By Korea

By Korea

222 La Trobe St, Melbourne

(Ph) 9662 2370

Lunch with P and M and his brother! I was kinda craving Stone Bowl rice so I suggested By Korea - I've actually walked past it multiple times on my way to Oriental Spoon before but never stepped inside =P

There was lunch specials - $10 for a "Bento box" plus a drink - pretty good value! Too bad the Bibimbab wasn't on the list =P

I got a Beef Bibimbab $13

Wow so much stuff! Stone bowl rice, a miso soup, kimchi and some fried egg roll. The miso soup was ridiculously salty though, like they put double the amount of miso in it by accident. The fried egg roll were quite tasty though - like the Japanese tamagoyaki but not as sweet =)

The stone bowl was soo hot! Made my rice super crunchy - super like! Even after I had fully finished my meal, the bowl was still very hot - made me sweat a lot haha. The mix of sweet marinated beef, Chinese mushrooms, vegetables, fried egg  and crunchy rice was perfect! Gotta say was one of the best Bibimbab I've ever had =)

P had a Beef Bulgogi set lunch menu plus a soft drink $10

Looks like a Bento box aye? The beef was a tad salty but overall quite good with a bit of everything - fried egg roll, fried dumplings, kimchi and a piece of fruit. P was surprisingly very full from it even though it doesn't look very big =P

Food~
8/10 - my Bibimbab was super tasty =D and P's lunch box was quite good value for money

Service~
2/5 - Asian restaurants, what can you say? Food came very quickly though =)

Atmosphere~
2/5 - wish they had the aircon higher - I was sweating so much from my Bibimbab! But actually the others didn't complain so maybe it was just me =P

C.
xo

Il Gambero on the Park

Il Gambero on the Park

166 Lygon St, Carlton

(Ph) 9663 2246

All visitors to Melbourne always want to come to Lygon St for Italian food - personally I think it's way too overrated but since I had an Entertainment voucher for Il Gambero anyway and it's not bad there thought I'd take my other P there - he can be P2 =)

I had actually come here with some other Brisbane friends last year - see here for that post.

We got here at nearly 8pm on Sunday night - the street was still very full and lively as per usual. P2 had been having a lot of pizza lately so he said he wanted some pasta, while P1 wanted some pizza - so we decided to share 3 dishes.

Dimattina Fettucini - chicken, avocado, pesto, spring onions, dash of cream & napoli sauce with pine nuts $18.90 (large)

2 coloured fettucini with lots of chicken and avocado and sauce - just how I like it! Such an interesting combination of pesto and cream and napoli sauce but works well together! Gotta say was one of the best chicken pastas I've had =)

We decided to get the pasta special - Calamari & chorizo linguine tossed with olive oil, garlic, spanish onions, chilli puree with a touch of napoli sauce $23.50

The linguine looks pretty much the same as the fettucini except the fettucini had 2 colours - I thought linguine is meant to be thinner? We asked the waiter and he said they were what they're meant to be hmm. This was very delicious too, with a touch of spice - the chilli puree. P liked this pasta better but I found it lacked a bit in sauce - personal taste =)

We got one pizza to share. Mark's Special - garlic, herb, cheese, salami, bacon, caramelised onions and prawns $22 (large)

Man it was massive! Crusty base and lots of cheeeeeese =D I espeically liked the caramelised onion - gave the pizza a bit of sophistication =) Why is it that when you eat pizza out at restaurants they always give you so little toppings? I guess that's how pizza's are meant to be =P

Food~
8/10 - P2 who used to work at a pizza store and loves Italian food said the food here was good too =)

Service~
3/5 - waiters were very friendly here - P2 was especially interested in one of the waitresses =P though they were quite busy and at times took a while to get their attention =/

Atmosphere~
3/5 - nice ambient restaurant =)

C.
xo

Kokoro Ramen

Kokoro Ramen

157 Lonsdale St, Melbourne

(Ph) 9650 1215

Yay J was back in Melbourne! We decided to try our a new ramen place that one of our friend's works at =) Our last ramen experience together wasn't very nice (see Ramen Ya) so we were having low expectations but given our friend, who's Japanese, works here, it can't be that bad =)

There were so many delicious sounding choices - first there's the soup base

Tokyo Ramen - pure chicken & seafood stock

Tonkatsu Shio - salt base pork & chicken stock

Tonkatsu Shoyu - soy sauce base pork & chicken stock

Tonkatsu Miso - soybean paste base pork & chicken stock

I don't know how you can have both pork and chicken stock but anyway. Then you choose what toppings you want, you can even pick your own combination of toppings with whatever soup you want.

