Derby Thai

Derby Thai

4 Derby Rd, Caulfield East

(Ph) 9571 1306

We were going car shopping and S kindly agreed to come and help us so we met him at Caulfield where we were going to borrow one of his friend's cars. We had to wait an hour or so before S' friend could come and pick us up so we decided to get some lunch, even though P and I weren't hungry from our big breakfast at home.

We decided to share a dish - what else but Chicken Pad Thai for $10 =)

Chicken Pad Thai

It was okay - the noodles were a bit too chewy and there was a bit too much sauce on it. And it kinda tasted like the packet pad thai sauces - wasn't very authentic.

I guess it's cheap, and it's aiming for Monash uni students so can't have too high expectations - at least it's a restaurant and not like a food court, despite it being a very small restaurant =P A group of 3 sat down at a 4 people table but then a group of 4 came in and there was no table for them, so the waiters asked the group of 3 to move to a 2 people table and pull up a chair, lol.

We didn't stay for long after seeing that happen - there were lots of people waiting for tables at this small restaurant on a Sunday afternoon!

5.5/10

C.
xo

Oriental Spoon

Oriental Spoon

254 La Trobe St, Melbourne

(Ph) 9654 9930

A organised a dinner with all the uni friends at Oriental Spoon. Initially 16 were meant to come but 13 came in the end - a very good turn out considering we hadn't really met up since uni finished!

We were going to share dishes but then decided it would be too hard seeing we were such a large group so we decided against that.

Appetizers

We were soo hungry - soo happy we got appetizers! The bean sprouts dish and the eggplant dish were the best, I've never had an eggplant Korean appetizer before - was very delicious! The kimchi was well... spicy =P so not really my thing.

I ordered Stone Bowl Bibimbab (A traditional and colourful rice dish which has rich layeringof fresh organic seasoned vegetables, diced bulgogi and topped with fried egg. Served on top of white rice) $16.90

Stone Bowl Bibimbab

Looks and tastes delicious! =D

Miso Soup

My Stone Bowl rice came with complimentary miso soup - I thought miso soup was Japanese?

3 of my friends also ordered the Stone Bowl rice, but only mine came, and 3 non-stone bowl Bibimbabs arrived instead =______= They accidentally ordered the normal bibimbabs instead of the stone bowls ~__~ We got them to change the order, which they reluctantly did, and had to wait an extra 10mins for them to come.

While we were sorting them out, I had let my stone bowl cook for a bit, when L told me to quickly stir it up before the rice on the bottom burns. But it was fine, and I found very crispy rice on the bottom! My favourite! <3

True stone bowl rice! =D I only added a bit of soy sauce - you're supposed to add chilli sauce in it as well but I can't take chilli so didn't bother. Was truly delicious - just wish there was a bit more bulgolgi in it! I was soo hot by the end of it! Not from chilli but from the temperature of the food cooking in my stone bowl haha

3 of my friends ordered the spicy Rice Cakes - the menu warned us that it's chilli, with 3 chilli symbols next to the dish. And boy was it spicy - E was dying for more water but the waiters were soo busy couldn't give us more water until we nearly finished our meals ><

Spicy Rice Cakes

Just from the appearance, it looks ridiculously spicy - oh gosh. E was saving her one and only dumpling till last 'cause it seemed the least spicy part of the dish, but by the time she finished the rest of the dish, her dumpling was soaked in chilli sauce =/

We were all soo hot by the time we finished our meals - were all dying for some icecream or something on this cold Melbourne day!

Apart from them stuffing up our orders, and then stuffing up the bill (they initially charged us for both the normal bibimbabs and the stone bowl bibimbabs =O) - was a very enjoyable, (but terribly hot!), night =)

8/10

C.

xo

Groove Train

Groove Train

Melbourne Central Level 3

211 La Trobe St, Melbourne

(Ph) 9654 2730

J, S and I were having a girls night out - dinner and then movie =) What more perfect movie than Bridesmaids! Which by the way, was a HILARIOUS movie - enjoyed it very much =) We went and got tickets first and since it was slightly raining, we wanted to eat somewhere in Melbourne Central. We were picking between Pancake Parlour and Groove Train - since I had 25% off Entertainment Book vouchers =P After much indecisiveness, we chose Groove Train 'cause it had everything there! Italian, Australian, Chinese, Thai...!

