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. @ Passionflower

Shop 2, 168 Bourke Street, Melbourne CBD 3000 ph (03) 9663 0033

Macaron Monster is growing up so fast, and has absolutely taken after me in loving desserts.  We looked for a post dinner dessert destination in the CBD one night and landed at Passionflower.

It's bright, it's noisy, and it's got lots of ice-cream and waffle based desserts.  

We started off with a pot of english breakfast tea ($5), that came with a cute little cup.  I actually would've liked a bigger cup as we had to keep making small cups of tea again and again, although it did entertain the kids for a bit!

We ordered The Masterpiece ($26) to share.  A dessert platter of sorts with lots of little bits to try, including chocolate banana crepe, tiramisu, green tea mousse, strawberry and cream pikelets, and an ice cream sundae with milky white and black sesame rice balls.  An excellent dessert to share, the tiramisu was surprisingly good, and the mousse had a good dose of green tea.  The sundae had azuki bean, coconut and taro ice-cream scoops which were interesting flavours that the kids enjoyed trying, and my favourite bit was actually those chewy rice balls in the waffle basket.

We also ordered a Geisha San ($15.5) which was an ice-cream sundae with scoops of green tea ice cream and rose and lychee ice-cream, served with orange and lychee.

The desserts were nothing super fancy or technically difficult, but it was a bright and cheery spot for a sweet pitstop for our family.

Eat. @ Red Spice QV

37 Artemis Lane, Melbourne CBD 3000 ph (03) 8660 6300

For my birthday lunch this year with the gang, we ventured to Red Spice Road at QV.  I've been wanting to try their food for ages and I must admit it did not disappoint.

The space at QV was pretty amazing.  The set up is a mix of modern and traditional East meet West.  The tables were spacious and there's a large area upstairs that would cater really well for large groups and small functions.

I had heard so much about the amazing Twice Cooked Lamb Ribs with sticky tamarind sauce ($18) that we ordered 2 serves (thinking that as an entree it'd be quite a small serve, but all the dishes on the lunch menu were surprisingly generous).  No worries, we had no problems putting away all the delicious ribs between the 5 of us, and ribs are super kid-friendly so they were a great choice.  They offered to not add chilli to one of the serves so it worked really well that we got to try both versions!  Mini Me and I both gave them a big thumbs up!

The Pork belly with chilli caramel, apple slaw and black vinegar ($36) was a delicious serve of melt in the mouth pork belly.  The sauce was amazing, I could eat anything covered in it, and certainly went down a treat with bowls of rice.

Lastly we had a Chicken, pomelo, peanut, herb and coconut salad ($34) which was really nice and refreshing.

The only problem we had was that the drinks took forever to arrive despite some prompting.  We had ordered a couple of mocktails which were really delicious an would've been so refreshing with the ribs and belly pork but unfortunately they only made an appearance near the end of our meal.

Overall the meal was delicious and the kids were well treated and we had a delightful family lunch.  25% off with the Entertainment Book did not hurt!  We'll definitely be back again!

Eat. @ Sardi

111 Church Street, Hawthorn ph (03) 9818 6140

Still missing my Japanese holiday and hanging out for some matcha goodness, I spotted a picture for a matcha latte on my instagram and beelined to Sardi for my green tea hit.

Their matcha latte certainly looked the part.  The taste was pleasant if only a little too weak for my tastes.  I still prefer the near perfect one down the road at Tana.  

I chose the Brekky Board ($17.5) which is always great for me as I can never decide. (Having brunch with Hubby and kids on the weekend is the best, partly because we can order quite a few things and shared!)  The Brekky Board here had granola parfait, croissant with passionfruit curd, pea and haloumi fritter, with poached egg and coffee.  They graciously changed the coffee and included my matcha latte in the deal instead.  All the different elements on the board were delicious and perfectly sized.

Bubs not so subtly hinted at the pretty little red velvet cupcakes in the display, so we shared one as a final little sweet.

