The people with me have been to Cafe Saigon several times and knew exactly what they were going to eat. I was new to the cafe and I expected Vietnamese.

I have seen the restaurant many times before.  I used to work not far away and I have admired the building – all that bluestone makes for an attractive facade.  It was nice to get a chance to eat there.

Walk through the entrance and there is a small shrine to Buddha that creates an immediate ease to the day’s tensions.

On your left is the bar and to your right the large dining room.  It has a decor that  is cool and minimal with bricks and concrete.  It represents no particular style and somehow this makes it easy to feel comfortable and at home.

As I said I was surprised to find the menu covered dishes from other Asian countries including Grilled Teriyaki Chicken and Pad Thai Rice Noodles.

We ordered a serving of Vietnamese spring rolls and also Vietnamese vegetarian rice paper rolls.

Spring rolls

Vegetarian rice paper roll

Of the two dishes the rice paper rolls were far the superior and had a sauce that owed a lot to Hoi Sin Sauce.  The waiter told us that the sauces were all made on the premises.

Two of us travelled south from Vietnam and ordered Singapore noodles.  Good choice.  The dish had just the right amount of heat for me and I got the other diner’s serving of prawns.

Singapore noodles with extra prawns

The sizzling beef and vegetables was a tried and true favourite for my other table companion.  She suggested the restaurant so she could eat this dish.  It came to the table really sizzling and smelling delicious.

Sizzling beef and vegetables

The service was wonderful, friendly, efficient and careful.  That sounds a silly word to use but we felt  we were cared for and our pleasure was their priority.

The restaurant has been there for a long time and appears to have built up a following with the locals.

The food was good but not exceptional and the prices on the high side for Asian food but then we are in Albert Park just up from the beach so it is unfair to compare prices with prices in Victoria Street, Richmond.

I’d eat there again.  It’s a Melbourne Place that is worth going to.

There is a take away menu here. I can’t see that it is very different from the cafe Menu.

Cafe Saigon:-
159 161 Victoria Avenue
Albert Park
Phone 9696 3388

Opening Hours:-
Lunch 11.30 to 3.00 every day except Saturday
Dinner 5.30 to 10.00pm every day except Thursday Friday and Saturday when it stays open until 11.00pm

Getting there:-
It is just up from the South Melbourne Beach.
Tram No 1 to South Melbourne Beach it terminates at the beach at the end of Victoria Avenue
Get off at the second to last stop.

Related posts:

1. Lunch at Hotel Nest – Albert Park
2. Asia on Victoria Street in Richmond
3. Antarctica on display in the Foyer of Gasworks Park Theatre – Albert Park

From the platform you walk into the old, red, brick station building left over from the time when this was a railway line.  It houses railway memorabilia.

Wader around and you get to absorb the experience of travelling along route 96  when the journey was taken by train.
There is much old railway paraphernalia to browse through and also, beautifully resorted and polished pieces of furniture.  Some of the pieces are huge and hidden under smaller things. It takes ages to see what is there.

A nice touch, as you walk up the concrete ramp from Canterbury Road into the quaint red brick building, is the ticket dispenser still holding those old cardboard tickets.  It is as if you should take a ticket to continue your journey though the building.

Some of my favourite pieces:-

Station clock.

Station trolley

A small back door from the store leads onto the light rail platform and the other end of the long narrow building becomes a coffee shop.  This is a relaxed and friendly place. The word homely could describe it.

It is an odd cafe to find in sophisticated Albert Park.  It is like wandering into someone’s kitchen and asking for a snack.

The kitchen runs behind the counter and if you arrive at the right time you can see the cook cum barista cum waitress taking a cake from the oven.  She makes all the food. The menu is simple, toasted sandwiches, cakes, biscuits, some large and beautiful meringues served with cream.

The coffee is good and the baked cheese cake one of the best around, there are papers and magazines to read, an open courtyard with more railway artefacts and the sound of the light rain swishing past to let you know that this is a station.

