a minor place – a delicious bagel

Brunch – there is no better meal. It is by far my favourite meal to eat out for, and I just love Melbourne’s abundance of brunch locations. I must say though – I am running out of Cheap Eats recommended brunch places in my local area (and brunch isn’t a meal I like to travel far for). One place that seemed to have been missed was A Minor Place in Brunswick – so off I went on Sunday morning to try it out.

It was a bit of a chilly morning, so unfortunately all the inside tables were packed, but my friend and I braved the cold and sat on one of the outside tables. I ordered a hot chocolate to warm up and then started the hard process of deciding what to order:

In the end I went with the Bullseye Bagel and I wasn’t disappointed:

The tomato relish  (on the underside of the bagel top) was a perfect addition to the bagel and the slight spice was just beautiful with the poached egg.

The service was quick and attentive (although they did put through the wrong order for my friend, but they were quick to get on top of it and fix it, so we hardly noticed). The outside area would be absolutely perfect on a summer morning – might be getting too cold to brave as the winter comes – but I would definitely recommend popping by and trying the bagel – mmm…delish!

the weekend round-up

What a beautiful weekend! The weather was perfect here in Melbourne – a real taste of the summer to come. Luckily I managed to have recovered somewhat from the cold that struck me down mid-week, so I squeezed in a lot of the past few days.

Friday was work drinks with the girls – I had exhausted most of my going out outfits recently, so I did a dig to the back of the closet and pulled out this number that has served me well over the years:

Paired with a denim jacket I was feeling all sorts of 90s cool. The night started out at Sweatshop – which always provides great entertainment via the list of ‘firsts’ written on its walls:

and then we moved onto The Croft Institute, which had some awesome street art on the alley on the way:

and where we indulged in a Honey & Apple drink that was to be drunk with syringes:

The night then lead us to a few quick pit stops whilst we picked up more people to our crew and then ending up at the Toff of the Town for some late night dancing.

Saturday was a beautiful rooftop lunch with my sister at The Local Taphouse (another cheap eats find) in St.Kilda. We both ended up ordering a delicious beer burger with fried onion rings, hand cut chips and aioli – it was to die for!

All washed down with some pear cider it was the perfect afternoon.

Saturday night was another night out with dinner and drinks at the Vic in Abbotsford, and then onto the Corner Hotel to see Eagle & the Worm (who were amazing – there really aren’t enough brass sections in bands these days), and then onto The Rochester for some dancing. Unfortunately no pics to accompany that night as the bag didn’t allow to bring a camera in tow.

Sunday I was awoken to another beautiful day and it was spent lazing about at home enjoying the sunshine on my back deck.

And now it is Monday again and I am eagerly counting down the days until I am off to Perth this Thursday.

How was your weekend?

Vietnamese and Harry Potter

Last night I headed out to Victoria St in Richmond for Vietnamese and then the movies – Harry Potter in particular.

myer blazer, asos necklace, portmans khaki top, cheap monday jeans, shoe show boots – maybelline are you red-dy lipstick

I was slightly more dressed up than required as I was meeting some work friends out for drinks afterwards. We headed for dinner at Thanh Phong - one of the many vietnamese restaurants on Victoria St – however it was in cheap eats, so that helped narrow down our choices. We ended up eating:

Vegetarian spring rolls

Beef and black bean

Chicken with chilli and lemongrass

(and also Satay vegetables – I didn’t grab a shot before we started eating this one!)

All the dishes were absolutely delicious – and the service at the restaurant was prompt and polite – I would highly recommend popping in if you are on Victoria St.

We then headed out to see Harry Potter – with the mandatory choc top – it was probably the best movie out of the eight – however I think I need to reread the books, there was so much I had forgotten!

Hope you all had good weekends!

+39 pizzeria again

Before heading out to Friday night drinks yesterday we headed out to dinner. The place we planned on heading to dinner was no longer open for dinners (outdated Cheap Eats app let me down!) so we headed to the closest other option, +39 desgustation bar and pizzeria, a restaurant I had previously been to and thoroughly enjoyed – this time around however it was a lot busier, with many patrons just lining up in the restaurant waiting for a seat. It did make the place a lot noisier and crowded, but the food was good none the less.

The best thing was potentially the dessert – a lemon soaked sponge with custard – delish!

sugarbeat lunch

For lunch on Saturday Phil and I headed to Sugarbeat in Ascot Value before heading to the zoo for the afternoon (more on that later). They had a short but delicious sounding menu, with breakfast being served into 3pm. Phil and I settled on some organic juices – yum – and a chicken panni for me and a chicken quesadilla for Phil.

It was a beautiful lunch for a beautiful day!

wood spoon kitchen

Friday night was dinner at the Wood Spoon Kitchen in Collingwood – another cheap eats find. The restaurant was on Smith St, amongst many other japanese restaurants that occupied the strip. Once inside the decor was refreshingly simple, filled with a lot of wood and pops of colour. Unfortunately I had forgotten my camera, so my iPhone only captured a few good images of the food:

they actually had wood spoons!

We started with an organic apple cider from tap

then gyozas

and shared mains of wasabi beef and assorted onigiri

The food was delicious and the service was friendly and prompt, all in all a fantastic dinner out!

Don tojo

Looking for a quick, easy and cheap Japanese feast on Friday night, we settled on Don Tojo in Carlton on recommendation from the Cheat Eats Guide – and it hasn’t been wrong yet!

Don Tojo was a tiny bar/restaurant, with a very casual atmosphere. You paid at the counter and sat at one of the small tables, or bar stools. The menu was small, but concise, and very reasonably priced. We both ordered the Bento Box (so well priced at $8.50) and were so surprised with the size of the meal that came out.

The entire Bento Box was delicious! I couldn’t even finish mine – luckily Phil was on hand to finish it off! The whole place was fantastic – I would have no hesitation to heading back very soon – especially with those prices! Delicious!

oriental tea house

I headed to the Oriental Tea House for dinner on Thursday night – to farewell a few members of my new work team. I had been previously and we had an amazing selection of dumplings – tonight however, for ease of ordering, we had the banquet, which contained 5 different courses over the night.

The evening began with a raspberry and lime mar-tea-ni (iced tea with vodka!).

raspberry lime mar-tea-ni

Wasn’t too impressed with the drink, it mostly tasted of raspberry cordial, so it was sickly sweet. The first course arrived – chicken san choy bow.

chicken san chow boy and some sort of beans

The chicken was delicious! However the beans were coated in anchovies so I wasn’t such a fan.

dumplings! two prawn and one pork

The second and perhaps the best course of the night was the dumplings. They were deliciously tasty – mmm.

calamari and some sort of crab battered stick

The above course was the most disappointing . The calamari and crab battered stick were really tasty except for the fact that they were covered in salt. Now, I love salty food, but this was overkill, it just masked any of the flavour of the seafood underneath. Unfortunately I got stuck into the next course before I remembered to take a picture, but it was beef and rice with a rich sauce – not bad, but certainly not outstanding. And then for dessert…

custard dumpling and sesame chocolate ball

These were delicious! The only problem was that there were only two. The sesame ball cracked open revealing the gooey chocolate inside, and the custard dumpling was beautifully sweet. Along with the dumplings they were the highlight of the night.

All in all, the food was slightly disappointing compared to my last trip to the tea house – I think next time it’s just best to stick to the dumplings!