Even though there was so much to choose from, we all decided we wanted pizza =P I think it was 'cause the table next to us ordered pizza and smelt DELICIOUS =)

S wanted the Grooves Lamb Pizza (napoli sauce, mozzarella cheese, roasted lamb, onion, black olive & spinach, topped with tzatziki) for $20.90 and J was initially gonna order the Capriccio (napoli sauce, mozzarella cheese, Virginia ham, mushrooms & black olives), but then decided to get the Grooves Lamb Pizza as well - Groove's specialty? =P

Grooves Lamb Pizza

It was very tasty with the spinach melted in with the mozzarella =) The only downside is the lamb pieces being so big and chunky so really requiring knife and fork to eat - which kinda defeats the purpose of it being a pizza. Maybe it's trying to be a high class pizza?

I ordered a Pollo Pizza (chicken, Napoli sauce, mozzarella cheese, red capsicum, semi sun-dried tomatoes & avocado) $19.90. I really wanted to re-eat the awesome pizza from Ballarat (see Sebastiaan's), even though this doesn't have nachos on it, it has chicken, sun-dried tomatoes and avocado =) I'll make nachos at home and that'll complete my craving ^^

Pollo Pizza

I used to not really be a fan of sun-dried tomatoes, but they're really growing on me =) The crust here was relatively thick, similar to Sebastiaan's, but unfortunately not as crunchy. I think they put too much sun-dried tomatoes compared with chicken, and especially compared with avocado. Wish there was more avocado - there was one piece for every 2 pieces of pizza =(

The pizza was too much for us to eat, should have totally just shared 2 pizzas! Took the rest home, and yes, this time I didn't forget it (compared with Sebastiaan's =P)

Bill was only $16 each so not bad for being stuffed full!

7/10

C.

xo

See Part 2 for my visit to the Doncaster Groove Train.

Thanh Tam

Thanh Tam

172 Victoria St, Richmond

(Ph) 9429 8130

We were on our way to Ikea to get our dining table chairs (finally! after 4 months ><) but we didn't feel like Ikea food again - we've had it like 4 times already this year =P so we hopped off at Richmond and just walked around. P wanted Pho so we walked around to find a Vietnamese restaurant that doesn't only sell Pho. We came to Thanh Tam, saw stickers of previous years' Cheap Eats Guide on the door, so we decided to go in.

P of course ordered Pho - Rice Noodle Soup with Sliced Beef for $9

Rice Noodle Soup with Sliced Beef

Too bad they only had sliced beef - they didn't have special beef here with tendon, brisket, meat balls etc

But they were VERY generous with their bean sprouts (compared with Vietnam Noodle House) and they gave mint leaves (which they should) =) There was actually a bit too much bean sprouts - not enough soup for the bean sprouts to sit in. And strangely enough, they gave more beef than noodles.

I ordered the Broken Rice with the Lot for $9. I wanted tomato rice but they didn't have tomato rice with broken rice stuff - I should have asked them if I could change it to tomato rice, oh well.

Broken Rice with the Lot

The grilled pork chop was a bit too tough and I would have liked it if the egg was a bit more runny. But the shredded pork was very tasty, and I really like the thin fish saucy liquid that it comes with - goes very well with the rice and a bit of everything else.

After our meal, as we went to pay, we saw at least 4 tables had ordered the Vietnamese pancake - I had never heard of a Vietnamese pancake, and for $15, I wasn't sure if it was worth it. But the pancake is a MASSIVE (like 20 inch!!) omelette with very thin crispy edges - wow I so should have ordered it! But it would have been too big for me to finish - I didn't want to make the mistake of ordering too much for myself (like at Sebastiaan's). Next time!

6.5/10

C.
xo

Sebastiaan's

Sebastiaan's

58-60 Lydiard St, Ballarat

(Ph) 5331 8511

P and I went to Ballarat for the long weekend to visit N. N hasn't eaten out much so we decided to just go for the only voucher I could find in Ballarat in the Entertainment Book - Zagame's. We drove all the way there, after we got home from Sovereign Hill, only to find it was right next to Sovereign Hill =___= Anyway we got there, and half the bistro was empty, but they said they were fully booked out and told us to wait for at least 15 minutes. We were in a rush for our Ghost Tour so we left and decided to find somewhere close to the train station since we were meeting there for the Ghost Tour. Sebastiaan's was the only restaurant N's been to in Ballarat (which he said was pretty good) and was nice and close to the train station, so we decided to go there.