Coffee at Albert Park Station – Tram route 96

The Railway antiques are open daily 9.30 to 5.00pm

The coffee shop is closed on Mondays

Getting there:-
Ride the 96 tram to the Albert Park Station stop

Related posts:

1. The Good Life, and Good Food at Albert Park Lake
2. The Garden of Eden in Albert Park
3. Mart Cafe – Tram route 96 Stop 130 Middle Park

The cafe is long and narrow with a courtyard at the rear.  The red chairs are for outside, only.  Inside is cool and more sophisticated with a polished concrete floor and dark wooden tables and chairs.  The tables come in various sizes including a long communal table.

One wall is covered in posters advertising up-coming events and happenings, there is their organic coffee for sale and there are plenty of papers and magazines to read. It is a comfortable and relaxing atmosphere.

Breakfast is served all day.   We ordered one breakfast and two lunches.

The Nasi Goering looked good, the egg was perfectly done, the flavour everything it should be. $15.50

The beef hamburger had plenty of bacon and the egg just right but the beef was a little over cooked and on the dry side.  It  came with a side serving of caramelized onions and tomato sauce. $16.90

English muffin, bacon, egg and tomatoes was a  breakfast special  for $8.00 and was good value for the price.

There were fruit muffins available and cakes for afternoon coffee – the milk in the flat white coffee was silky but I like mine a little stronger, however you can’t please everyone and I didn’t ask for strong.  If you like it strong that would be the way to go.

Service was friendly and attentive with the waitress saying ‘enjoy’ when she delivered the food.  I found that rather endearing.  The Red Star Cafe, on the corner of Ward Street and Coventry Street, is a great place to sit and  view the action around the South Melbourne Market.

The Red Star Cafe opening hours:-
Mondays CLOSED
Tuesday to Thursday 8.00am to 4.00pm
Friday to Sunday 7.30am to 5.00pm
They serve organic fair trade coffee

Getting There:-
Tram:
96 (Light Rail) from Bourke Street, and get off at the South Melbourne stop. The market is about 2 minutes away.
112 Tram from Collins Street, get off on the corner of Clarendon and York Street.
Driving:
Melway:       Map 1C Ref E11
There is parking on top of the South Melbourne Market and some parking in the neighbouring street ( alot of street parking is Permit only, so watch out for that)

Related posts:

1. Gas Eateries and Supply Cafe – South Melbourne
2. A touch of France on Park Street, South Melbourne
3. Prahran Market –the food lovers market in South Yarra

Station Hotel Footscray
One such pub is the Station Hotel on the corner of Napier and Hyde Streets  in Footscray.  The owner and Chef is Sean Donovan who has worked in France and England and the Botanical in South Yarra, Melbourne.

The building, built in 1864, has no great architectural merit but the new colours have given it a bit of style.    Inside there is a bar with an outside courtyard attached for a casual drink and a large dining area at the rear.

The dining room has an old world – European – atmosphere with a lot of dark wood, white table clothes and sparkling glass wear.

I had been told that the service wasn’t good but we had no complaints.  We booked for lunch, we were greeted on arrival, seated, given menus, the specials of  the day and the one omission from the menu explained to us.

The Station Hotel’s menu is extensive and interesting and is the same for lunch and dinner.  The house specialty is steak.  Here are the steaks that are available.

“200g Stockyard (QLD) 200 day grain fed wagyu “Bavette Steak” $28
250g Rangers Valley (NSW) 300 day grain fed Black Angus rump $28
250g Sher Wagyu (VIC) 450 day grain fed Wagyu rostbiff $32
300g Clare Valley(SA)150 day grain fed Black Angus scotch fillet $36
300g Clare Valley(SA)150 day grain fed Black Angus sirloin $36
400g Gippsland (VIC) dry aged grass fed Black Angus rump steak $36
200g Goulburn Valley (VIC) grass fed Black Angus tenderloin $38
400g Gippsland (VIC)dry aged grass fed Black Angus
New York strip steak$38
500g Greenham (TAS) grass fed Black Angus t-bone $38
500g Darling Downs(Qld)grass fed Black Angus rib eye $42
All served with hand cut chips, salad and béarnaise sauce or pepper sauce”

(These prices were correct at the time of writing – you may want to check them here.)

There are also a number of unusual  items such as;  Serrano ham with figs and Cashel blue cheese aioli.
We started by thinking we would try one of these but our minds slipped into the old worn tracks and we ordered conservatively.

