Think Asia in St Collins Lane

Think Asia is a franchise which is all over Melbourne. I have been to a few and I really like this one on St Collins Lane. This is because the food is so much better here than it is there. Here they do food well and they serve the office workers their lunch. Office workers can eat in or take away.

They sell lots of different Asian foods.

Both times I ate in. The first time was the rice paper rolls which were ok. The rice paper rolls were for the Peter Mc charity bike ride. And then the second time was for Chinese New Year in which I want to promote these dishes. Here prawn symbolizes good luck and dumplings bring prosperity. Noodles bring longevity into the new year and chicken brings unity.

The dumplings were quite alright. They were not like the ones I had at Will's where it was really overcooked. Here the prawn dumplings were cooked perfectly. I enjoyed both the plain prawn ones and the ones with chives.

The Ais Kachang I got it for free thanks to a competition on Instagram. Here it is a Malaysian dessert which has just been recently added to their menu. But this one had waaay too much syrup and not enough of the other stuff.

Do come by this place for your Chinese New Year fix.

Nik @ Nicholson

RNIS received a $20 voucher for food from Dimmi but paid for the rest themselves.

Nik @Nicholson is a new place opened on Nicholson st and is outside a tram stop. Here they were not too busy for a mid-week dinner.

The service here was slow. They seemed understaffed. To their credit, they know their customers well.

Here I tried their burgers with a fried egg. This was quite filling. And I wanted to try the chips too. But the chips were underseasoned and they were the frozen sort.

I really loved the patty. It was full of mushroom goodness. There was lots of lettuce in this and it looked massive when it came to the table. The brioche bun was really good and it had that cheesy goodness to it.

To go with the burger I had the Jim bean coke. Here the alcohol content was really strong. It worked well with the burger. The drinks are really cheap here. It's like $7-$9 per glass whereas in the city it is about $10-$12. There are no cocktails.

The next I come I would love to try a salad or a pizza! And dessert!

I wonder if they do happy hour. If so do lets us know.

The Joint Bar

The Joint Bar is a little backpackers bar and I first discovered them when they had their many drink specials. They are one level above the bottle shop and you can see the tram stop from above.

During the daytime, they are not busy but after work, they are busy with all the punters wanting cheap drinks and the sun. They have an indoor and outdoor area.

On Friday I had their Captains Morgans spiced rum as a pick me up. It really made my day then. It was only $5. I saw the food menu and decided I would come back today. Here everything is so cheap and they have a burger and beer deal for $12. How awesome is that! Normally in the city a burger and beer costs $20.

They have Smirinoff for $4.80 and some of their wines at $5-$7 as well as all of their beer for $7 during happy hour and evenings. After 5pm pizzas are $4 each.

The toilets are outside in the stairwell and there is a sign pointing to them. The toilets were just ok.

Seeing as I have promised my readers vegetarian for the month of January I went for a vegetarian burger. When it came it looked alright but then after a few bites the patty was very watery and the bun went a bit soggy. They used one of the frozen ones. The chips were very salty.

I would only come here for the drinks and not the food.

Chef Lagenda revisited

Chef Lagenda has changed ever since the last time I visited which was many years ago. This time I visited with six others and they had booked the table ahead. This time we were led upstairs to a private table for seven, which happens to be outside the bathroom.

 The bathroom is small and they have this lovely artwork from KL to make it welcoming for people. It's not often that you see the artwork in the bathroom. But I had to wait to go in there as there was a queue.

Chef Lagenda seems to fill from 6:30pm onwards and it was busy for a Sunday night. Last time I was there no wine was served. But this time they now have BYO.

Last time I was there, there was no courtyard. This time though there was a lovely courtyard.

Service was very friendly and they were really attentive.

They always have their complimentary tea which I always enjoy and the food was much better than Laksa King's. To start off with there was the roti. The roti was fluffy and it was lovely with the Nyonya fish dish. I tried a little bit of that Nyonya fish dish.

I quite liked their fried rice. It was just like the way that my mum would make it at home. Here it had prawns and lovely seafood.

I wanted to try the beef rendang but I had homemade beef rendang for lunch.

The white rice was just ok, but I did enjoy that pork belly. The pork was a tender melt in the mouth sort of thing.

Do come by this place if you are sick of Laksa King.

The Curtin Hotel

We went there as part of our Friday Happy hour in which we order an alcoholic drink and food.

The Curtin is a great student bar just outside of RMIT Carlton Campus. During January they are really quiet and other times they are always busy. Back in my student days I never went because I never drank and their food was quite expensive. Now it is quite the opposite where they are under $15.

Normally the cocktails are about $12 but because of happy hour, they are $10. The place is open for lunch and dinner.

My bartender seemed to know a lot about wines and bourbon. Here I had a really good Margherita which was made with a great tasting tequila. In fact, it was strong. It had quite a bit of lime flavor in there.

You can ask for a bourbon and coke here but no one really knew that. The bartender knows how to make a really good one.

To compliment it I had the Mexican corn which was nice but I would have loved cheese and more paprika on top.

Do come by to the John Curtin Hotel for their happy hour and if you are in that area as it is a great student pub with lots of local acts.