Cumulus Up

I had a classic Melbourne night out last night with Meat-and-Three-Veg.  We went along to a Comedy Festival show (David O'Doherty) for some belly laughs and then wandered up Flinders lane to Cumulus Inc.  But instead of heading to the iconic basement restaurant we went up the stairs to the right to the newly opened Cumulus Up.

Upstairs at Cumulus Up - it feels like it has always been there

Melbourne's newest openings: Circa Yaktiroi Bar, Rosa's Kitchen and Etto

Melbourne is hard to keep up with sometimes.  There's always new restaurants opening and closing and there has been a rash of them lately.  I've been invited along to a few of the newest places and have also gone under my own steam to check some out.  So here's my take on three of them: the pop up yakitori bar at Circa, Rosa's Kitchen and Etto.

Carbonara pasta at Etto 

Huxtaburger opens in the city

I didn't ever think I would miss the feeling of being hungover.  That queasy sensation and the pounding headache is no fun at all but it does give you a great excuse for a burger, fries and a coke.  My current state of non-hungover existence meant I had no good reason to rush into Huxtaburger as soon as it opened its doors in the city. But it's testament to Huxtaburger's burgers that I did.  They are still brilliant even when you are fresh as a daisy.

Huxtaburger has opened in the CBD

Melbourne's best ice-cream

It's a little known fact that I once worked in an ice-cream shop for all of about three hours.  That's as long as I lasted in what was back breaking work bending over the ice-cream tubs and using every arm muscle I had to scoop out the ice-cream.  So lets just say respect for people who work in ice-cream stores.  As for those who actually make the ice-cream, my adventures in ice-cream making at home have already taught me there's a high level of skill that goes into it.

Happy Palace

Chinese food was very exotic when I was growing up in the 1980's.  It was all about the prawn crackers, lemon chicken and beef with black bean sauce.  So I felt a touch nostalgic wandering up the stairs to Happy Palace on Bourke street for the restaurant's launch.  Serial restauranter Jerome Borazio has taken over this old school Chinese restaurant with its chintzy red and gold wall hangings.  He's added a bar, a balcony and some live scorpions (yes really) but otherwise left the decor pretty much in a 1980's time warp.

The drug mules death row at Happy Palace

Trocadero

I'm going to start at the end when I'm writing about Trocadero.  I know it's a little backwards of me but the desserts are really so brilliant at this new brasserie style restaurant that they deserve top billing.  Whatever you do make sure you don't over order and run out of room or run out of time for dessert as it is so good it should be compulsory at Trocadero.

Chocolate pudding with milk toffee ice-cream at Trocadero

Three best places for Vietnamese street food in Melbourne

The sort of food you buy on the side of the street in Vietnam and eat sitting perched on tiny plastic stools is pretty popular in Melbourne right now.  I'm not talking about your traditional Vietnamese restaurants along Victoria street in Richmond or out in little Saigon in Footscray, but instead the new wave of stylishly decked out no bookings places where people queue out the door for rice paper rolls or a soft shell crab salad.  They're a modern take on hawker style food and it seems like Melbourne can't get enough of them.  Here are my tips for the best places to go:

Hutong Dumpling Bar

It's all about the dumpling at Hutong Dumpling Bar.  Walk in the door and through a glass window you can spy the chefs forming rows and rows of perfectly pleated dumplings.  It's impossible not to order some of these little beauties and any fanaticism about dumplings all becomes clear when you try Hu Tong's xia long bao (XLB for short).  The gossamer thin wrappers ooze hot soup when you bite into them ($11.80).

Mamak

I've managed to make a few trips to Sydney this year but during my time in the Harbour city I never actually made it to Mamak.  This acclaimed Malaysian restaurant has queues out the door and down the street most nights in Sydney so after failing to get there several times I was pretty excited to hear Mamak had come to Melbourne.  Problem solved.  I wasn't the only person to think this obviously though as word of mouth spread so the queues in Melbourne for Mamak look just as long.  It's not all bad though, the queues moved quickly on my visit and what's more you also get to watch the theatre of the restaurant's roti being rolled and twirled in the open kitchen which faces onto the street.

Roti action in the open kitchen at the front of Mamak

Senoritas

Get your ghoul on as today is Day of the Dead.  This Mexican holiday is the perfect excuse to check out one of Melbourne's current rash of restaurants and bars serving tacos and tequila.  A whole festival has been set up for "Dia de Muertos" with events running culminating in a fiesta at Senoritas on Sunday 4 November.

The setting at Senoritas is pretty spot on for Day of the Dead

Brooks of Melbourne

Ignoring the increasingly casual dining scene in Melbourne and the city's penchant for no bookings Nicholas Poelaert has opened a proper, old school restaurant complete with white linen tablecloths.  Brooks is located in the heart of the city in the glamorous basement restaurant which once housed Greg Malouf's MoMo and Jamie Oliver's Fifteen.  

Chicken parfait at Brooks

Arts Centre Melbourne

The thing about art centres in general, including Arts Centre Melbourne, is that food and drink is not their main thing.  So the best you really hope for  is something not ridiculously expensive that might take the form of a box of Maltesers or an ice-cream.

Pressed watermelon and duck prosciutto at Arts Centre Melbourne

Virginia Plain

It's funny how your experience paying the bill can make such a difference at a restaurant. I've been to Virginia Plains, the latest restaurant to open in Melbourne's Flinders Lane dining hot spot, twice now.  I came away with a bit of a different take on the place both times mainly because on my first visit to celebrate the launch of the new website and TV show Love To Share, the kind people at Love To Share shouted the bill (check out the show on Saturdays if you haven't already), while on my second visit with a group of my girlfriends I paid for myself.

Scallops and black pudding at Virginia Plain

Battle of the Bao: Wonderbao v Bao Now

Melbourne is going barmy over baos with the opening of not one, but two restaurants entirely devoted to bao.  Previously I've only eaten these fluffy puffs of goodness as part of a meal at a Chinese restaurant but apparently the buns have reached such cult status that they can support two stand alone stores.  I blame David Chang and Momofuku.

Wonderbao's tofu bao

Shark Fin Inn

It was the morning after my friend Clare's wedding and I was feeling very hungover.  There was only one thing for it - yum cha.  Unlimited dumplings and a bottomless cup of green tea has to be the best hangover cure out there.

Yum cha at Shark Fin Inn

Purple Peanuts

One of my regular city lunch spots is Purple Peanuts at the bottom end of Collins street.  The food is great plus it's cheap.  The cafe is a little bit quirky with the menus handwritten on pieces of brown paper hanging from the wall and a collection of Japanese toys and lollies.

Miso soup at Purple Peanuts

Mamasita

I've got a hot tip for you.  It's how to get a table at impossibly hard to get into restaurant of the moment, Mamasita.  You may have wandered past Melbourne's most popular Mexican restaurant and seen the queues snaking down the stairs and out the door on most nights of the week but don't be deterred.  The trick is to (a) eat there at lunch or (b) secure eight to ten of your nearest and dearest friends and book the banquet table.

The famous Mamasita corn - is this Melbourne's best Mexican? 

The Press Club

Almost the last person I expected to bump into at The Press Club was George Calombaris.  I'm a little bit cynical about celebrity chefs especially if they have multiple restaurants and presumed Calombaris would not be spending his Saturday night working the pass at The Press Club.  But as I was waiting for my table (more on that later) it was Calombaris himself who tapped me on the back and said "Please tell me someone is looking after you".  He really worked the room, chatting to all the diners and happily posing for photos with people as well as putting in time in the kitchen.

Sword fish at The Press Club

Izakaya Den

It's a little embarassing to admit that it took me ages to find Izakaya Den. Hey, I was overseas when it opened and I missed all the hype (and directions).  I knew generally where it was but MTV and I kept on walking past the discreet door which leads down a set of stairs to the basement restaurant. Of course once I made it down there I discovered the place was packed with hordes of people and there was a queue for a table, clearly everyone else had managed to find their way there pretty easily.

Pork belly 

Silo by Joost

At  Silo by Joost you drink your coffee out of an upcycled plant pot and there are no bins to throw your leftovers in.  It's the first permanent cafe from Joost Bakker who wowed both Sydney and Melbourne with his Greenhouse by Joost at the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival.

Parsnip soup with caramelised onions