Eat. @ CheekyChinos

145, Cecil Street, South Melbourne 3205 ph (03) 9077 6492

Regular readers of this blog will know that while I write about places to eat with kids,  I'm usually not a fan of kid-centric dining, where food and drink seem to come last on the list.  There's a time and place for heated up sausage rolls, cordial and giant slides and ball pits (ie/ birthday parties), but I don't really want to do that when we go out for our little dining out experiences. Cheekychinos in South Melbourne however, has opened up this type of dining for me with a fantastic twist that will no doubt attract parents with young kids (including myself!) for return visits over and over again.

Essentially Cheekychinos is a cool cafe, with an adjoining play area with 2 trained staff members looking after the kids at play, while you get to have your meal in (relative) peace.  It is situated on Cecil St, diagonally across the road from South Melbourne Market. 

There are less than a dozen tables in the dining area, and on the day we visited, the cafe was already full to the brim at 10:30am.  We were initially turned away and advised to come back later, as the play area was already full - I think they only allow 6 children in at the same time - and the tables were all taken.  I decided to start ordering anyway since there were a few spots at the bench facing the front window.  Luckily by the time I finished  putting in my orders a table was available, so we had morning tea and put our names down on the waiting list for the play area.

The menu offers food that you would expect from most of the nice inner suburb cafes, with a great selection of healthy options and gluten free fare.

Macaron Monster had fun picking a drink from their "Chino Art" menu, which is CheekyChinos' range of creative babycinos ($2).  Of course the one we chose on the day was the aptly named Rainbow Chino, which was covered in 100's and 1000's!  The range is quite interesting, from the Cosmic Chino, with cosmic wormhole, moon and star sprinkles and mini m&m's, to the rather new-age sounding Tranquil Chino, which is caffeine free chai froth, honey, cinnamon sprinkle with gingerbread man.

My mocha ($3.8) was very good, not your average coffee at a play centre!

I ordered The Gruffalo's Lunch ($9) for Bubs, which was shaved virginia ham, swiss cheese, crunchy veg sticks, hummus and apples slices.  I'm proud to say that Bubs has inherited my love for little courses of food served on a platter, and enjoyed his meal so much that he spent the whole time eating playing with the food!  The grapes and the currants were a nice touch I thought.

Macaron Monster fuelled up on an Angry Chook ($5), which is smashed egg on a toasted mini roll.  Cute, and pretty tasty!

While Macaron Monster played, I sat back and ate a mini lemon cheesecake.

So what about the play area?  It is lovely, clean, safe, colourful, and probably most appropriate for kids from crawlers to about 5 years old.  The design and colour scheme was very appealing and Macaron Monster had a ball. The staff were patient and lovely, and there were 2 of them looking after 6 kids.  It does cost $10 per child per 30 minutes ($15 for 60 minutes) but I think if you factor in most play centres charging $5-10 for unsupervised play it's not too bad.  

Being a baby friendly cafe means that it's also got a pretty clean and user-friendly baby change area.

Overall we had quite an enjoyable time at CheekyChinos.  I was impressed with the coffee and menu selections, and Macaron Monster obviously loved the play area.  The only issue I can foresee is that this place is way too popular for the number of tables it has to offer, so it might be difficult to find a spot during cafe peak-hour! 

Toilets - Yes
Highchairs - Yes, and in abundance!

Eat. @ Simon's Peiking Duck Restaurant

197B Middleborough Rd, Box Hill South 3128 ph : (03) 9898 5944

In need of another dose of duck in the suburbs, we recently had a big family dinner out at Simon's, the famed duck-slicing ninja restaurateur who used to be behind Old Kingdom before retiring, then re-emerging in this little strip mall in the 'burbs.  

There are 2 seatings, at 6pm and 8pm, and like other specialty duck restaurants they will ask you how many ducks you would require for the night at the time of booking.  We've been told that on average you would share one duck between two adult diners.  The duck menu choices of A ($55) and B ($63) only differ based on your choice of noodles that are served after the main Peking duck event.  

The kids were totally entertained by Simon flipping pancakes onto their plates.   The pancakes were super thin and more delicious than the ones found at the average Chinese restaurant.  Simon belted out instructions on how the Peking duck should be wrapped and chastised us when it was done wrongly, in a way only an Asian Chef can get away with!

