​Hopetoun Tea Rooms @Collins Street, Melbourne

Posted on 11 August 2016 by lendeliz

2016-08-11-09-00-31So we past by The Block Arcade during our walking tour on our first day in Melbourne and the beautiful display of cakes and tarts, as well as the classic decor of an English tea room at Hopetoun Tea Rooms wowed us (not to mention the snaking queue outside the cafe)!

So we made a secret pact to come back here for it’s popular 3-tier High Tea (everyday from 10am-2:30pm). But when we found out that the High Tea was fully booked months ago (and also the prohibitive price of A$50 per person), we decided we would just come back for breakfast since we stayed very near.

And so here we are today, early in the morning at 9am, the 3rd customers of the day at the tea room! 🙂

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Categories: Australia, Breakfast, Melbourne, Travel | Tags: , , , , , | 1 Comment

​Minamishima @Richmond, Melbourne

Posted on 10 August 2016 by lendeliz

2016-08-10-19-22-32We were put on waiting list for this very popular Japanese restaurant that only serves dinner omakase, and were delighted when we received a call the day before that there was a table available at 7.30pm! We were so excited and decided to give up having dinner at the Queen Victoria Winter Night Market.

It was an easy tram ride to Richmond, and though we arrived 30 minutes ahead of time, we were ushered to our table to rest in the warmth of the restaurant.

There were some specials available today, but we decided to just stick to the standard omakase meal of A$150.

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Categories: Australia, Dinner, Melbourne, Travel | Tags: , , , , | 1 Comment

​Manchester Press @Rankins Lane, Melbourne

Posted on 10 August 2016 by lendeliz

2016-08-10-14-57-40Located in a little alley, we decided to have our coffee break here, after searching through Google ratings!

Truth be told, we had wanted to go Brother Baba Budan (higher rating, haha) but it was very crowded and didn’t looked like it’s a place for sit-downs. So we wandered along and suddenly caught sight of the MP signboard when we peered into the little alley..

And so we had, clockwise from top left:

  • Matcha Latte (A$5): This was a very smooth cup of matcha latte, not overly sweet, and it had an ending tone of slightly bitter matcha flavour. We liked it!
  • Hot Chocolate (A$4): A rich and sweeter chocolate drink compared to what we had at Waves Port Campbell.
  • Flat White (A$4): Smooth and milky, not bad at all.
  • Mocha (A$4.50): A stronger cup of coffee. My first sip of mocha, so not very sure if it was good or not.
  • Blueberry Muffin (A$4.8): We gathered that bagels were definitely more popular than muffins, for our blueberry muffin became a blueberry bagel when served! Haha, maybe we should not have clarified and sticked with the bagel, for the muffin was super sweet! The blueberries were very juicy though.

This was a rather large cafe with nice wall art, and it was not crowded during the afternoon that we were here, so we could chill here till we felt fully recharged!

Contact:

  • Location: 8 Rankins Lane, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia (Google Map)
  • Website: www.facebook.com/manchesterpress
  • Directions: Take the (free) tram to Burke Street Mall and walk along Little Burke Street before turning left into the small Rankins Lane.
  • Hrs: 7am – 5pm (Mon-Fri), 9am – 5pm (Sat-Sun)
Categories: Australia, Coffee/Tea Break, Melbourne, Travel | Tags: , , , , , | 1 Comment

​Hardware Société @Hardware Street, Melbourne

Posted on 10 August 2016 by lendeliz

2016-08-10-09-28-55

We slept in today because we had a long day yesterday and met up for brunch at this (becoming) very popular cafe. We read that there’s a perpetual long queue here and it would be best to come early.

Luckily, it was a weekday morning, so we only had to queue for a short 15 minutes.

The cafe was not big with only about 4-5 tables on the inside and another 4-5 tables outside. We were assigned the alfresco seats and fortunately there were heaters around and it didn’t felt that cold but we had to keep our jackets on. 🙂

Everything looked good (while we were queueing and observing other people’s plates 🙂 ), but we had limited stomach spaces, so we could only try:

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Categories: Australia, Breakfast, Melbourne, Travel | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Day trip to Great Ocean Road, Melbourne

Posted on 9 August 2016 by lendeliz

2016-08-09 10.23.13No trip to Melbourne is complete without a drive to Great Ocean Road (GOR), one of the world’s most scenic coastal drives! We did our day trip with A Tour with a Difference, which was a company run by a lovely couple.

Grace was our guide for the day, and there were 5 of us in this tour today. Being a small company, they take in a maximum of 11 people for each tour, so we were really lucky to have such a cosy size, for that meant we were all very comfortably seated in the 7-seater Mercedes!

We gathered at a common location for pick up around 7.30am. From there, it was a 1.5 hour drive to our first stop for morning tea break, with Grace giving explanation and pointing out to various location of interest throughout.