I settled for the Tonkatsu Shoyu Ramen with fried soft shell crab $15 and J got the Tonkatsu Shoyu Ramen with fried chicken $12.50

Food came very quickly - we were soo hungry! They actually gave me half a soft shell crab! I was so surprised! Would have been better if they served it on a separate plate though so it wouldn't get soggy (like I asked for at Ajisen Ramen) - I ended up putting it on the piece of seaweed to save it from the soup =P They also gave me a few slices of cha siu (bonus!) and a perfectly cooked soft boiled egg! The ramen were a lot thinner than what I thought ramen should be like - or maybe this is more authentic? Still was very delicious and very filling! Soup was tasty as well, definitely not as salty as Ramen Ya's and I like how they sprinkled sesame seeds over it - makes it look more impressive =P Weren't too over the board with the spring onions either unlike Ajisen Ramen.

J was very impressed with her bowl either - definitely better than our last ramen experience!

We were both very satisfied with our meals - at around 7.30pm we saw them put a sign on the door saying "SOLD OUT" - wow sold out of ramen so early?! Lucky we came early!

Next time I'll try some of their Japanese wines - check out all the bottles on the wall!

Food~

7/10 - little bit more expensive compared to the other ramen shops but was quite delicious! Gave more toppings compared to my other ramen experiences and the ramen and soup were both thumbs up!

Service~

3/5 - food came very quickly!

Atmosphere~

3/5 - was quite quiet on this weekday night, so was quite pleasant =)

Definitely wasn't a disappointment!

C.

xo

Michel's Restaurant

Michel's Restaurant

Novotel Melbourne

270 Collins St, Melbourne

(Ph) 9669 8684

P's birthday! I wanted to take him to one of the Accor hotel's restaurants - high class restaurant at 50% off price! =D Was gonna go to Sofitel but the restaurant there seemed way too French for P's liking - decided to go to Novotel's Michel's Restaurant instead.

The restaurant wasn't as high class as I thought it would be, but we still got a window table so was quite nice. There weren't many customers so we chatted with the waiters for a bit =)

We decided to have an entree and a main each and be all out =) I got the Smoked salmon tartar on eggplant fritters with grilled asparagus and lime aioli $24

Surprisingly was quite tasty! P who usually hates eggplant thought the fritters were quite good too! The smoked salmon tartar was a bit sad though - such small bits couldn't even tell it was smoked salmon =( I'm not a fan of asparagus normally but I didn't mind these - went well with the lime aioli =)

P got the Blue cheese and fig compote tart paired with a radicchio salad and sherry vinagarette $18

The tart was super tasty too! I don't like figs normally but paired with the blue cheese and the crumbly tart was super delicious! Actually wish they gave more blue cheese =P I wasn't a fan of the salad but P thought it was alright =)

For main P got Roast pork belly and crackling accompanied by white bean and saffron Cassoulet $38

We actually asked the waiter what cassoulet is - she said she couldn't really explain it but from what we gathered we thought it was some form of mash - how wrong we were! It was some form of chickpea mush - really wasn't very tasty =/ The crackling was crunchy - actually a bit too crunchy and kinda hard to bite in lol. The pork belly was fatty and soft, but the cassoulet really ruined the dish =(

I got the Grain fed rib eye steak (300g) served with french fries and red wine jus $42

Steak was just steak, nothing too special - actually were some tendon pieces in it =/ There wasn't much red wine jus - the limited amount was soaked by the fries which made them soggy =__=

P also ordered the Pear, parmesan and wild rocket salad $8

This was the worst of it all! Some of the rocket was bad and old and there was no flavouring at all - not even worth $4 (half price food)

Food~
5/10 - entrees were good but the mains were so so - given the meal was so cheap guess it was alright =P

Service~
4/5 - very good given there were only 3 tables and 3 waiters =P

Atmosphere~
4/5 - very nice we watched the sky go dark right next to the window =)

Happy birthday P! <3<3<3

C.

xo

Hanaichi

Hanaichi

QV Square, Corner Swanston & Lonsdale St, Melbourne

(Ph) 9662 9409

Hanaichi used to be such a norm for us back when we were in high school in Brisbane - $5 for a bowl of stuff with rice, super good value! When it opened in Melbourne in a few years ago, I was super happy 'cause it reminded me of Brisbane - although it was about $0.50-1.00 more expensive =P We tried it when it first opened up and our impression of it wasn't very good - dry chicken and just not very tasty overall =(

M was in Melbourne and we wanted to go somewhere super cheap for lunch so decided to give Hanaichi another go. P got Chicken Hanaichi with Rice - fried battered chicken, mixed salad, served on top of rice with special Hanaichi sauce and Tartar sauce and garnished with tomato, coriander and shallot ~$6.80. He wanted to upsize it for an extra ~$1.00 but I said he can just take my rice - I remember in Brisbane you used to get free extra rice!

I actually think he ordered this last time as well =P But it was actually quite tasty this time! Fried chicken with enough sauce to go around and some tomatoes to make it "healthier" =P

I got the Miso Katsudon (Pork) - crunchy fried pork cutlets on top of rice served with Miso sauce (soybean paste) and mixed salad, garnished with yellow pickles and sesame seed ~$6.40

This was actually not as tasty as I remembered it to be =( There wasn't enough miso sauce so the pork pieces were a bit dry - should have got the curry instead.