The ducks were all perfectly cooked, yielding good sized slices with light and crispy skin and succulent meat.  We ordered 4 ducks to feed 8 adults and 2 kids, finding that the quality was consistent and there was certainly plenty to go around.  

If you're still hungry after the Peking duck is gone, you can fill up with duck noodles and soup.  These were nothing to write home about, but that's not what you come to Simon's for.  The menu also had a list of the usual suspects of dishes available at your local Chinese place, but looking around us no one else ordered anything  but duck, duck and more duck!

Similar to both Old Kingdom and Little Beijing House, you're here for the sole purpose of eating yummy duck, and not for the ambiance, service or a lingering chat over desserts, nor for a place for the kids to roam and play after dinner.  However, I DO prefer this place to the other two in terms of food and access. (We had 2 kids and 3 toddlers amongst us who occupied 2 highchairs and we even manged a pram in the corner for the sleeping baby).  Simon gave us the duck carcasses to take home for my mother-in-law to make stock, which made the duck go even further.  

Eat.Play.Shop. says - Excellent duck in the 'burbs.  Need to book and visit the ATM prior as they are Cash Only. 

Highchair - yes (I'd mention you need this at booking)

Toilets - yes

Eat. @ Touche Hombre

Corner of Londsdale St and Tattersalls Lane, Melbourne CBD 3000 ph : (03) 9663 0811

Touche Hombre, heroes in a half shell (yes I googled it!)

Last week I got a chance to try out one of the newest Mexican restaurant in Melbourne when I was invited to a Bloggers' Dinner ahead of its official launch this week.  It is *cutely* called Touche Hombre, and sits at the corner of Tattersalls Lane on Lonsdale St, right opposite QVB.  Described as "LA street style and creativitiy versus Mexican taco culture" in my invitation, I was intrigued as to what THAT will translate into.

The restaurant itself is an open space that can house up to 80 people.  Exposed brick walls, graffiti, neon signs, arcade games and a live DJ on this Tuesday night contribute to the sense of old school fun, in a slightly tongue-in-cheek way.  References to the Ghostbusters, Ninja Turtles and the 3 Amigoes are a tip of the hat to the era that was.  We met Davis Yu, who is the energetic guy behind Maison Davis, the team behind The Millswyn.  It was quite interesting listening to him talk about the inspiration behind Touche Hombre, and about his ongoing project, the Claremont Tonic, which is the next restaurant Maison Davis will open later in the year.

The writing is on the wall.
 (apparently lyrics from one of Davis' favourite songs)

We then sampled a range of dishes from their menu.  These are mostly bite sized, fun little shared dishes, often eaten with fingers, and dished up with paper and wooden disposable cutlery to add to the "casual and fun" feel of the restaurant.  We started off with Tostadios de Pollo, which is spiced chicken, mango jam, toasted sesame and chipotle mayo ($12 for 3).  A quick yummy mouthful, but it won't fill you up at $4 each.

The Ceviche was an interesting mix of diced fish, mussels, cilantro, chilli, red onion, tomato and guacamole with tortilla chips. ($12)  A fresh tasting "chip and dip" combo which could probably be more spicy in my opinion, but a cute little starter to munch on over a chat.

The Elotes Callejeros is their grilled corn, cilantro, smoked paprika, and grated Egmont cheese ($6).  Again a bit more spice would be nice but not a bad grilled corn otherwise.

The Fatty Lamb Ribs ($8) was my favourite dish of the night.  This is Merquen, cilantro, lemon and honey.  Not your healthy kind of snack but OH. SO. YUMMY.  I think I'm going to want to run in and grab a tub everytime I walk past here. (Wonder if they'll let me take-away?)

We sampled 3 of their 9 different taco offerings that night.  Starting off with Del Jaiba, a taco made with soft shell crab, corn cream, pea shoots, lime and mint ($6).   A seafood taco made more interesting by the corn cream. 

