Food adventures in Melbourne and wherever the tummy goes
American food has been getting more and more popular in Australia but there is an eatery that has been around for quite some time, Misty’s Diner. This is an American diner where the drinkies are American, the food is what you would find in a diner and the atmosphere, boy the atmosphere is uplifting, fun and buzzing.
Birregurra is located 1.5 hours from Melbourne in Regional Victoria and in Birregurra sits a restaurant which has not only won 3 chef hats, but is ranked number 44 in the world this year. A restaurant which has only been opened for 4 years, Dan Hunter’s baby, Brae.
Ms Trinh Diem Vy, a renown Vietnamese chef and restaurateur, known for her Hoi An restaurants including Mermaid, Morning Glory, Cargo Club and Vy’s Market Restaurant & Cooking School has stepped into Melbourne with a new restaurant located just off the busy streets of Chapel Street, House of Hoi An.
Mr D’s birthday means a celebration was in order and we didn’t want to go anyway too far so after a few googles, I decided on Eleonore’s Restaurant at Yering Chateau. Unfortunately, this restaurant is opened at night so we couldn’t enjoy the beautiful scenery that Yering had to offer (just means that we’ll just have to come back again!). Anywho, we made a booking on a Sunday night at 6:30PM and there weren’t a lot of people there. The decor is very old Victorian and it was a bit dull and dreary but had a lot of warmth. The staff were so friendly and showed us to our seat.
Mr D and I haven’t been around in the CBD in a while and we needed to refuel before we hit the town for some drinkies. Walking down Swanston street, we eyed Chop Shop and of course Mr D is all for Korean and this place promised Modern KBBQ. We skipped inside and since it was only 5:30PM on a Saturday night (yep, we eat at elderly people time) there weren’t a lot of customers around.
An outing with the stooges can only mean one thing, GLORIOUS FOOD! Since I was no longer a westie *cries silently inside* this meant that we had to eat in the CBD. Stooge 1 was craving Korean food and we decided on Da Rin in Bourke Street. We made a booking for a Tuesday night but when we arrived, it wasn’t busy at all so we just walked straight in. We were seated at our tables and the cutlery were oh so cute, like it was telling us “get ready for some food in ya belly”.
The girlies wanted a catch up to hear all of my Japan stories and I found out that Dimmi has amazing 50% offers at various restaurants and they change every week so I suggested we check out Tazio for some Italiano! I made a booking and BAM we turned up on the night and it was quite busy for a Wednesday night and a lot of people were here for after work drinkies. Stepping into the eatery, the staff were warm and friendly and I was already enjoying Tazio. Since all the food were 50% off, we were definitely going to go to town.
After coming back from Japan, I was missing Japanese food oh so much. In the anticipation of missing this fine cuisine, I had booked Minamishima for the week I come back with my two stooges. There wasn’t an online booking process, you just have to call the restaurant directly but they were lovely and accommodating. When we got there, we were greeted by the staff and shown to our table. Since there were 3 of us, we missed out sitting by the bar. Our menu was slightly different to those at the bar where some of our dishes were also from the kitchen.
After arriving back in Australia, Mr Kingdom Hearts suggested a ramen date to see if I could find any ramen in Melbourne that tasted like those in Japan. So we explored Mugen Ramen since this has been on his list and he was oh so excited to check this place out. We turned up on a Wednesday night without a booking and they managed to squeeze us in. The atmosphere was casual, the staff were super friendly and the decor was very suave.
We were oh so hungry and decided on the Wagyu Tataki and this was AMAZEBALL! The wagyu was seared perfectly and the mash and the ponzu sauce was on point. This was a fantastic starter and we were super excited about our mains. This was more on the pricier side but it was definitely worth it.
Wagyu Tataki – $18
Seared Wagyu served with Yuzu Mashed Potatoes, Spring Onions and Ponzu Sauce
Since we’re finally moving in, we decided to check out the local eats and I’ve been eyeing Rocco’s Burger Cafe every time we drove past and FINALLY we had the opportunity to casually drop by to stuff our faces. It was quite busy when we went at lunch time but when we stepped into the cafe, we were greeted by smiling staff (even though they were super duper busy). You can definitely tell that it’s a family-owned cafe because they pay extra attention to you and they had a different kind of friendliness to them.