Melbourne Places

I joined friends for lunch at the Terrace Cafe in the Melbourne Botanical Gardens on a wet weekday morning.  It was a long standing date and we went despite the rain.
The easiest way to reach the Terrace Cafe that overlooks the ornamental lake is to enter the gardens from the corner of Anderson Street and [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Last week I had lunch at the buffet in the Melba Room at the Langham Hotel, Southbank, for the second time.  It proved to be as good as my first visit about nine months ago.

The grand staircase leading to the Melba Room.
On this cold, bleak, winter Friday the dining room was almost full.  [...]

You don’t have to be a railway buff to enjoy a stop at the Victorian Railway Arts and Antiques – the place that is like a museum.
Ride the 96 tram that’s the light rail, to St Kilda and get off at the Albert Park Station.
From the platform you walk into the old, red, brick station [...]

Sunday. The sun is shining and the part of the world that is South Melbourne is buzzing.  A good place to take in all this buzz is at an outside table at the Red Star Cafe. On a cold day a window table inside would do just as well.

This cafe is right opposite the main [...]

The Special Cake Shop at 207 Chapel Street, Prahran is an institution in the area.

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 [...]

The Prahran Market is a foodies market.  It is all about food, preparing it, cooking it and eating it.  If that sounds like you The Prahran Market  is the place to explore.  Take your recipes and search out those unusual ingredients.

I think it is best on Saturday.  The produce seems to be fresher as if [...]

One of my favourite places to breakfast in Melbourne is the Mart Cafe at Middle Park – Middle Park tram stop for tram 96 to St Kilda.
This cafe is right on the tram stop – platform 2.  Notice the name – tram backwards.

In the summer I wander in early and make my way out onto [...]