Mama Pho

Mama Pho is the latest Vietnamese place to hit Highpoint. But is it any good? We put it to the test.

Mama Pho is in the food court area near Crunch. So you can expect all the fitness freaks to go there after their gym session. They specialise in rolls and noodles.

After 1:30pm the place was steady with Caucasians so I wonder where it went wrong. I thought that if it was the best Vietnamese place in Highpoint it would have lots of Vietnamese there. It is after al supposed to be a healthy eating place.

I had the prawn rice paper roll ($3.20 for one with sauce included). This was freshly made. Here the prawns were fresh.

On the other hand the spring roll bun ($11) was not great except for the spring rolls. Everything was doused in too much fish oil, which by the end I could not finish all due to that overpowering smell. And taste. It did not take too long to come which is great. You order and then pay and then they will call you when it is ready.

Rating: 10/20- inconsistent and sloppy service. The lady at the front counter almost overcharged another customer and there was someone who ordered a meat bun but did not get it. But do come here for their rice paper rolls.

Burgerlove

Burgerlove is in the same area of St Kilda as Metropol. In fact it is right behind it. But it was tricky to find at first. In the end though thanks to Zomato I found it.

I first heard about it through Scoopon. And through there they sold me a $7 burger, chips and drink. Well I did not mind that they forgot my drink. Rather I wished that they did as I was happy to drink water. I did do wine earlier.

The toilets are at the St Hotel. I really didn't want to go there just to use their bathrooms as last time it was really overcrowded. Nor did I want to cross that road to get there.

Here the burger was just alright. It was $7. The beef patty was nice and juicy though and the bun was alright. The chips were nicely spiced with that paprika.

Do come on by to this place. Oh and by the way they do Ubereats which Groupon has a deal for $3 for $17 spend.

City Orchards Garden

City Orchards Garden has been around for a little while but then they started to do dumpling and snack deals which aa_dancefit on Instagram said was quite good. He enjoyed the food and all. You have to book the table and I got to say that Tuesday at around 7:30pm they were not busy.

I have to disagree with aadancefit though- I didn't really enjoy the food as much as he did. The snack set comes with tea egg, 2 spring rolls, one big BBQ pork bun (you don't normally buy them in Footscray like this), chicken skewer, fried rice, four prawn and pork wontons, one supposedly homemade dumpling, chicken and corn soup and vegetables. The drinks are not included and tea was not on offer- I wished that it was.

Beer

Spring rolls

This all you can eat is $19.90 and it is like a yum cha where they come around and serve you the food. But I didn't want seconds. I bought a Tsingtao beer to go with all my foods. But somehow it worked best with the wontons, the homemade dumpling, the tea egg and the skewer

The homemade dumpling fell apart- it was the frozen sort. I would have expected it to be the fresh sort. The chicken skewer was nice but it had too much spice to it which overpowered it by a lot.

tea egg and wontons

I really enjoyed the wontons and the tea egg. Although I have to admit I hated taking the shells off- it was so messy. The wontons were good though. The fried rice was just ok but it was too much for one person.

rice

The BBQ pork bun was really nice though. It had some nice filling in there. The vegetables however were the frozen sort. I would have liked this with a bit of oyster sauce in there. But the chicken and corn soup was not too bad.

Rating: 10/20- I expected better. When I go yum cha I have dessert as well. Also I would have loved there to be complimentary tea. Maybe when they have these things and the har gou and siu mai then they should think about inviting some bloggers down for beer and yum cha.

The service was alright though. The manager seemed a little bit surly.

Royal Stacks

I have walked past it but have not visited it. When I heard from Weekendnotes that they were giving out free custard with their burgers I thought that I would try. And try I did.

About 44 other bloggers wrote about it. Some wrote good things and others wrote bad things about their chips and burgers. Just recently Yelp had a free burger party there but due to training requirements I could not come.

Here I had their cheeseburger. It was really nice and I enjoyed the patty and the gherkin. The bun was really great but sweet. It was $9.90

The chips were more like the McDonalds fries. I got a small serve of them for $2.90.

I did however enjoy the free frozen custard which was a nice touch but I had to remind them about their birthday freebies. Several others did not get their free custard with every burger purchased. They should have made a sign about it and asked about it. The free custard was minty and tasted like a mint slice. Normally it is $4.50 for one.

Still it is all good for me. No complaints from me.

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.