After 12 years in Melbourne, the Hard Rock Cafe has closed. I reviewed the restaurant / bar last year and found the food mediocre yet the music memorabilia pretty cool. The reason for the closure is due to the expansion and renovation of the Hotel Windsor next door. Speculation is that it will reopen in St. Kilda or the Crown Casino. Although the restaurant was often full its location lacked a good amount of young walk-in traffic. Hopefully, it won’t suffer the same fate as Planet Hollywood did in the Crown.

So now where am I supposed to go for my all you can eat ribs served by such lovely waitresses?

Previously: Hard Rock Cafe
Hospitality Magazine: Hard Rock to shut

Technorati Tags: Melbourne, Australia, Hard Rock Cafe

Burgers are great. I’ve had the big but now I want to try this fancy burger. Food critic / flogger Ed Charles deems this the best burger in Melbourne and looking at the picture he may be right. This burger is made of Wagyu meat which is described by Wikipedia as a “unique breed of cattle known for its intense marbling and producing a high percentage of oleaginous unsaturated fat.” In other words its an expensive piece of meat with tasty fat naturally mixed in.

You can get this at the bar of the Rockpool Bar & Grill and it will only set you back $15. That is cheap compared to some dishes on their restaurant menu which run up to $130.

Some more burger goodness:

Rockpool [via Tomatom]
Crown Complex, Southbank

Technorati Tags: Melbourne, Australia, Burger, Rockpool

A cold Melbourne night, and my partner and I were deciding what to have for dinner. Having just had minor corrective jaw surgery, my partner opted for congee. Afterall, apart from soup, that’s the only food she’s allowed to consume. Solid food ain’t cut it for her still healing jaw.

One of the best places for congee - don’t quote me on that - is Supper Inn in Chinatown. I’ve heard good things about the place so we decided to check it out.

We arrived to find a crowded Supper Inn. I exchanged pleasantries with the waiter and decided to wait for a table for two. Ten minutes later, a couple left. The waiter began clearing the dishes. And then a peculiar thing happened.
(more…)

So, it was 12.20am and I was hungry. Discounting the CBD itself (where there’s Stalactites, China Bar, Chillipadi, a couple of breakfast/all-night places on Swanston St, and things in Lygon St. tend to open till late), where do you go to get food? L’Incontro on Swanston St. generally doesn’t count - their food options are limited, to non-existent.

24-hr Pancake Parlour in Doncaster? Chapelli’s on Chapel St? (maybe you actually want to find parking, avoid the drunkenness and the definite booze+drug bust on the trip home.)

Well, I found the Pancake Parlour at Glen Waverly still open (lucky me, its a Friday night/Saturday morning, so they open till 3am), so I was saved from having to chow down fast food at a Maccas drive-thru.

Where do you eat when hunger strikes after midnight?
(maybe next time we’ll investigate restaurants that close at 2am… there are a lot more of these, I assure you)

I’ve eaten many burgers in my time and have proudly placed highly in eating competitions. For years, I have heard rumors of the Bogan Burger at The Napier but it wasn’t until Supersizedmeals.com made a post about it, that I knew I had to take the dive.

What is the Bogan Burger?

• steak (rump)
• chicken schnitzel
• potato cake
• bacon
• egg
• cheese
• onion
• pineapple
• beetroot

sandwiched between a Turkish bread roll and served with wedges and salad.

It will set you back $15.50 and 17,000 7,000 (sorry) kilojoules. Even with a couple of beers, I felt pretty good after eating it, although I didn’t manage to eat anything until the next day.

The Napier Hotel
210 Napier Street, Fitzroy

Picture via Supersizedmeals.com

Technorati Tags: Melbourne, Australia, Fitzroy, Napier Hotel, Napier, Bogan Burger

I eat out, a lot. It sickens me to note that some of the places I eat at, are seriously sick. And I don’t mean that in a cool, street-lingo way.

• Nam Loong Restaurant, Russell St. - repeat offender, live and dead cockroach/rodent droppings. 2004 was their previous lucky year, when someone found a cockroach ina  meal. Remind me again never to eat there, ever.
• Jenny Pan’s Beijing Hot Pot and Dumpling Cafe, Russell St. - I like dumplings, but I don’t recall ever eating here. Have you?

Wouldn’t have seen this online, if I didn’t read todays dead tree edition of the newspaper.

