs to be better service. Good thing that they are ranked at number 74 and Shanghai village is ranked at number 85. This is my new favourite from now on.

Vic Markets cake shop

I work in the city close to Vic market. And on this rainy day I went there wanting sweet treats. It was here that I got my favourite bubblegum macaroon and almond bread, coconut kiss and some other treats for $6.65 altogether.

They had some yummy cakes there but given that I'm not really a cake person I didn't go for them. They were $4-$4.50 a slice depending on which ones you got. There were plenty of big tarts there for that price.
The macaroons here were $2.80 each but there were so many to choose from and they are really filling.

The sweets were yummy and filled me up just before class.
The ladies there were lovely, but she got a bit confused by my order because I was ordering a lot of good things. And sweets that appealed to me as a blogger.

What a foodie delight

I shall keep on coming back for more.