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Categories: Australia, Melbourne, Travel | Tags: , | 3 Comments

Movida Bar de Tapas @Hosier Lane, Melbourne

Posted on 8 August 2016 by lendeliz

We read about this highly recommended Spanish restaurant, and decided to come here for dinner after our city walking tour. It was not yet 6pm when we reached, but the place was already full of people!

Queso (Whipped Goat’s Milk Cheese Wrapped in Quince Paste & Brik Pastry)
Duck Confit
Anguila (Smoked Eel with Celeriac Remoulade & Dried Jamon)
Cordoniz (Whole Butterflied Quail with Broccolini, Anchovy Sauce & Horseradish)
Bistec Tartare de Waygu (Spicy Steak Tartare of Raw, Grass-fed Wagyu Beef)

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Categories: Australia, Dinner, Melbourne, Travel | Tags: , , , | 1 Comment

​The Pancake Parlour @Bourke Street Mall, Melbourne

Posted on 8 August 2016 by lendeliz

We finally embarked on our relaxing Aussie trip for 2016!

After a red-eye flight, we made our way to our Airbnb apartment, dropped our bags, and went to meet our friends to have our first meal in Melbourne. And it was pancakes!!!

Barramundi with Salad
Cheese and Potato Pancake

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Categories: Australia, Lunch, Melbourne, Travel | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

​Garçons @Upper Thomson

Posted on 6 August 2016 by lendeliz

2016-08-06 20.54.42We decided to check out the relatively new French restaurant at Upper Thomson (which took over Crust Pizza which was sharing the shop front with One Man Coffee) before we fly off for our 2-weeks break! 😛

Since it was quite near to closing, we decided to just try out a couple of items on the standard menu.

  • 12-hour Belly of Pork ($16.90 nett): The skin is the crispy, but sticks to your teeth type, and the meat was quite tender. We thought that they were a bit too generous with the dressing for the mesclun salad. The potato salad was quite creamy.
  • Charcuterie Platter ($14.90): Our second time trying out duck rillette. This time, it tasted less like tuna mayo, haha! We still liked it with the pickled cucumbers. The duck sausage was quite delicious. The rustic baguette was a bit too hard for our liking.

We were glad that another French restaurant has opened, since the last one had given way to bingsoo. There were actually some monthly and today specials that we intend try sometime soon 🙂

Note: Only cash and NETS accepted here. Water is available freely at the cutlery counter.

Contact:

  • Location: 215R Upper Thomson Road S(574349)
  • Website: garcons.sg
  • Hrs: 5:30pm – 10:30pm
Categories: Dinner, North | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

​Doi Chaang Coffee @United Square

Posted on 5 August 2016 by lendeliz

2016-08-05 20.51.412016-08-29 10.25.17A new kid on the block, and the waffles were calling out to us!

We got ourselves the Red Velvet and Charcoal flavours ($6.90 each), and a Sambal Beef Wrap ($5.50). The waffles were huge, and we belatedly realised that we could have ordered a half-and-half, after the staff mistakenly did one, so we ended up with 2 half-and-halfs. Hahah. Half-and-half looked prettier, and were crispy outside, soft on the inside.

The staff described Melon Milk ($4.50) as “melon with milk” and then everyone burst out laughing! Anyway, this was not bad. The melon taste was quite fragrant without being too cloying sweet. The Green Tea Milk ($5) was basically matcha latte which was not bad, while the Iced Doi Chaang ($6.50) was alright, but it was abit hard to judge since it was iced.

It was quite a cosy place to hang out and chit chat, and we had fun trying to find the countries in the “world map” on the wall.

Contact:

  • Location: 101 Thomson Road United Square Shopping Mall #B1-60 S(307591)
  • Website: www.doichaangcoffee.com.sg
  • Hrs: 8:30am – 9pm (Sun-Thu), 8:30am – 9:30pm (Fri-Sat)
Categories: Dinner, North | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

​Mo’mor Izakaya @Tanglin

Posted on 3 August 2016 by lendeliz

2016-08-03 20.41.00We were here for some Japanese-European fusion food because of the Chope offer!

Though there was a larger outdoor seating area, we opted for indoors, thinking that it would be less hot and more quiet. Erm, it was quite quiet when the blender was not in use 😛

It was ladies’ night today, so ladies get a free drink and 3 oysters at promotional prices. The staff said it is men’s night everyday; the men foot the bill everyday. Hahahaha!

To start, we got a Lychee Sake Cocktail and 3 Fresh Oysters to share. We also had a Raw & Cured Platter ($36++), Hamachi Collar ($21.90++), Charcoal Griled Saikyo Miso Ginger Spring Chicken ($24++), Jumbo Crab Meat Linguine ($29, free with Chope offer).

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Categories: Central, Dinner | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

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