We walked inside and no one served us so we just found ourselves a table and got ourselves some menus from the side table - they were just short staffed 'cause the rest of the meal the waitress gave very good service.

I kinda felt like nachos but it was a vegetarian version and I really felt like a meat. And then I found the perfect dish to order - the El Poco Loco pizza (Chicken, pepperoni, sun dried tomatoes, capsicum, cheese finished with corn chips and guacamole). I love pizza and combined with my craving of nachos - perfect!

P ordered Fettucini Carbonara (cream, bacon, egg, cheese) as per usual =P We had to go up to the bar to order and pay so it was more like a bistro than a restaurant. There was a chocolate fondue in the kitchen which looked very delicious - but N said he's always thought fondue's are not very hygienic since they keep reusing the chocolate, which is true hmm o_Oa

Fettucini Carbonara

P's pasta was very delicious - very creamy and cheesy and the pasta was not too soft, which was what he was worried about, thinking back to the Papa Gino's experience.  I think I would have liked it more if there were mushrooms in there too, but P didn't mind not having mushrooms at all =P Halfway through, he digs to the bottom of the dish and finds a thick layer of oil at the bottom - "no wonder it's so tasty!" and decided to stop eating with 10% left to go, thinking it was too unhealthy. Why is it that unhealthy food is always so tasty?

My pizza was ginormous! A small was 9" for $16 and a large was 13" for $21. P told me to order a large 'cause he said he would eat it and it's "only the size of a ruler". Oh my goodness it was massive o_Oa

El Poco Loco

But super delicious! There was so much cheese leaking off and the corn chips with guacamole gave the pizza a very nice crunch. The chicken was very tender and melted into the base with the cheese, and the pepperoni wasn't too spicy =) P thinks the base was too thick but I quite liked it - not too yeasty, very crunchy crusts but not too salty (see +39 Pizzeria). I could only eat 2.5 slices - should only have ordered the small one, I don't know why I bother listening to P when he's so wrong so often *sigh* 

We packed the rest of the pizza (which was half the pizza!) in a take away box and decided to eat it the night we were coming back to Melbourne 'cause we wouldn't have time to cook and didn't want to go out again 'cause we had eaten out so often - but in the end we forgot and left it at N's house =( The fact that I was so looking forward to having the pizza again that night just made me crave more nachos on chicken pizza... will definitely try making it myself!

The waitress came and asked us how our meals were and brought us water and everything - so no, the service wasn't too bad here, just 'cause they were understaffed.

Definitely one of the best pizza's I've ever had! =) I wanna go back to Ballarat again now!

9.5/10

C.

xo

Vietnam Noodle House

Vietnam Noodle House

251 Swanston St, Melbourne

(Ph) 9639 4911

N was meant to leave in the afternoon but we ended up having so much fun that he decided to stay in Melbourne for dinner before taking the train home. We had to have something quick, they wanted Pho so we headed for Mekong but it was closed for renovations that weekend - for that weekend only, and it was pitch black inside... hmm o_Oa

Anyway so we headed next door to Vietnam Noodle House (J said there were more people there compared to the one next door =P)

I knew what I wanted - Broken Rice with Grilled BBQ Pork Ribs, Egg, Shredded Pork Skin, Steamed Egg Cake served with Sweet Fish Sauce for $9

Broken Rice

Mmm it was very tasty - the BBQ pork ribs had a lemongrass marinade, crisp on the outside but still tender inside =) The steamed egg cake is my favourite - the mixture is very unique, can't really tell what it is (bit of egg bit of seaweed bit of sweet potato noodle bit of mince?) but I really like it =) If only the rice was tomato rice like how I'm used to having it then it'd be perfect! A bit of shredded pork skin, carrots and bean sprouts with rice, a bit of fried egg with pork ribs - mmm broken rice =)

P got the Special Beef Pho with brisket, tendon, tripe, beef balls and rare beef for $10. J and N also got Pho, but they only gave one plate of bean sprouts and no mint leaves for them 3 to share - how stingy.

