Exploring Chapel st

Chapel St is one of Melbourne's popular shopping strips. About 5-15 mins by train and walk from the station Chapel st has all of your shopping needs. There are trains that leave the CBD every 5-10 minutes so there is no need for a car. And someone once told me that to park on Chapel st it is $15 an hour. So not worth it.

There are also trams that leave the CBD too every few minutes but they take up to twice as long depending on the traffic.

Depending on how much money you have Chapel St has something to suit everyone's needs. There are some cheap and quirky items or there are the most expensive stuff.

All the expensive brands can be found at the South Yarra side and the more quirky and vintage stuff is found on the other side.

I loved the little surf village near Commercial road. Here you can find lots of quirky jewellery and fashion some of which is $10.

I also love the T2 shop. Here they seem a lot more friendlier than the one in the city. Unlike the city store there is a lot more cutesy stuff as well as tea samples. They are also a lot bigger.
This store also sells the Breville machine for $299.

I also loved visiting Urban Attitude- a shop which sells quirky but everyday household items at affordable prices. Here I found a pocket lamp for $9.99 and a little cute kitchy bottle of nick knacks for $10.

If you want to go to the movies whilst you are here the Jam Factory is the place. Keep in mind though that there is no Intencity- there used to be such an arcade and many more shops. But due to the recession not anymore.

Lunch is at one of the many options along Chapel st. Don't go there for the dumplings as they will probably be shocking for the price you pay. Instead go to one of the many bars and cafes serving their lunch specials. Most of them usually have two courses with wine for $30-$50.

There are plenty of atms around, but if you are new to the area better to bring lots of cash as some places don't always accept cards.

When Sally and I visit we also love to put our feet up at Lindt the Chocolate Shop at the end of the day and order hot drinks and maybe food. The last time I went I bought a Lindt bunny for $4.50 and a pot of green tea for $5.70. There isn't a bathroom in the Lindt cafe- they share with the Jam Factory.

And then we go home.

Babu Burgers and Balls by Katherine

Babu burgers is a place in Chapel st opposite Swinburne campus.

But the area in itself is still pretty busy with students, cars and families.
Chapel st on a saturday is a nightmare, hence we chose to tram/train it there. Someone once told me that it is $15 per hour just to park there. With trains and trams it costs about $3.30 on the weekends and with MYKI pass it is virtually free.

Sally and I arrived there just after 1pm and it was not busy. But at 2pm families started coming. It was a long and leisurely lunch.

We used our Meld Student discount of $10 burger with chips and we both added drinks to our order. I had the lemon lime and bitters ($3.50- it came in a huge glass and was the nicest ever tasted) and Sally had the Ginger ale ($3).

With the Meld student discount you can order a meat, veggie or chicken burger. It would be the same with the Entertainment book (which launches in April 2013).

The meals came pretty fast. Sally and I both had vegetarian burgers. Sally got hers with the beetroot and jalepinos.

When they came to the table they looked pretty darn good and they were both open burgers which is easier to eat with a fork and knife. These were much better and much more fullfilling than the ones at Grilld across the road. Who says that vegetarian has to be boring and dry?

Babu burgers makes their own sauces and beers/cider. I tried the pink mayonaise on my chips and it tasted like plain old mayonaise. But I still enjoyed it.

I'd love to come back to Babu. If only they'd advertise as to which holidays they are closed.

Drugstore Espresso

Drugstore Espresso was the only coffee place besides Two Birds One stone that was opened on Easter Saturday. Originally we were going to go to Outpost but that was closed.

Drugstore Espresso is a tiny little kitchy place on busy Toorak road.

Sally herself had a big breakfast and coffee so she didn't have anything. But I ordered some toast and coffee. Originally I was going to get cake but they ran out. It was 11.30am when we visited.

The long black smelt a little bit burnt and nutty ($3), but it was strong.

The toast was good too. The butter was homemade (I think as it had that creamy texture to it that you normally don't get much of in a commercial butter). I think the jam too was homemade. I loved the sourdough- it had that nice texture to it.

The service itself was a bit disorganized as there were people standing around doing nothing and my coffee came after my food. Way after it- I thought that they'd forget.

I can forgive these tiny things if the food and drink is right and it was. For a South Yarra cafe this is excellent. This is what the Melburnians expect. Thank you for offering such good food and drink to the locals. I would love to come again; this time when we're both peckish for eggs as we saw some really lovely looking egg dishes being delivered to other tables.

Phat Brats

Phat Brats is one of Melbourne favourite sausage places and has been for a while now.

It is on Brunswick st about ten minutes from the city. It was not hard to find as they had a very big sign.

About 20 other bloggers raved on about this place.

I got meet up with the owner ( I think his name was Daniel) and he said that photos were fine by him and they had no problem with it. They had been opened for a year.

The owner said that one of the perks of the job is to get to meet people and to do that they have many stalls in quite a few markets.

The only downside is staying back on Friday nights til about 3.30am in the morning.

A new girl served me and she was pleasant.

They have the $10 student deal where you get chips with a bartwurst. It was quite filling. Now I normally love spicy hot dogs so I got the Spicy Chorizo Bratwurst with their chips.

It was nice but it wasn't too spicy. This is good for people that don't like the spiciness. I wasn't a fan of the soft bread- I thought it was bought from Coles.

I would have loved some onions to this.

But I must say that the potato fries were good...it reminded me of being in the country as I can taste the rustic potatoes in this. These were nicely seasoned.

I also had organic lemonade. At $4 a bottle it was not bad... as it was Phoenix.

Its a good place to hang out between classes as Brunswick st is not far from RMIT. And who says that meals have to be that darn expensive? If only good meals were cheap. I'd definately come back again if I'm in that area wanting hot dogs.

Easy Way in Target mall

Easy way is a tea franchise and I think I have done reviews on these before.

But I have not tried the one in Target Mall. What convinced me to try there was the buy get one free promotion going on.

They had been "opened for a year" (or so they claim) but service was lacklustre today. They didn't seem to understand what a queue is. The lady that served me and the other couple had pretty poor English. The other couple wanted to know what the "pearls" were but she didn't explain. She did look very tired and she did not smile.

My tea was $4.30. I got a regular iced green tea but I added apple jelly (extra $0.60) to the mixture. It was nice but towards the end was a little too sweet. It was hard to eat all the jellies because they were not mixed in properly.

Now I'm happy to visit the other Easy Way tea places in the city, but just not this one.