Grill'd

One of my frens loves to eat the burgers at Grill'd and upon his recommendation, 4 of us (me, MM, Mouse & JK) drove down to St. Kilda to have the burgers for dinner.

Grill'd is a burger bar claiming to offer a healthier version of burgers ~ 100% chicken breast, beef, lamb n veggie pattie (preservative free). So far, it has 4 stores in Melbourne but none is situated in the CBD area. The nearest will be at Chapel St. Besides diff combo of burgers are being offered on the menu, it also has regular chips ($3.50) with 3 choices of dips (tomato relish or herb mayo or sweet chilli mayo). Ooo.... for the bun, u can choose a) panini OR b) wholemeal/white burger bun. The prices of the burgers range from $7- $10.

We each order our choice of burgers n 2 chips to share. We have chosen tomato relish n herb mayo as our dips for the fat chips. Those dips were really nice =D

"Baa Baa" burger, $9.90

The menu describes this as: "Grilled lean lamb pattie with avocado, tasty cheese, salad, relish n herb mayo.."

"Baa Baa" burger, close up

Mighty Melbourne, $10.50.

The menu describes this as: "grilled 100% lean beef, tasty cheese, crispy trim bacon, free range egg, a couple of slices of beetroot with salad, relish, herb mayo..." Sounds delicious rite?

The burgers at Grill'd are nice, altho I have to say they are not very cheap. As Mouse & MM had two buy-1-free-1 voucher (for the burgers), hence our bill for that nite was cheap. But I guess at the end of the day, mayb you can give urself some excuse that at least they are healthier =)

San

Grill'd
83 Acland St
St Kilda VIC 3182
Phone: (03) 9534 6900

Lim's Nonya Hut

How far are we willing to go for Char Koay Teow? At least, how far am I willing to go for Char Koay Teow that all but promises to be similar to Penang Char Koay Teow?

I am willing to go very far...40-minute train journey to Syndal + a lot of stumbling around/getting lost/finally getting onto Blackburn Road + RAIN/STRONG WINDS = how "far" I went. To Lim's Nonya Hut, which has been recommended to me many times over for their Malaysian food. So on one RAINY afternoon (of all days to pick), me and San got our greedy butts all the way to Syndal for food. And oh, also to meet San's friend, JW.

Nonya Hut is a simple little restaurant on the corner, nothing fancy on the interior or exterior - similar to many Chinatown restaurants and maybe slightly dodgier (from looks). It is family-owned and family-run (I think), and claims to specialise in Kuih - which is our local Malaysian little 'cakes', per say.

We started off with Kuih Talam ($1.00) which is among my favourite kuih back home (although the price made me keel over and reel over but I digress).

Green and white and kuih.

Have to say that it was definitely good although not as authentic as the ones back home. The taste was there - the coconuty-santan layer for the white and the sweet pandan-ish taste for the green. But I find the texture a little lacking - a little too sticky and sticking to the roof of my mouth. Nevertheless, best I've eaten in Melbourne.

No prizes for guessing what I ordered - I'll be damned if I didn't have the Char Koay Teow ($7.80) - WITHOUT the evil that is beansprouts, of course.

Yummy yummy yummy!

Check out the big-ass prawn.

San had the same thing but she had the "evil" version.

San's Char Koay Teow with (ugh bleuh bleeeek) taugeh

When it was placed in front of us, it was already a good first impression because it smelt so GOOD and kinda Penang-like. Hahaha. San commented on the "wok hei" - definitely enough of that. On first bite? Mmmmm. Best I've had in Melbourne. By far. It was really really good!! Of course if I want to be picky and bitchy (in which I am), it's still not up to par to the my favourite stall back home (they used spring onion instead of chinese chives) - but omg so good all the same. Truly Malaysian style Char Koay Teow! The koay teow was fried just right and not all clumpy together. Nonya Hut was generous with prawns, we each got three huge prawns that tasted pretty fresh. They also used chunks of fried pig oil (which we didn't eat) which was why it smelt so good and so familiar. There was also generous bits of yummy fried egg and Chinese sausage (lap cheong) so all was very very good and there was a satisfied mouse.