If you have other dirty restaurant stories that could be of public interest, don’t hesitate to comment here. Photos, videos, etc. are also accepted. I for one would welcome a list of previously marked dirty restaurants, so that people think twice before visiting them…

Technorati Tags: chinatown, russell st, nam loong, jenny pan’s beijing hot pot and dumpling cafe, hygiene, poor hygiene

While not the first time at The Grand Tofu, I should probably state that as an eatery, its a pretty nice place to go to. Located smack in the middle of Glen Waverly (nearby the train station), Shop 5, 53 Kingsway, is generally brimming with a crowd.

Why, you ask? Wide variety, of cheap food. Their famous “young tofu” (sic.) comes with either curry, soup or laksa, and includes six ingredients you pick up from the bain marie. These include stuffed chillies, tofu, stuffed peppers, fish balls, dumplings, and so much more. Whats more is they throw in noodles - all for a meagre $8.50.

How’s the place like? Decor is simple, its always bustling, there are some paintings of Malaysia to stare at, but beyond that you go get your own cutlery, water, bowls, and condiments. A bit like a canteen in that sense, food is delivered to your table, and they all come out at pretty much the same time.

If yong tau foo isn’t what you’re after, they have a wide, and varied menu offering lots of other food items - nasi lemak, kueh teow, and so forth. Pay the Grand Tofu a visit, for a good, cheap, healthy, and delicious meal!

The Grand Tofu is located at Shop 5, 53 Kingsway, Glen Waverly. It is open daily, from 10am - 10pm. Reservations are not necessary. They do take-out, as well. They can be reached at 9574 7676.

neomien has been kicking round the city, dealing with life offline. Not much of an excuse, but you know how it goes.

One of the most wonderful things about melbourne is the food glorious food.

Literally.

The Melbourne Food and Wine Festival is coming to a close, replete with well satisfied swollen bellies and tastebuds tantalised.

An aunt of mine was in town recently and I took her on a mini tour of my favorite spots, eating and drinking that is. Yes, I’m a bit of a f**die - I suspect most of us are…..it’s a melbourne thing.

We’re spoilt for choice, so spoilt.

And the beauty of it is that it doesn’t matter what your budget is, you’re bound to find something delish to suit……and no, fastfood does NOT count…….unless you count a quick fresh soft shelled crab hand roll from Kenzan @ GPO or a reviving lamb souv dripping with garlic sauce in the early hours from Stalactites.

In my next couple of posts I’m going to reveal a few of my favs for all occasions……I’d love for you to share your favs with me too……cause there’s nothing I love more than finding a new haunt.

ps. The above pic is taken from the kitchen table of ole skool establishment Pelligrini’s Espresso Bar, home of killer coffee - the good stuff and pasta just like nonna makes.

Yesterday, I had a pleasant visit to Yoshi. Its located at 315, Toorak Road, South Yarra. Thats fairly near the Como, so if you’re driving, plenty of parking awaits (at $7, after 7pm).

I’d rate the restaurant as fairly good, with fairly predictable Japanese menus, and the prices are reasonable (not as low as you might find at the quick eateries on Swanston St., but low enough).

Their wafu steak is amazing, and their soft-shelled crabs are actually prepared in a rather unique sauce. Lots of sashimi available, and if you’re the kind of person who likes their sashimi toppings cooked (i.e. the salmon is cooked, etc.) like someone on our table was, then they’re extremely accommodating with you and will cook your sashimi.

If you felt like some Japanese, and were in the area, I’d suggest paying Yoshi a visit. Its a BYO location, where corkage is $4 or $4.50 per head, but they also have a selection of wines available. The only thing lacking for me, was chawanmushi, aka the Japanese steamed egg custard.

I am here to spark a debate:

Lygon Street has long been known as the famous Italian precinct of Melbourne.

The Melbourne City Council actually have a specific local planning provisions addressing the Lygon Street Shopping precinct (as in keeping development and use inline with its Italian character).

However, if you are familiar enough with the area, you can notice that more and more of the new shops/places/restaurants are not of Italian characters at all. For example, FCUK (Foreign Chain Store), Lygon Court (Arcade style instead of having shop frontage immediately to the street, essentially an American influenced/suburbanised.), and exotic restaurants instead of Italian e.g. Thai restaurants starting to proliferate near the city-end of Lygon Street.

While someone can argue that these different uses and developments bring more different kind of people to the area, one could also argue that these new uses and developments fundamentally conflict with the Italian character of the precinct.

So which house do you belong to - ‘kills the Italian character’ or ‘variety helps to bring more people in the area’?

Speak UP!