Special Beef Pho

The soup was quite tasty and 'cause they didn't put much coriander in it, I actually quite liked it =P

P also ordered some Spring rolls, it was either prawns or chicken or pork but all for $8 - pretty expensive for spring rolls, so even though I don't like prawns, I told P to get prawns so we get a better value =P

Spring Rolls

And 'cause they were prawns, I didn't like them very much. It was just prawns inside, nothing else. I thought spring rolls generally have some carrots/veges in them too but these just tasted too stiff of meat.

J also ordered an entree - Rice Paper Rolls with prawns and chicken.

Rice Paper Rolls (originally had 4)

It came with a strange peanut sauce - I thought it was a satay sauce but it wasn't, couldn't really tell what it was. Each rice paper roll had 2 prawns in it and some meat and some lettuce - full of goodies, but the meat was a bit bland. Think the sauce was meant to help the flavour, but since I didn't like the sauce much, that didn't help lol

I liked my meal very much, but the others were a bit disappointed. I knew Pho is not nice =P

6.5/10

C
xo

Papa Gino's

Papa Gino's

221 Lygon St, Carlton

(Ph) 9347 5757

J was visiting Melbourne as well (so many people visiting all of a sudden ^^) and he wanted to go to Lygon St - so it was my 2nd time back to Lygon in 3 days =P We were walking along the street - J wanted to go to the restaurant with the most people inside =P We settled for Papa Gino's.

We were initially going to share but 'cause I was sick, N didn't want to - woopz ^^;;

P ordered a bowl of Wedges to start off - $6

Wedges

They gave such a massive bowl of sour cream - but excessive lol. I really like wedges - every time I try to make it at home it's such a fail =(

P ordered a Meat Lovers 'cause he really wanted one at Il Gambero but we didn't end up ordering it the other day.

Meat Lovers

Medium size Meat Lovers (Tomato, mozarella cheese, ham, hot salami, chicken, bacon & bbq sauce) for $14 - pretty good! Though the hot salami was quite spicy for my liking. And I think I would have liked it more if there was more cheese - I love cheese so much =P

J ordered a large Super Special (tomato, mozarella cheese, ham, hot salami, mushrooms, green capsicum, olives, anchovies, prawns & smoked mussels) - he wanted the most expensive pizza on the menu =P The most expensive Pizza was actually Campania (diced tomato, mozzarella cheese, potato, onion, prosciutto) but he didn't want prosciutto =P

Super Special

He decided to get a large for $21 - and omg it was humongous! We had to help him eat a few slices, and he was holding his tummy by the time he finished haha =P I liked how the mushrooms melted into the cheese mmmmm =D

I ordered the Pollo e Spinachi Fettucini (chicken & spinach in tomato & cream sauce) for $14.90. After the delicious Pollo pizza from Il Gambero the other day, with chicken and spinach, I was expecting wonderful things of this fettucini. I would have ordered a pizza as well (you know I like crunchy pizzas more than carb-full pastas =P) but since I had a sore throat, I thought a pizza wouldn't do me much good.

Pollo e Spinachi Fettucini

But the chicken didn't go very well with the spinach in this pasta =( Dunno why but it just wasn't very tasty overall - the pasta was a bit too overcooked so they were a bit too soft. And they don't give enough stuff, 90% of the dish is just fettucini - carbs, ugh. The chicken bits were cut very small so you could barely taste it. I should have ordered the Entree size - seriously could not finish this main meal, and I got a bit sick of it after eating so many mouthfuls of fettucini.

N also ordered a pasta - a tortellini dish, he was stuffed and couldn't finish his meal either. And his dish looked a little mushy. Will remember to not order pastas here again!