Why does it have to be so #$% far away!? Sigh indeed.

We were also given complimentary Kuih Lapis which was rather good, quite yummy, me thinks.

Traditionally pink and white if I remember correctly.

We also ordered Chendol to finish up.

Bowl of ice and santan.

And green things underneath...not seaweed mind you.

Hmm, nothing really outstanding for this one. It was good the few gulps but it got a little too sweet towards the end with the gula melaka (we called it "gula Melaka" in Malaysia or palm sugar in English) syrup. Also, I was a little iffy with the texture of the chendol - tasted kind of frozen. San reckoned it'll taste much better if there was more ice in the dessert.

BUT THE CHAR KOAY TEOW.

Seriously, if Nonya Hut is next to my apartment I'll be eating Char Koay Teow until it starts coming out of my ears.

(And no, I don't live near to a Char Koay Teow stall back home or it'll be coming out of my ears)

- Mouse

Nonya Hut is closed on Mondays.


**Just like to mention here that "KUIH" is not really cakes in English. Cakes are cakes, such as cheesecakes or chocolate cakes. Maybe snack is a more appropriate word to use, but I personally feel is still not 100% right. But i guess u get the idea, those delicacies are called "KUIH" in Malaysia. ** San

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Lim's Nonya Hut
240 Blackburn Road
Glen Waverley 3150
Phone: (03) 98023763

Fish Seafood Grill & Rotisserie

Fish's logo

We went to this restaurant at Docklands 2 weeks ago to celebrate MM's birthday. The reason we chose this restaurant is simple, we just flipped thru Mouse's Entertainment Book with seafood and somewhere near in mind, and hence Fish it is =)

Fish was situated at the end of the Docklands' restaurants area (regardless of the "Docklands Drive" address, it is actually situated at the end of New Quay). The interior was not very fancy though,despite the fact that from their website somehow the restaurant looks a lot nicer online =D. Given the location & the price of the food, we expected something fancier. The design was seemingly not very well done and not very in tune with the restaurant. I think during the day would be a lot better, since you can at least enjoy the view better (overlooking the harbour)Hmmm. But complaints aside, it was still a happy!yay! occasion because it was MM's birthday (haha, here's to you growing ermm...more mature :D).

Alf's Cosmopolitan, $15.40

This is quite good. I had a sip n enjoyed it. Alf liked it too. I also ordered a glass of Killawarra Klassic, $8.25. Most of the wines are by bottles, altho they do have a few ones by glass.

We also ordered (sort of) 2 servings of garlic breads to share. It was lovely.V crunchy and aromatic. For those that can't stand garlic, maybe you can hav a try at this as they r not too garlicky. I would love it to be more garlicky but this is good enuff. Buuut the waiter was rather pushy, we wouldn't have gotten the garlic bread if he wasn't being pushy and kinda irritating (All 6 of us get the vibes that the waiter was overly pushy). Luckily, they were good =)

3 Florentine & 3 Natural Oysters, $19.80

Another entree we ordered n shared was Oysters! On the menu, there is this requirement: We ask you to select a minimum of 3 oysters per type and half dozen or more per order. Therefore, we ordered half a dozen, one was fresh n one was cooked. The oysters were fresh n eating them with a squeeze of lemon is always tasty. The Florentine ones (spinach, mornay, parmesan) were delightful too.

Our Oysters

Ok, after finish our entrees, its time for our mains to show up.

MM's pasta, $36.00

First up, MM's garlic prawns over angel hair pasta tossed in white wine, garlic, virgin olive oil and fried spinach. Sounds good rite? It was good. MM definitely enjoy it. Although the portion might look a bit small, she said it was just nice for her. Hmm. So I think, mayb it won't b enuff for a guy =P But she reckons that it is actually VERY expensive.

MM's dinner

Fish & chips in a light batter served with pea puree and rustic hand cut chips, $29.00

Now its JK's. JK is not a big fan of seafoods. Yup, he does not quite enjoy prawns, crabs..etc esp. when he has to use his hands to peel prawns' shells/use some utensils to get the crab's meat out. I do know some people around me, besides JK, that do not enjoy seafood too as they think its troublesome to eat them. So, he went for the fish n chips =) He enjoyed it, particularly the chips. LOL.