The rest of the menu is filled with healthy sounding granola, acai, almond mylk and a superfood breakfastbowl (should totally be called a SUPERBOWL I reckon thank you very much!) with kale and asparagus amongst other greens, although they also have good old staples like bacon and eggs in a ciabatta and banana bread french toast.  It's not a large space and it was pretty packed on a weekday so I can imagine it would be a popular weekend hangout.

Eat. @ Tarng

32 A'Beckett Street, Melbourne CBD 3000 ph (03) 9639 4456

We stumbled upon Tarng over a long weekend when we went in search of a Korean lunch but found the place we were heading to was actually closed.  It was a good thing as we found Tarng and had a fabulous lunch (and subsequent dinner) from the visit!

We started off with the Korean Fried Chicken.  Tarng's version is fried with a light coating of flour rather than the thicker batter, so it's slightly crispy but not as you would expect with the battered version.  It's a pretty big serving and was quite delicious with a sweet soy coating.

The beef bibimbap ($10.8) was quite delicious and not too expensive, and had quite a lot of beef compared to other places we've tried.

The Jap Chae interestingly came with rice, which I've not come across like this before.  The noodles were a bit more salty than we like, so the rice was a good off set I guess!

The Beef Ramen at ($7.5) was a steal at that price.  A large bowl of warming noodles, albeit again slightly salty for our taste.

And last but not lease the Spicy Pork ($10.8) which came with a bowl of rice and side dishes.  Quite a good standard of spiciness and no complaints from me!

We totally over ordered as the size of the dishes were bigger than we had anticipated, and ended up with 3 take-away boxes of food to take home.  A cheap and cheery place for a quick Korean fix in the CBD.

Eat. @ The Kettle Black

50 Albert Road, South Melbourne 3205 ph (03) 9088 0721 

Melbourne is certainly bringing on the cold, and it already feels like it's been winter for aaaages!  On a cold, wet and super wintery morning, Bubs and I finally ventured over to South Melbourne to try The Kettle Black on our brunch roulette.  

The eatery spans a few rooms, giving it a slightly different but still cosy feel to the restaurant.  We had a short wait for a table on a week day, and I've heard it's super crowded on the weekend.  Bubs took the time to peruse the baked goodies display, naming all the different sweet treats like a pro. 

Once we were seated my mocha arrived with the pretty coffee art on a cheery blue saucer.  The coffee was great.

I ordered the Fresh Cray Fish in an ash roll ($21), which is quite the signature dish here.   The presentation is beautiful, as expected since The Kettle Black hails from the crew at Top Paddock.  The crayfish was tasty, but the lime and yuzu mayonaise knocks the it out of the ball park and I would definitely order this again.  

Bubs only wanted a sweet that morning and enjoyed his cupcake from the display.

I would've love to try more of the menu but there's only so much I can order just for Bubs and I - the advantage of having a family is that we can share more dishes!!  Can't wait to come back with the rest of the gang!

Eat. @ Bluebird Espresso

134 Johnston Street, Collingwood ph (03) 9078 9047

We stumbled across Bluebird Espresso by accident as we were stuck in traffic on Johnston Street one morning.  Bubs and I were on our brunch roulette mission and decided to just stop and check out this cute little cafe.  

It's a cosy little space and well loved by the locals.  It seemed quite popular and space is limited so a big pram may be difficult.

Judging by the stream of people coming in to get caffeinated, the coffee must be good, and my mocha ($4) did not disappoint.

I actually ordered off-menu on the day and tried their special of the day, scrambled eggs with smoked salmon and salad of roasted sprouts, capers and raisins.  It was amazingly delicious, I loved loved loved the salad and believe it or not I got Bubs to eat sprouts!!!  

I also ordered a side of "Little Bogan hash browns" ($4) for Bubs, since he's made for potato hashes lately and the the name was cute.

Melbourne seriously has the best cafes in the world.  Sometimes unintended adventures are the best ones!