200g Stockyard (QLD) 200 day grain fed wagyu “Bavette Steak”

The waitress didn’t know what ‘Bavette Steak’ was but Wikipedia explained [it]  “is a beef steak cut from the abdominal muscles of the cow”   or otherwise the flank.  There is a choice of  sauces.  Unfortunately the béarnaise sauce was considered strong by the diner who ordered it.   She would have asked for sauce on the side had she known.

Marinated ocean trout with warm buckwheat blinis.

This was pronounced delicious by the diner who chose it  and she would order it again.

Gippsland lamb rump with boulangere potatoes – the beans were ordered as a side dish.

There were no complaints about this choice.

Station burger, onion fries, bacon and fried egg

With all the interesting and exotic choices it seemed a pity to order a hamburger but two of us did that.  It was a pity we were so wedded to ‘pub’ food.

This was a very ordinary hamburger except for the caramelized onions on top   The onion rings were greasy and with a very small shaving of onion. I feel it is over priced $18.00.  There are better hamburgers around.

Valrhona chocolate mouse with griotinnes and kirsch

We all had a mouthful of this and we all thought it was one the best mouses that we have tasted.  Very rich and fit for the gods.

Some great food at the Station Hotel – possibly a little over priced for lunch but then we are no longer talking about pub food – this is fine dining.

Where:-
Station Hotel
59 Napier Street, Footscray – Phone 9687 2913

Web site - Station Hotel

Opening Hours:-
Open 7 days a week
Lunch 12.00 to 2.30
Dinner 6.00 to 9.00

Getting there:-
Driving
Melways Reference -     There is some parking in the street and a car park at the side of the hotel – entrance from Napier Street

Train
It is within walking distance from the Footscray Rail Station
The Sydenham, Werribee and Williamstown lines service the Footscray Station

Related posts:

1. Lunch at Hotel Nest – Albert Park
2. Opulence and Food, the Melba Room at The Langham Hotel,CBD
3. The Melba Room at the Langham hotel-a return visit and another great eating experience.

Recently,  I scrolled through some of the blogs  I follow and read a review of the  Dae Jang Geum Korean BBQ.  We decided to try the restaurant. 
When I mentioned at work  that I would be lunching at a Korean Restaurant everyone said,

“What’s Korean food like?”

It is a good question.  We know so much about other Asian cuisines but what do we know of Korean?  We eat regularly Thai, Chinese, Indian and Japanese.  We grab them as take-aways, we read about them on the food pages of magazines and newspapers.   But Korean food?  When did you last discuss Korean food with a mate?

The Dae Jang Geum Korean Barbecue restaurant is  a great place to get acquainted with the cuisine.

Dae Jang Geum Korean BBQ is upstairs in Little Bourke Street, just around the corner from Swanston Street.  You can’t miss it.  There are large garish pictures of some of the dishes severed on either side of the wide entrance stair case.

As we know so little about Korean food I think this is a good idea.  It shows us what we can expect to eat before we climb the stairs.  The menu also has a picture of each dish.  I found all  these pictures helpful.

I have been to Korea and I had a couple of dishes in my mind that I remembered I liked and haven’t eaten since.  I also remember the blistering heat of ‘kimchi’ that was added to everything, including soups.

Upstairs

The room is large and feels like any Asian cafe that is about the food and conversation not the decor.   One feature wall is interesting.  It is covered in Korean writing.  When you look at it closely you can see how it differs from Chinese or Japanese.  We wondered what it was saying.  Dae Jang Geum over and over again??

We ordered a glass of white wine to sip while we made food decisions.  White wine is the only wine by the glass and it is what it says, white wine.  For $4.00 you get a full glass of drinkable dry white.   I have photographed it because I wanted to prove the value!

The tables are set up for a tradition Korean BBQ, with a gas ring in the centre.

We ordered a plate of dumplings to share

They came with mild flavoured dipping sauce and the spring onions that gave them  a fresh taste.  We enjoyed them.

The seafood noodle soup  with a couple of side dishes was very good.  It was large and had plenty of  seafood.