Cauliflower mornay $9.00

Jk had also ordered this salad to complement his fish n chips. He was totally in love with this I tell u. He just kept on raving about how good this salad was. I had a try n thought it was rather good too.

Spanish Paella with chorizo sausage, fish of the day, black tiger prawns, mussels, clams and chicken with saffron vinaigrette (for two guests), $54.00

Me n Alf shared this main. This is delicious, altho not memorable, with generous amount of seafoods in it. One thing is that it was not properly seasoned, so we had to put quite a bit salt n keep on squeezing the lemon juice on it =D Other than that,lovely. OOooo, another thing is we were struggling to finish it. So, I would recommend 3 people to share it, instead of 2, given that you gonna hav entrees and/or desserts too.

Prawns, mussels, bay bugs...etc!

Chardonnay risotto with mixed seafood, asparagus, baby onions & finished with champagne $28.00

KH orderd risotto as his main. I did not have a try but he finished the whole thing, so I guess that suggested something =)

Atlantic salmon fillet served with chive sauce $30.00

As for the Mouse, she had ordered salmon for her dinner. Except for some blackened bits at the edge of the salmon skin, Mouse was pretty much happy with her salmon. It was grilled just right and Mouse really liked the texture. The mash was just all right though - nothing too remarkable. But the tomato mix + olives + the puree + the salmon = happy Mouse.

Overall, the food is quite good and we are satisfied with it. Not anything wow or omg or highly recommended, but good enough. But we were not very happy with the service. Our waiter was pushy and kept trying to make us have wine when we obviously didn't want to. Same goes for garlic bread entree. When we just arrived, we would just love to have some plain water first while looking through the menu. However, he just keep coming back to ask whether we would like to order some wines and entrees to start off, while took ages to bring the plain water. Would've been better if he was recommending nicely instead of being all dictatorial! Oh, and as an extra note, it's 10% extra surcharge for weekends and public holidays. Boooo.

*EDIT: I forgot to mention that we went to this restaurant on a weekend n hence need to pay 10% more on all the food. The prices I stated above have not include the 10% as I just take the prices from their menu online. For example, the fish n chips,we actually need to pay $31.90, instead of $29 =(

- IronEaters

Fish Seafood Grill & Rotisserie
439 Docklands Dve,
Waterfront City,
Docklands, Victoria
Phone: (03) 9640 0686439

Eat Drink Bento

Hi all. Haven't been blogging for quite sometimes =( Sorry peeps, as a lot of things just suddenly came up (mostly good things *big smiles*) and I was just exhausted dealing with them. Also, thanks to Mouse for keeping this blog updated =D

Now, let me share with u this post =)

When Turtle came back to Melbourne for his graduation ceremony, around 1 month ago, we went to this not-so-traditional Japanese cafe near his apartment. This was my first time to try this restaurant. Mouse n Turtle been there b4 and thought that the food there was pretty ok. So, here I go, exploring this place.

The menu offer Japanese food as well as other Asian favourites such as "Peking duck" and "Homemade char siu pork". Me, MM and Mouse had each order their lunch bento set. The lunch bento box was each accompanied by rice/soba noodles, miso soup, house entree on mixed salad (which is tempura sushi + salads) and muffin.

Teriyaki chicken, $13.50

MM's bento box is here. As it has been quite long, MM didn't really remember the food hence she didn't have a lasting impression of the food. Of the top of her head, it was not good value for money. Food was only so-so at best.

Lemongrass chicken, $15.50

I ordered this one. The menu describes the dish as : wok-fried chicken fillet pieces in a fragrant lemongrass marinade. Besides, Mouse also recommended this as she had this the first time she came n felt it was quite good. One bite, two bites... and I was v disappointed with this. The lemongrass chicken was pretty much tasteless. There wasn't any lemongrass taste/smell and I felt like I was just eating wok-fried chicken without any flavourings/seasonings. Luckily, the tempura sushi along with the salads were OK and the muffin too.

