Eat. and Shop. @ Hinoki Japanese Pantry

279 Smith Street, Fitzroy ph (03) 9417 4531

I'm always on the look out for a good place for Japanese groceries and a good place for sushi.  Hinoki Japanese Pantry has both!

I really like the range of Japanese groceries available at Hinoki.  They have a great selection of essentials like sauces, noodles and cooking aids, as well as a fabulous range of rice crackers, sweets and snack foods that brings me back again and again!

The draw for most people of course is the fresh sushi bar on site.  There's limited seating available for eat-ins, but mostly I tend to grab take away for a great sushi meal on the go.   I find that aburi salmon sushi is not readily available in Melbourne but they make both nigiri as well as aburi salmon topped rolls here!

And of course a kicker of a match milkshake for $2.8 is always good!

A favourite place to eat and shop for our family!

Shop and Eat. @ Myer Emporium (Part 3)

287 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne CBD 3000

Part 3 of the places to to go at the Myer Emporium covers more eateries we've visited on our multiple outing to our favourite shopping destination in the city.  So in no particular order here we go........

We've been back to Charlie & Co Burgers multiple times now and are happy to report that their truffle parmesan chips are significantly improved since our last visit.

Ding Tai Fung has opened at the Emporium, but I have not had the patience to line up with the rest of Melbourne yet to try it (despite the fact that there are over 200 seats in the restaurant the lines are still too crazy!)  We haven't been too disappointed as our old favourite New Shanghai still have some pretty awesome Xiao Long Baos that hit the dumpling spot each time we've been craving for our favourite treats from Shanghai.  The wait here is very modest and the queues have calmed to a steady flow.

The kids always like watching the chefs weave their magic with the noodles and dumplings.

Our favourite XLB are consistently good and quite reasonable at $8.6 for a steamer of 8.  Perfect with that hit of vinegar!  Watch out for the soupy explosion when you bite into one.  

The panfried Pot Stickers ($11 for 8 pcs) are also really nice, the pastry perfectly crispy with a soft, tender pork centre.

We also always order the braised beef noodle soup to share.  The noodles are perfectly cooked and the broth is meaty without being overly oily, it's such a great comforting bowl, especially in this awfully cold Melbourne winter this year!

We like their milk tea and ice lemon tea but they are pretty pricey at $5.3 each.

The Oolong tea for $5.5 a pot is a good option for Hubby and I to share, plus it's quite soothing when we have too many pan fried dumplings!

The kids don't like chinese tea and the soy bean milk ($3) is a good option.

For sweets Waffee in the basement is a favourite of ours.  

Waffee = waffles + coffee of course.

Their waffles are sweet and crispy, and even Bubs is pretty good at holding onto one and munching on it as we wander around the Emporium without getting too sticky. 

We've always gone for the sweet waffles, either in its original flavour ($2.8), or with chocolate glaze ($3.3), which is obviously a tasty but much messier affair for my kids!  I often get a pack of 6 to take away, and they can be kept for 3 days and heated up in your toaster.

For a fancier treat we had afternoon high tea at The Tea Salon a while ago.  (actually quite a while ago now!)  I went with my 2 older ones so it was a lovely girls' afternoon out!

The Children's high tea is $19.9 which really is one of the cheaper ones around.  It's served as chicken and mayo sandwiches, choice of one of their many different types of scones mini rose pannacotta topped with pink fairy floss, some fruit and a choice of drink.

The scones come in lots of flavours, and they chose a plain one with jam and cream and a chocolate one, that came with more chocolate to spread on!

The kids had some lovely and light lemon tea.

I had a pot of lovely english breakfast tea ($5.95) and also a couple of scones.  It was a very cute and special experience for the kids to have a sit down proper high tea and it was really enjoyable.

Zumbo has a kiosk type outpost on the first floor for a quick pick up of a selection of his goodies.  My favourite is probably the pretty carrot cake ($9).  The slightly deconstructed carrot cake is a cute twist on the original.

Bubs however loves the Chocolate Mousse "Dots" cake with the oh-so-smooth chocolate glaze.

Upstairs at Yo-Art you can go for a frozen yoghurt in different flavours.  

Kids cones are $2.5 and an extra 50c for topping, or you can fill a bowl and weigh and pay at $2.8 per 100g.

Bubs tried a blood orange with hundreds and thousands which was really refreshing, whereas Mini Me had a more traditional mango one which had a great flavour.

Next door at Rice Workshop they have green tea and black sesame softserves for $2.  For a "special" treat you can get a flavoured waffle cone with the soft serve and it'll still only set you back $2.5 each.  The flavours are actually quite good considering how good the prices are!

I love that the Emporium is still expanding and adding new shops and foodie destinations all the time, looking forward to more to come!

Eat. @ 8bit

9 Droop Street, Footscray 3011 ph (03) 9687 8838

The great thing about visiting the Science Museum with the kids is that it gives me an excuse to go over the bridge and try some of the places I'd been hanging out to try over in the west.  One such visit landed us at 8Bit for a burger and shakes dinner.

So we ordered a whole lot of burgers and fries and shared.  Starting off with the 8 Bit with Cheese ($8.5), with beef, tomato, lettuce, red onion, pickles, mustard, cheese and 8bit sauce.  I love this burger, which I guess is their "cheese burger".  Simple, perfectly proportioned and hits the spot.  If you need a bit more than the Double Dragon (love that game!) at $13.5 is for you, as it's essentially an 8 Bit with cheese with double the filling.

I was a video geek growing up, and I ordered the Golden Axe ($9.5) purely because it was one of my favourite games. (And yes I played the totally inappropriately dressed Amazon in the bikini.  You didn't think I'd play a dwarf did ya?)  Anyway back to the burger, which has crispy fried chicken, cheese, sriracha mayo and slaw as its filling.  A no nonsense fried chicken burger with a crispy coating that went really well with the spicy mayo.  

Next up is Hubby's favourite game Altered Beast ($9.5), which in its burger form is filled with beef, bacon, cheese, grilled onions, lettuce, 8bit sauce AND BBQ sauce.  One for the bacon lovers!

Can you believe they ran out of onion rings just as I got to the front of the line?  We made do with beer battered fries ($3 for small, $5 for large) and a serve of potato gems ($4 for small, $6 for large).  A necessary and delicious part of a good burger meal!

All washed down with a couple of milk shakes ($6.5).  We had the salted caramel, and you can also choose from peanut butter, strawberry cheesecake and chocolate bar.

And if that's not enough retro fun for you, you can fight with the kids and have a go at the arcade game in the corner.  

8 Bit is cute, bright, and cheery with a good dose of tongue in cheek fun.  A great fun meal if you're in the area.  (Makes me look forward to our next trip to the museum!)