The Breakfast Taco was my favourite taco, filled with omelette, salchichas, Egmont cheese, beans, avocado, salsa, fried onions with habenero cream ($6.5).  Somehow all those ingredients work really well together in the warm soft taco and I enjoyed every last bite of this little treat.

The Taco De Coronel was filled with charcoaled chicken, chimichurri, capers and shallots ($7). Pleasant tasting but not as memorable as the Breakfast Taco.  Next time I'm going to try the  El Secreto - Secret Squirrel Taco which contains something different everyday, but they won't tell you what's in it until AFTER you eat it.  That's a challenge hard to turn down in my opinion!

The food was accompanied by an interesting array of drinks, all served in colourful giant chicken jugs. 

Margarita camping style in metal mugs anyone?

I sipped on most of these, as I drove that night.  My favourite one was probably the blood orange madagascar.  Very sweet and easy to drink.  Closely followed by La Paloma.

The Michelada Bitchin' Mexican Beer Cocktail looked interesting but I have to confess I didn't try this as I needed to stop drinking by this stage.

The drinks ended with shots of their own (cutely bottled) tequila.

For dessert Touche Hombre offers up three sorts of Ice-Cream Sangas.  You can sample all 3 for $18.

The Chocolate and Chillis Peanut Cookie ($7)  was an indulgent mix of chocolate and chilli which worked well together.

The Rice Pudding and Cinnamon ($7) was a caramel parfait, rice pudding and cinnamon sugar, and tasted like Christmas in a slice.

My favourite dessert of the night was the Dulce de Leche, a strawberry parfait with pistachio and dulce de leche.  The hint of fruity strawberry gives this indulgent sweet a real zing.

Touche Hombre is a fun addition to Melbourne that is cool because it doesn't seem to take itself too seriously.  Not a place to take the kids given the crowd and ambience, but a fun night out with friends most definitely!

Disclaimer : I attended the Bloggers' Dinner at Touche Hombre at the invitation of the team @ Maison Davis.

Eat. @ Dead Man Espresso

35 Market Street, South Melbourne 3205 ph (03) 9686 2255

Juggling 2 careers, 3 kids, and everyone's extra-curricular activities means that it is a rare event for Hubby and I to have a weekday morning off together.  So when the moons aligned a little while back and we both didn't have to work on a Monday, we excitedly looked for a place to go to for brunch.  (Hubby is super jealous that I always try the trendier places during weekdays to avoid the crowds.)  Dead Man Espresso was the place we chose in the end and we headed off in excitement with Bubs in tow.  Yes, it's a date, any time we go ANYWHERE with one or less kid, be it the dentist or Coles, is counted as a date these days.  (Babysitting for 3 is hard to come by and has to be pre-arranged for super special occasions for now!)

First up coffee!  Usual orders of mocha for me, cappucino for Hubby were lovely.  Latte art impressed.

Hubby ordered a Fried Eggs on Toast ($9) with Istra bacon ($3.5), tomatoes ($3.5) and sausages ($4.5) as they had sold out of pork belly on the weekend.  A good big breakfast all round.

I ordered the Rosti ($17.5), which was a herb and potato rosti with poached egg, avocoado and smoked salmon.  Delicious in its simplicity, differing textures complimented each component well and a winner in my eyes.

Dead Man uses many local suppliers, as well as sourcing its own herbs and honeys from its rooftop garden.

I found Dead Man more kid-friendly than I thought it would be, although again like many of the trendy inner suburb cafes it's better for older kids.  It helped that Bubs was on best behaviour that day and we both managed to eat at the same time and enjoyed the meal!  We were seated on a large communal table and although we did not have our stroller with us there was plenty of room for it.  The service was friendly and efficient.  A semi-enclosed area lets you check out the streetscape while enjoying your latte.

In a hurry to go?  Take-aways come in 3 different sizes.

Dead Man Espresso is named for the era in which South Melbourne was a bit of a no man's land of lost dreams during the Gold Rush years. You can read the interesting history as you peruse the menu.  Interesting to compare it to the 1970's and 80's, when many immigrant families settled into the area.  And again to the current trendy inner suburb it has become.

Eat.Play.Shop. Says - Another great coffee establishment in South Melbourne with a decent breakfast menu.

Highchairs - No 
Toilets - Yes