Teriyaki Chicken, $13.50

Mouse's lunch. She opted for the zaru soba (ie cold noodle) instead of rice *the pink arrow* =D Mouse thinks the chicken is fine...not spectacular. Teriyaki sauce is quite all right but taste sort of like the bottled sauce. Actually in Mouse's opinion, the quality of the food has gone down. She remembers it as being quite good the previous times it was there...didn't know everything was tasteless all of a sudden.

CC had also ordered a bento box~ sukiyaki, $13.50~ but we didn't take the photo. Similar to my lemongrass chicken, her food was flavourless too and the sukiyaki beef was practically immersed in this watery broth. It just did not look appetising. Obviously she wasn't too delightful with her food and had ordered another side dish- soft shell crabs- to eat with her rice.

Monk’s treat (steamed wombok, mix of mushrooms and mock meat), $8.90

As Turtle was feeling a bit sick, hence he decided to order this~ something not as oily. I did try this and it was rather pleasing. Light and healthy.

Green tea latte, $3.20

Both Mouse and Turtle had also ordered this drink *sorry tt the pic is blur*. I had a sip n found that the green tea was over-powering and has this very powdery taste. I love to drink green tea, but I guess powdery green tea latte is definitely not my cup of tea! Mouse thinks the first few sips is fine but as she went along, it became more and more powdery and towards the end, she can see green tea powder chunks. Ah, not very impressive, is that?

Eat Drink Bento had a relax environment and the waitress were friendly and polite. Unfortunately, the food was very much below the par, esp the lunch bento sets. I would say that I would not go back again, unless I have to.

Busy-but-Happy San

Eat Drink Bento
115 Hardware St
Melbourne 3000
Ph:(03) 96421136

issus Cafe Bar

Last Friday, Mouse brought me to this place that she had been raving about ~ issus Cafe Bar ~ to try the brekky, especially their French toast. So, here we go around 11am to have our brunch.

yup, its one of the restaurants at this lane

Melbourne is fairly famous for its hidden, cozy cafes which are mostly in little lanes and I personally rather enjoy having meals/coffees at those hidden places.

cosy little place to have our brunch =)

To start off, Mouse had ordered Mint Hot Chocolate (part of Winter Special Menu) and I had Chai Latte.

Mint Hot Chocolate, $3.50 & Chai Latte, $3.50 as well

I like my Chai Latte. Its one of the better ones tt I had recently =) According to mouse, the mint hot chocolate is a winner - unlike most mint chocolates, the mint was fresh and minty, and does not taste syurpy. The hot chocolate left a really awesome aftertaste of chocolate with a whiff of fresh mint on the tastebuds. So, she said, even if they used mint syrup, that's some high quality mint syrup hence Mouse is very happy indeed. Too bad I can't tolerate mint flavour in coffees, ice-cream and cookies, thus, I can't comprehend how tasty was that =P

Nice little flower on top of my chai. I wonder how they made that...

Yeah, our mains here! Oooo, upon Mouse's recommendation, I ordered the French Toast with bacons & sausages and Mouse had Big Breakfast.

My French Toast with bacons & sausages, $10.90

Ahhh..*drool*

This breakky came with a bottle of maple syrup where u can pour AS MUCH SYRUP AS U LIKE on the french toast =D OOOoooOOOO I enjoyed this breakky man. Bacons...Eggs... sweet Maple Syrups...!! HAHA. I can't resist those as the bacons are crisp on the egde and the toasts are just scrumptious, esp with some maple syrup on them. Gosh, its almost sinful to have this as breakky as one can only c the combo as greasy, unhealthy, high-blood pressure, fat, too sweet, diabetes, calouries, cholesterol... etc! =D But I can't help myself. LOL. One thing was that the bread was a bit too thick and some of the bacons were burnt (I know some ppl really like those burnt parts but not me =) ). Other than tt, oooooooooo I like!

Mouse's Big Breakfast,$11.90

Bacons, sausages, eggs, mushrooms, tomatoes, toasts, hash browns

Mouse is generally quite happy with her Big Breakfast. It was plentiful and worth the money with lots and lots of food. The tomatoes were good and the mushrooms were herby and tasty (although it loses to Ludo's ). The sausages were meaty and nice and the accompanying thick toast with fried eggs rounded off everything nicely. Her only complaint would be that the bacon was 1/4 BURNT (Mouse doesn't eat charcoal-flavoured bacon) and the bread was cut a bit too thickly. Thinner slices would be better.

In brief, both of us just really contented with the food we had. The portion were rather big and we could not finish them (mainly the breads and other bits n pieces). Mouse said that the last time she went, the bread was thinner and hence v crispy and make the portion just nice. B4 I end this, just wanna say that sometimes I wonder yy oily,meaty,crispy food are not healthy. sigh. In regardless, I will definitely go back =)


San

issus Cafe Bar
8-10 Centre Place
Melbourne 3000 VIC
Phone: (03) 96638844

To share

Was browsing at Metroblogging Melbourne (credit to them and Zgeek ) and found out about Hungry Jack's 2-4-1 burger deal (there are a few other freebies information on that post but I'm only interested at HJ's. hehe.) So, whats the deal?

When u r at HJ, just say that u want a " 2-4-1 XXX burger" and you will have the 2nd burger for free. How good is that ? =D The story is that HJ ran a promotion a few years back and forgot to put an expiry date to the deal. Btw, there is no need for a voucher in order for this deal to be accepted. It was said that instead of making public announcement about the mistake (of not having an expiry date), HJ decided to just let the promotion run. The condition of the promotion is that it doesn't work in food courts or shopping centres but works at other Melbourne stores. Also, apparently it doesnt work with cheeseburgers but works with other burgers like whopper, double whopper, bacon deluxe, grilled chicken, aussie burger, whopper with cheese and baguettes.

A few places that was confirmed are:
Southern Cross station, RMIT, Swanston st, Russel st/Burke st, Chapel st/malvern rd, Hoddle st, Nepean hwy, Camberwell, Bulleen plaza, Kings way, Elgar rd/Burwood hwy, Whitehorse rd

I have also went to Zgeek's website to read some comments on this HJ's deal topic and have came across a few people that went to try this deal and it really worked for them.

Another thing that I came across from the forum is that you can walk into Mcdonald and tell them you haven't eaten for 3 days and they will give you a free cheeseburger without a question. It is said that this is their policy. I did not know about this b4 but I think its good to give back to the society esp to help the homeless and those really in need.

Back to HJ's deal. For those that wanna giv the deal a try, hope it works on you and enjoy the free burger =)

EDIT: Due to curiousity (with the hope tt I wont b embarrassed =P) , I went to HJ with skepticism, the one opposite RMIT, today to try out the deal and guess wat....? IT WORKED and I came home with 2 grilled chicken burgers for the price of 1 =) All I said was: Hi, can I have a "2-4-1" grilled chicken burger? and the staff,without saying anything, just shouted to the kitchen and said "2 grilled chicken burgers"! HeHe.

It also worked with the one at Bourke St. and i found out that for some burgers like whopper and double whoppers, u will need to add a bit more $$. eg to get a "2-4-1" whopper, u need to add 40 cents more while for double whoppers u need to add an extra of $1.55. but, still worth it I think.

San

Il Dolce Freddo

Durian + Mango, $4.00

Went to Freddo last weekend, around 5pm, when it had just reopened after closing for a period of time. We all have been missing it, esp MM and JK who have been talking and talking about going to Freddo! Thus here we are =D Altho we were all still quite full due to a late lunch at Nasi Lemak House, obviousy we not gonna let that stop us! lol.

Freddo has been very popular with its DURIAN ice-cream and since I LOVE durian so much, so durian ice-cream I gonna have + mango. But but but... this time the durian ice-cream not as tasty, the flavours wasn't strong enuff as compared to previously. Jk felt the same too=( What happens?! Hmmmm... ok, I hope this will only be a one-off thing as I always like the durian ice-cream there coz it's like a substitution for me for not able to have the fresh durians (in Malaysia).