Generous portions for the price you pay here though - you can see the size difference between the medium and large pizza lol =P

6/10

C.

xo

Il Gambero on the Park

Il Gambero on the Park

166 Lygon St, Carlton

(Ph) 9663 2246

C and G wanted Italian food at Lygon St so I decided to take them to Il Gambero since I hadn't been there since they moved down to the park 'cause of the fire a year ago. I had walked past it a few times on my way to Il Dolce Freddo for gelati and it looked so much nicer than their old restaurant up the street. C invited Y as well, who reminded me Il Gambero is in the new Entertainment Book as well (we went on June 2nd and the new book starts June 1st) - perfect =)

We decided to share since we had to save room for Il Dolce gelati. C wanted the Spaghetti Marinara - C and her seafood hehe =P I wanted the Pollo pizza and Y wanted the Agnello pizza so the boys didn't really get a say - woopz =P P wanted an entree and I said C loves smoked salmon so we got the Smoked Salmon Bruschetta.

The Smoked Salmon Bruschetta (on pizza base: spanish onions, capers, semi dried tomatoes, dill sour cream & rocket) was not what we expected. We thought it was like normal bruschetta slices but then we realised we didn't read the menu properly haha

Smoked Salmon Bruschetta

This was a bit disappointing 'cause the "pizza" wasn't sliced so when we tried to cut it, the toppings kept moving and there wasn't much smoked salmon and not enough semi dried tomatoes. But the pizza base was quite tasty - it has to be given it's a pizza restaurant haha =P

Spaghetti Marinara

The Seafood Marinara was a bit of a gamble 'cause it was clams, mussels, prawns, calamari & scallops with olive oil & garlic so there wasn't really a sauce in it. The Seafood Luciana was exactly the same thing except with a napoli sauce so we were tossing between those. But the waiter convinced us the olive oil & garlic was very tasty so we tried it - and it was surprisingly very delicious! It was very fresh without the sauce covering the taste of the seafood =)

Pollo

The Pollo pizza (spinach, mushrooms, chicken, baked potatoes & sweet chilli sour cream) was delicious! I'm usually not a fan of potatoes but the little bits of baked potatoes were crunchy and tasted like hashbrowns and complimented the other toppings =) and the chicken wasn't chicken breast (surprise surprise!) so that probably adds to my thumbs up for this dish =)

Agnello

The Agnello pizza (grilled lamb, roast pumpkin & coriander yoghurt) was quite good too but the lamb was a little dry - I've forgotten grilled lamb pizzas are usually like that. If there was more cheese on it would have been better.

With the Entertainment Card the bill was about $10 per person - bargain to the max!

Will take parents here when they come down to Melbourne since they keep saying they haven't tried anything here yet =)

7.5/10

C.

xo

Journal

Journal

Ground Level, 253 Flinders Lane, Melbourne

(Ph) 9650 4399

☆☆

C and G were visiting Melbourne and they really wanted to try a cafe at Flinders Lane or Degraves St so I called up a few to see which ones do all day breakfast - none of them do =( Journal was one of the later ones, said they do breakfast until midday. They arrived at 11.10am and quickly dropped their luggage at my place and we rushed over to Flinders Lane. We got there at 12.00 on the dot =( We asked the waiter if they're still serving breakfast. She said they had just changed to the lunch menu but they can still do breakfast for us if we want, so we decided to stay. Turns out they were only gonna do toasted sandwiches, croissants etc for breakfast =(

We were all hungry so we decided to stay for lunch.

The cafe has a very unique atmosphere, situated right next to the CAE Library. Very relaxing sitting on surprisingly very comfortable backless chairs at the communal tables, with "real" journals on the bookshelves above us.

 I ordered a prosciutto and ricotta bruschetta for $6.50.

Prosciutto and ricotta bruschetta

It looks very small but it's surprisingly quite filling. The ingredients were very fresh on the toasted bread - the only thing I don't like is the olives on top, but that's a personal thing =P

Pumpkin and ricotta salad

C ordered a Pumpkin and ricotta salad - the ingredients went quite well with each other along with the rocket leaves. Came with walnuts as well which C didn't like so I ate them all for her =P

Duck salad

G ordered a duck salad which came with a mustardish sauce. Shredded pieces of duck with potatoes and salad leaves - he said he was still hungry afterwards but what can you expect a guy having salad for lunch =P

The menu here is very limited - salads, bruschetta and rolls. There was a soup of the day which didn't sound that tempting, and only one hot meal (I think there's normally more) so that was a bit disappointing.

Next time will definitely try to come during breakfast time =P

7/10

C.
xo