Food~
6/10 - not the best food but for the money we paid for it - definitely not bad!

Atmosphere~
2/5 - was quite packed during lunch time, lucky we got some seats at the long communal table

Service~
not really any service here since it's pretty much fast food =P

C.
xo

Dragon Boat

Dragon Boat

203 Little Bourke St, Melbourne

(Ph) 9662 2733

I was back from my holiday and P was dying to eat out, especially yumcha, so we decided to go to Dragon Boat. The normal restaurant one, not the buffet one - which wasn't very good last time I went.

We got there at 11am - they don't do sessions here, just yumcha daily from 8am! We thought that'd be great 'cause it means there'd be food whenever, but how wrong we were =( We were waiting for buns but the waitresses kept saying "they're coming" - we left at 12.45pm and they still hadn't come out yet =/ no 叉燒包 (BBQ pork bun) or my favourite 流沙包 (runny sand bun)! =(

We got a few dim sims - were quite good though.

牛肉腸粉 (beef steamed rice noodle rolls) - doesn't look very good but tastes better than it looks =P

燒賣 (pork dumpling) - so obese looking! and full of prawns!

排骨 (spare ribs) - presentation is not their strength here but taste is alright =P

糯米雞 (sticky rice) - wish there was more chicken but there was salty egg yolk in it which was a bonus =)

Fried wonton - P wanted 蝦餃 (steamed prawn dumpling) but he knows I don't like prawns so got fried wonton instead, at least I like fried food =P

豆腐花 (tofu flower) - yum! Smooth, sweet and gingery =P

Wow not rated very highly on Urbanspoon at all, thought it was not too bad =P

C.
xo

Espressino Coffee and Pizza Bar

Espressino Coffee and Pizza Bar

70 King St, Melbourne

(Ph) 9620 4774

☆☆

P and I were going for lunch again - found this cafe right next to home! ☆☆ given by the Cheap Eats Guide =)

We realised this place is opened by the same people at +39 Pizzeria - our experience there last time wasn't very good, thought we'd give it another try this time!

We came here at 1pm - there were a few 4 people tables outside and a single 2 people table inside. We wanted to sit outside but they said we weren't allowed to and made us sit on the table inside =/ We sat down for 2 seconds and a waiter came and asked us if we wanted to order but we said we wanted a few more minutes - all the waiters were kinda rude and blunt =/

You can get pizzas here, or pre-made ciabattas or piadinas. P insisted on ordering the Sole e Luna - half Calzone pizza filled with ham and Fior Di Latte & Half a Margarita pizza $16.50 even though I said we had ordered it last time.

I was choosing between the Capricciosa Italiana - Italian tomato salsa, Fior Di Latte, leg ham, artichokes & mushrooms $15.50 or the Salsiccia - Italian tomato salsa, Fior Di Latte, Italian Berkshire Sausage, Porcini Mushrooms & Parmesan $18.50. P said he wanted the Salsiccia - we didn't even realise we had ordered this one last time too! =O

Salsiccia

Cheesy goodness! and the crust was crunchy but not too salty unlike our last experience! Those porcini mushrooms are really unpleasant though =/ We actually thought they were artichokes (we got mixed up with the Capricciosa Italiana) - kinda slimy tasting =S I've never not liked any type of mushroom so I was very shocked! Would have been nicer if the sausage pieces were cut into smaller bits instead of me cutting it up myself.

Sole e Luna

The Sole e Luna was just as we remembered it - full of cheeeeese! When we cut it open all this liquid cheese leaked out =D

The crust was a bit tougher - I had trouble cutting it with my blunt table knife - they actually have some sharper knifes in the cutlery bucket but I didn't realise. P got one of the sharp ones and had no trouble cutting through the pizza crust =P

When we went to pay at the counter, P pointed out they had a mini pizza behind the counter and it's baked already!

Which means our pizzas were most likely baked once already, and were just ovened warm for us. They didn't feel hot enough to have come out of a 382°C oven (like at +39 Pizzeria) so we figured they must be made at +39 Pizzeria, and just brought over to Espressino. And it makes sense 'cause I looked up how much we paid for +39 Pizzeria - $45 compared to $35 on this day at Espressino.

Food~

6/10 - wasn't as salty as at +39 Pizzeria but felt jipped they weren't freshly made for us!

Service~

1/5 - quite poor with rude blunt waiters who wouldn't let us sit outside =( I get it it's the lunch time rush but that's when they'd get the most customers so should try and please more!

Atmosphere~

1/5 - felt quite claustrophobic at at tiny table in the middle of the cafe with waiters rushing past us every 2 seconds bringing food out..

Gave them a second chance, but still wasn't very good =(

C.

xo