I ordered a seafood pancake.  I remember eating these rather starchy pancakes when I was in Korea.  They were often pleasant and mild without too much heat in the mixture.   This one came with two side dishes neither very hot but added to the overall flavour.

Side dishes are part of the Korean cuisine and each order came with its own side dishes.

We plan to return for an evening meal and to have the traditional barbecue. We want the fun of our own gas ring and the chance to cook our own food  Another dish we want to try is a soup that is served in a stone bowl with a raw egg on top that you mix in and it sort of cooks with the hot soup.

I am puzzled about the lack of chilli in the food.  No one discussed heat with us.  We were the only westerners in the restaurant that lunch time and I wondered if the cooks made a decision on our behalf and cut the heat or have we struck a regional fare of Korea that is not hot?

Another question that was asked at my office is why Korean food hasn’t taken off like other Asian foods?  I have no answer to that question. Perhaps you have.

Where:-
Dae Jang Geum Korean BBQ,
Level 1, 235 Little Bourke Street, Melbourne CBD
Phone 9662 9445

Opening Hours:-
Open 7 days a week
Sunday to Thursday – 11.30am to 10.00pm
Friday and Saturday 11.30am to 11.00pm

Getting there:
Any tram that goes along Swanston Street and get off at Bourke Street.  It’s about 20 metres  along Little Bourke Street towards Russell Street.

Related posts:

1. Cafe Saigon, Victoria Avenue, Albert Park
2. The Oriental Tea House on Chapel Street, South Yarra – good eating
3. Cricket Club Hotel South Melbourne – ideal eating on a cold night

The  Antalya Restaurant serving Turkish food at 233 Sydney Road Coburg is the genuine article  The Turkish food is as good as you would get it in Turkey.  I have this on the authority of a fellow diner who had recently returned from Turkey.  The place felt authentic. It felt comfortable and had an edge of homeliness.

It is a friendly place with Turkish memorabilia on the walls – mostly from the Antalya region.  The staff is friendly and you are welcomed in rather as if you are entering someone’s home.

The menu is not extensive and I see this as an advantage.  Each dish can be prepared and it doesn’t have to rely on ingredients from another dish.   One of our party lives in the area and dines there often. He directed the ordering.

To start  we shared a couple of plates of the mixed dips.  The bread was exceptional and the standard selection of dips were very good.

These were followed by shaved lamb as for doner kebab, served with yoghurt and a salad.  The lamb was delicious – the best I have tasted.

Potato Salad an up-market and tangy version of the often bland mixture.

Tabouli that was crisp and I swear was made just before it was served.  It is one of my favourite salads and I usually make do with the supermarket version – this one was a real treat.

Spinach and feta pizza this Turkish pizza is not what you would recognised as a pizza.  It was a filling of spinach and feta wrapped inside a dough, flattened and baked.   A little greasy but good.

We left to have coffee and desert elsewhere.  These are flavours that stick in my mind a couple of days later- the lamb, tabouli and the potato salad.

My only complaint is that the white table clothes are covered in plastic. So while you are sitting there your arms sort of sticks to it.   Easy of course to wipe and it keeps the laundry bills to a minimum.  That is a very minor complaint.

Where:-

Antalya Restaurant, 233 Sydney Road, Coburg.  It is on the corner of Reynard Street.

It is B Y O.

Opening Hours:-

It is closed all day Tuesdays

Wednesday it opens from 5.30 until late

Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday it opens 11.30 until late

Related posts:

1. Eating Korean at Dae Jang Geum Korean BBQ – Korean Food, Melbourne’s CBD
2. Booktalk Cafe, Richmond– a different style of food-and-coffee-break
3. Station Hotel, Napier Street, Footscray – lunch in their European-style dining room.

Over the years Prahran cafes and food outlets have come and gone but not  the Special Cake Shop.  It  just keeps on keeping on.  It was opened in the mid 1950s by a Greek Immigrant and then bought in 1976 by its current owner George Seherlis.

The Special Cake shop is in one of these charming old buildings that are fast disappearing from along Chapel Street

The shop has stayed the same.  The inside, which hasn’t changed since I have been buying from it,  looks a bit retro but I think it is one of those places that fashion has gone the full circle and is back with it.

The inside is divided into two parts with a wide opening between them.  As you enter there is seating to the left, the retail counter to your right and the kitchen straight ahead.    The windows are full of cakes and biscuits.  They are not all Greek cakes.   You can get an English sponge roll and lamingtons.  There are some wonderful double chocolate biscuits.

I’m told that they are still making coffee in their 1960’s coffee machine.    I haven’t checked this out.  I have had coffee there.  It was good but not the best I have had.

I usually buy and head for home. The Baklava is good – solid hearty Baklava with lots of nuts. Great  for desert.

A few years ago they introduced a spinach and feta scone  – if you think of  ’scone’ in an English sense you’ll look for the wrong thing. This scone is about the size of a saucer and oozes spinach, onion and feta. They are usually in the window but you can buy them warm from the pie-warmer or if you arrive at the right time – late morning – they are warm from the oven.

This scone is my weakness.  Every few weeks I begin to crave one and I need to have my fix.

The Special Cake Shop is a friendly place with family members working there.  They are always helpful, pleasant and quick.  Many of the customers are regulars and appear to be friends.  It would be easy  to fit into this companionable vibe. They also serve pies, sausage rolls, filled rolls and gourmet sandwiches.

Where:-
Special Cakes, 207 Chapel Street, Prahran Phone 9510 7689

Opening hours:-
Open every day from 7.00am to 6.00pm

Getting there:
Tram No 78 runs along Chapel Street to Richmond.  Tram 6 to Glen Iris leaves from the CBD, get off at the corner of High Street and Chapel Street and walk North.

Trains the Sandringham Line to either Prahran Station or Windsor Station

Related posts:

1. Railway antiques, restored furniture, coffee and cakes at the Albert Park Station.
2. Trash, Treasure or vintage? It is hard to decide in Womango, 47 Chapel Street, Windsor/Prahran.
3. Scones cup cakes and lunch, Sandringham Village – by the beach

I think it is best on Saturday.  The produce seems to be fresher as if it was whisked from the soil or picked from the tree that very morning.   It is also the day when the market is flooded with locals doing their weekly shopping – a great ambiance that is unique to this market.

Shopping  before the Saturday crowds.

It’s good to be there early on Saturday and miss some of the crowd but on the other hand from about 10.30 onwards the place is full of free nibbles – you can lunch your way around the stalls eating a bit here and there.  If you watch the shoppers you can see them sampling and snacking as they weave from stall to stall.

This is a produce market.    There is a hardware stall but it is about food: fruit and veg, meat fish and poultry, delicatessens, coffee, flowers and a very popular organic stall (Ripe the Organic Grocer), selling everything including wine and cakes made with organic ingredients. It is not a market for clothes and bric-a-brac.

A good place to start is Cleo’s.  It has an entrance off Commercial Road and a window full of bread.  You can wander through the delicatessen and straight into the market.

From Cleo’s I head to stall 108,  MJ Mow Gourmet Potatoes.  Every variety of potato is available including the increasingly popular kipfler and one I had never heard of before,  Purple Congo.  This is good to mash and because of its colour good to use as a decoration.    There is a flier available that  lists 17 varieties of potatoes and  their different uses.  It is fun to experiment and I do but I love my old favourite the King Edward.

Stall 116 is Damian Pike the Wild Mushroom Specialist.  Wild mushrooms are those that come up in  a field after rain and have the best taste ever.  There not always available – it doesn’t always rain.  The stall is interesting not only because of the selection of mushrooms but for unusual seasonal items like flat peaches from China which they say they stock.  I have never seen them but I believe they exist!

You can grab good coffee or dine on something more substantial in the Market Square which is partly covered and has a play ground for the kids.

Coffee in the Market Square.

Information:-

Damian Pike Wild Mushroom specialist Phone 0411 438 465

MJ Mow Gourmet Potatoes  Phone 0417 382 354

Market Web site

Address:-

163 Commercial Road, South Yarra

Opening Hours:-
Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday – dawn to 5pm
Friday Dawn to 6pm
Sunday 10am to 3.00pm

Closed:-

Monday and Wednesday

Getting there:-

Tram:- 72 and get off at Stop 30

Train:- Take the Sandringham Line to Prahran Station and walk to Commercial Road.  It’s about 2 minutes walk

Related posts:

1. Red Star Cafe right opposite The South Melbourne Market, Clarendon Street
2. Cakes and coffee at the Special Cake Shop – Chapel Street, Prahran
3. Explore the Books @ the Fed Square Book Market CBD

I knew nothing of Rocco Pantaleo on my first visit there and have subsequently eaten there on a number of occasions still not realizing why it was decorated this way.   I ate there because I liked the atmosphere and the pizzas.

I understand now that this was Mr Pantaleo’s flagship – his first restaurant. And  I see why it is full of motor bikes and racing memorabilia. This was his passion.  I’m told he was often in the restaurant so I may have seen him without realizing who he was. I believe many of the rich and famous have eaten there including Bill Clinton.

I live near the St Kilda Junction where he was killed on his way to the Grand Prix.  I will never pass that way again without thinking of him and La Porchetta in North Carlton.   I plan to visit the restaurant  next week so I can eat another delicious pizza and raise a glass of red to memory of Rocco Pantaleo.

La Porchetta

392 Rathdown Street

North Carlton – Phone 9347 8906

Getting there:-

Tram 96 to East Brunswick.

It runs along Nicholson Street. Get off at Curtain Street and walk left, through to Rathdowne Street.

Related posts:

1. Motorbikes at La Porchetta Carlton North
2. “Little Italy” – Lygon Street – Carlton
3. The Good Life, and Good Food at Albert Park Lake

My first love was “Little Italy”on Lygon Street – that small strip of Lygon Street between Gratton Street and Argyle Place North that runs alongside Argyle Square .

Italian restaurant Lygon Street lunch time 1997

It was Easter twelve years ago and I was on my first trip here.  It was a clear, sharp and windless evening.  Lygon Street was alive in a way that was a complete contrast to my home town.  It was my first experience of spruikers and back then I found them fun. We chose a restaurant and were encouraged to sit outside.  I was dubious.  It was really chilly.  Then I discovered the magic of the gas heater.  We sat under the trees and were so warm I removed my jacket.

The check table clothes were a feature I liked in 1997

The crowds swarmed by, the atmosphere was convivial, the house red was soft and mellow – there was nowhere else in the world I wanted  to be but there at a table on the sidewalk in Lygon Street eating Italian food.

Lunch time 2010

Now I live here I go only when I have guests.  I take them so they can experience the magic I once felt.  Not everyone feels the magic.  Not everyone likes the spruikers.  Not everyone thinks the food is great.  Not everyone enjoys the evening crowds but most people like the atmosphere.  The experience is best explored in the evening.  During the day it is quieter and over those twelve years the other side of the street, the west side,  has flourished and that is where you find the lunch time crowds.

Lunch time 2010
Time has seen changes in the restaurants.  My original favourite Il Primo has gone.  It was at Il Primo that I first ate gnocchi and so another love affair began.

Now I choose Il Gusto.  I like their pasta and they have a good web site with their full menu.  This allows you to read the menu in advance; to think about what to eat,  to discuss it with your fellow diners,  to change your mind a couple of times and to get your mouth watering.

The Lygon Street experience now seems to have diminished a little from what it was or perhaps it is just that I am used to it.    Check it out it every now and again.  It is so much part of Melbourne’s heritage.  It is to be hoped that it all just doesn’t drift away.

Information:-

Most of the restaurants along the strip are open from 12 noon to 12 midnight.  These include;
Il Gusto Restaurant– 256 Lygon Street – Phone 9663 6396
Villa Romana Trattoria – 252 Lygon Street –Phone 9650 7990
La Spaghettata  Restaurant  – 238 Lygon Street – Phone 9663 6102

Getting there:-

The easiest  way to get there is  tram  to Melbourne University and walk along Gratton Street.  The trams that go there include; 3, 5, 6, 16, 64,67,72.
There parking in the area but most of it is for one hour only.

Related posts:

1. Rocco Pantaleo – La Porchetta North Carlton
2. A touch of France on Park Street, South Melbourne
3. Cakes and ice cream – the GeloBar, East Brunswick