Ample flavours to choose from

Fruit flavours

Still remember when Freddo just opened in 2002, it only has a few choices. But now it offers so many different flavours that your brain sometimes just dunno which one should u pick =)

Yea, the durian ice-cream is v popular! and the staff said they have another big tub to replace it =)

Mouse's Freddo's surprise + Macademia, $4.00

After we had satisfied our ice-cream cravings, it just feel so good (despite the durian was a bit dissapointing)! and oOOoo.... MM and I had also each taken away a small tub of ice-cream. Hehe.


Durian San

Il Dolce Freddo
116 Lygon Street,
Carlton
Phone: (03) 9639 3344

Laksa Me (# 2) for Lunch

This time for lunch, we don't have any particular place that we wanted to go and hence after having a "brainstorming" among the 3 of us, Laksa me it is since it is situated near from where we stay and MM has never been there. Me and Mouse have tried the food there once, (HERE is the first review) and I was pretty disappointed with the main attraction there ~ laksa (but entree & desserts were good). However, I have decided to give it a 2nd try as perhaps my first visit, I brought with myself too high expectations since Laksa Me got several glowing reviews from other food bloggers.

We arrived a little earlier (it opens at 12pm btw) and hence have walked into Laksa Me as soon as it opened. It didn't take too long and suddenly the whole restaurant was almost full! This place is quite popular, esp with the pppl working near it.

Here is Laksa Me with its floor, which has some chinese characters and sayings.

inside

We have ordered an entree to share:

Pandan Chicken,$7.00

Taking

Taken

Actually in the menu, this entree comes in 2 pcs, but we request it to come in 3 since there were 3 of us (I have read it in a review that we can request how many pcs of entree we would like to have). These pandan chicken are FRAGRANT and very flavourful! Really like this entree. Since there were only 3, so each of us can have only one =( Therefore, our complaint is its too small, almost only 1 bite to finish it off =P

OK, now its our main.

Mouse's noodle $11.90

Quite a bit of burnt noodles

Have sadly forgotten the name of the noodle and Mouse was dumb (Mouse herself wanna put this in) to misplace the receipt. This Thai-styled noodle is just delectable, with the just right amount of sauce and generous amount of well- marinated chicken. We were told that this is also in the laksa category. If I will go back again, I will order this dish =) The only thing is the noodle has quite some burnt bits and hence Mouse has to pick them all up (cos Mouse is anal like that).

MM's mum's laksa, $9.00

MM feels that the soup was OK, perhaps it could use a little more salt. She thought the noodle was over-cooked and was broken into pieces once she tried to pick them up with her chopsticks. Generally she didnt enjoy it and was very unhappy with the fact that there was nothing in the laksa except 2 small prawns n 2 (or 3) thin slices of char siu (roasted meat) while there was lots of (soggy) noodle. Besides, there is no tofu in sight too! *sigh* I personally also feel that besides the noodle, the ingredients (prawns n meats) accompanying it were pathetically too little. I had mum's laksa (here for my laksa's picture) as well when I first went and I definitely had more ingredients (prawn,tofu n meat) than MM's. Poor MM.

My Laksa Lemak (lemak means oily in Malay), $10.00

My laksa's broth was similar to MM, just that it was slightly thicker and was well seasoned. It was not bad and definitely had more stuff than MM's besides the noodles. There were TOFU, egg, fish ball, beans sprout and fish cakes. However, although I can taste there were lots of spices used in the laksa soup, still the unique laksa smell/taste does not come through. It just somehow miss some flavours of laksa. Having said all these, for I have tasted both Laksa Lemak and Mum's Laksa, I would say I prefer Laksa Lemak because the broth was slightly thicker.

After our mains, time for dessert:

Pulut Hitam (Black Glutinous Rice)

This time we ordered the cold version of pulut hitam. It was good and we enjoyed it.

STILL not thoroughly satisfied with the laksa. We love the entree and desserts but the mains just weren't oomph enough. Argh. Anyway, the coming up review will feature a laksa that I think is definitely more superior. :P

Laksa San

Laksa Me
Shop 1, Liverpool Street
Melbourne 3000
Phone: (03) 9639 9885