Melbourne Places

The smell of food cooking leads you to the Suzuki Night Market.   The smell is delicious with the main ingredient being the aroma of barbecuing.  This is strange because when you get into the market there is an incredible selection foods – a chance to eat your way around the world with food from many [...]

Zum Zum is the middle of the cafes in the interesting North Carlton shopping area.  This means that on a nice day you can sit outside and be part of the atmosphere.    I find this atmosphere unique to Carlton North.  It is one of Melbourne’s places that I never tire of visiting.   The food at [...]

Acland Street is  a street alive with people and activity.  When you’re in Acland Street the vibes are positive and you know that the world is still revolving.  Acland Street is a street that brings you alive.  That’s how I feel about Acland Street.

My first visit to Acland Street was about 10 years ago.  I [...]

My first visit to Shakarhari, the vegetarian restaurant at 201/203 Faraday Street  in Carlton, was a few years ago.
I was with a vegetarian  friend who was visiting  from overseas and I  wanted to give her a experience of fine dining –something more than the  average vegetarian fare which often seems to include beans or Dahl.  [...]

When a cafe has been operating for a few years it may seem a waste of time reviewing it – others have done so before – but I believe Melbourne Places needs to visit and talk about the old favourites.  Not everyone knows these places.  Not every well known cafe lives up to its original [...]

These hamburgers are so good that I would drive across town for one. But it is not just the hamburger that appeals.
It is the the experience of watching the team at Andrews cooking them.  They make it into an art form.

Order your burger from the blackboard menu then hang around and watch. There are a [...]

Batch!  Why do  people chose the names they do for their businesses- I’m always curious about that?

Batch in Carlisle Street, East St Kilda !
When Batch was first mentioned to me and I heard that the owner was a New Zealander and that he uses a sort of Kiwiana  decor I immediately thought of New Zealand’s [...]

Georgios has been there forever.  That is probably too grand a statement but I can’t remember a time when it wasn’t there.   During the years I have known it, it has remained the same and become an Armadale icon if not a Melbourne icon.  The decor is rather like a sophisticated cafe and doesn’t appear [...]

Mention the Stokehouse where I live and everyone has an opinion and something to say about it.

The entrance to the Stokehouse.
Its location has to be one of the best in Melbourne.  The view from upstairs is spectacular as I discovered during a couple of office Christmas lunches.  So good in fact that I wonder sometimes [...]

One of my favourite breads in Melbourne is Noisette’s Sourdough Fruit Bread and my favourite Melbourne place to buy it is at the Pickadeli in the South Melbourne Market.

In fact now I think about I only buy it at the Market. I still pop into Noisette’s on Bay Street, Port Melbourne for coffee and cake [...]