Babka Bakery Cafe

How often is it that food makes you weep? … No? Just me?

It was a Sunday morning when I said I would cook eggs on toast and be done with it, but the thought of foraging for the ingredients and going out to buy fresh bread – let alone the cook up – was like adding a jackhammer to the pounding in my brain. Good times were had with my boyfriend’s youngest sister turning 18 – but I think I’m going to stick with adult drinks from now on. Like coffee. That was an absolute godsend and up there with one of the better breakfast cups of Joe that I have had recently.

Tiba’s Lebanese Restaurant

I think we know each other well enough now that I can let you in on a secret restaurant of mine: Tiba’s in Sydney Road. I almost don’t want to blog about it because I understand the power of the written word, the power of word of mouth and the (very small) amount of power I wield as a food blogger (Muahahahaha)… I just don’t want to be crowded out of here or see a rise in prices. So use your new-found knowledge wisely!

Okay, seriously now. The first time I went to Tiba’s I went with a vegetarian friend of mine who insisted that this was the most filling and awesome vegetarian feast that you could get this side of the city at a fraction of what you would expect to pay. I was astounded to find that this was true, so I brought back a host of friends (well, 5 plus me) and found that this claim also holds for the meateaters and non-eaters and everything in between.

Liaison

I can’t help thinking when we’ve scooted down the alleyway at the bottom of Monaco House that this would be a pretty good secret spot for a bit of a liaison of sorts. I just love that word.

My lunching partner C and I figured this was definitely worth a try – not too far to walk from work at lunchtime (ah, this lunch hour is closely guarded!) and with the enticement of a good coffee to finish (or finish me off, as it were). I definitely appreciate a good hidden gem, so I’m always up for a treasure hunt down some of Melbourne’s laneways.

D.O.C. Pizza & Mozzarella Bar

I thought I had dinner already scoped out for the night with The Boy. We planned to meet up after my squash game at the Uni and go for Pho on Lygon Street. No, you didn’t hear me wrong. I wanted Vietnamese in Melbourne’s most famous Pizza mile…yeah. My squash mates had different ideas and convinced us to change plans to go and get Pizza.

But Pizza in Lygon Street? My experiences have always been bad. I mean, I like pizza (who doesn’t?) – but only in Italy. I’m a pizza snob; yes I am. Lygon Street is, for me, like running the gauntlet past various old Italian spruikers (and they’re not even attractive, unlike the ones in Hardware Lane) who are trying to pass off their various La Porchetta-like restaurants as authentic. Or any good at all.

Komeyui

I haven’t been this surprised by Japanese for a LONG time. It was still morning when I called up Mum and asked what it was we were going to do for dinner that night. Apparently my sister had laid down the law requested Japanese. So which Japanese restaurants in the inner South/East are on my hit list? Komeyui was certainly one.

It was relatively full for a Friday night, I made a booking earlier in the day and we were the only spare table at 8pm. It’s a very clean restaurant with a good sushi bar element down one wall, where you can spy the incredible chefs doing their thing.

As you can imagine, we ordered about 8 different dishes between the four of us (not including dessert) so it was a fairly lengthy sitting with a lot of different flavours; but what excited me the most was that everything we ordered was at least ‘good’ and sometimes amazing.

Seddon Deadly Sins

For a place for sinners, this is just too much fun.

As soon as I walked in the door, I knew this was going to be a winner. I don’t often find myself in Footscray, but today I was out in the rain for an auction (for work, not for fun) and the one thing that made me perk up about this little outing was the promise of ticking this one off the ‘to eat at’ list. I beat the lunch rush (at 12:30 on a Friday) and scored quite a large table all to myself, where I summarily laid out my book and phone – my favourite lunch for one companions.

Brown Bagels

If you haven’t checked out Equitable Place yet in the City for lunch, you’re missing out. It is such a small laneway just off Collins Street (near the corner of Elizabeth Street) and if you blink, you’ll miss it. It contains about 5 or 6 cute little lunch eateries, which are mostly takeaway (not much room to sit in a cramped laneway).

Brown Bagels is one of these cute little shops, run by just two bagel technicians at any one time, who make up simple and delicious combinations from fresh bagels and fresh ingredients.

Manchester Press

What is more wonderful than a really good hot cup of coffee?

Well, a hot cup of coffee with a face on it.

Bunyip Cafe

Without a doubt, this is my favourite breakfast place in South Melbourne. It has been consistently good, deals out delicious healthy breakfasts and lunches (together with the not-so-healthy, but delicious breakfast burger), and has the best coffee (aside from St Ali coffee, but it’s not always possible to get in there!)

Now I know a couple of other South-Melbourne-Market-goers who read this blog, and it has been a while since I’ve been in the neighbourhood (well, since last year) but I find myself going back to the same Bunyip Cafe time and time again. Cafe Panette? Bad service (actually terrible), despite being the best place to people watch (Tony Martin has been spotted here a couple of times over the years)…Q Eleven (my parents’ favourite haunt) is for me too expensive and sort of failed to impress.

The Mess Hall

This little eatery at the top of Bourke Street is a reliable choice at pretty much any time of day, for any occasion. I’ve come here for the odd sneaky dessert, as well as for dinner (on dates, some good, others not so much…) and a good morning tea coffee the time we strategically left the building before the fire drill started (I have friends in high places, what can I say? Haha). I’d never come for lunch before, but it was actually a marvellous surprise.

Our team at work went to celebrate H’s leaving us and A and I getting qualified. Yes, so many celebratory meals! You have to have a good reason to go out all the time… and this was certainly well worth it. We took up the whole of the giant table upstairs – I didn’t even know it was up there, but easily caters to large groups.

We left it up to the boss to order a smattering of different entrees, which included the incredible croquettes (with harissa sauce, absolutely melt in your mouth), Polenta chips with aioli – polenta is a huge tick in my book, any day of the week, and these were the perfect crispness from the pan and soft polenta centres, with incredibly lip-smacking aioli. The calamari fritti with tartare and roquette was certainly the most delicious calamari I’ve had this year, hands down. I don’t know where they’re sourcing their ingredients but these were fresh, soft and tasty. Sadly, no photo, but the croquettes were pretty photogenic: