With a pig as their logo that was either drawn by a kid in kindergarten or a maestro, what more incentive could you want to try this place?

What did we eat?

Note: this is where I disgrace myself by not remembering the proper Spanish names of the dishes and use proper grammatical English words like ‘thingy‘.

Anchovy & watermelon sorbet	Oysters
Potato-tomato-cheese sauce thingy	Beef cheek in cauliflower puree
Not enough thinly sliced wagyu	Paella

> More photos & dishes available on our Flickr stream

What I liked:

The location is great, it feels kind of secluded until you get the after-work corporates rocking up after 5pm making a ruckus (me included).

What I didn’t like:

If I remember correctly, master chef George Colombaris tells me that paella should have a crust and that one which doesn’t has failed. By that standard, I would say the MoVida one failed as I could’ve cooked a better crust using my crappy $30 Breville rice cooker.

Top tip:

Book ahead, even on a  weekday. Otherwise go early or just sit out on their terraza and enjoy.

Rating:

6.5/10 – whilst the food was good overall, can’t say I was particularly wowed by their dishes.

On a completely separate note – can you believe this if the first post for 2010?!?! Happy extremely belated new year peeps!

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MoVida Aqui
Level 1, 500 Bourke Street
Melbourne, VIC
Phone: +61 3 9818 3141
Operating hours: Mon-Fri: 12 noon until late. Saturday: 5pm until late
Web: http://www.movida.com.au/

…is just as much fun for food lovers as lego land is for the under 12yo and midgets. I came across this place in LA and I’m still waiting for an infestation of these to arrive in Australia and then die off – just like the bubble cup/lucky cup/bubble tea/bubble-lucky-wah-no.1-so-good-888 milk chains.

The concept is pretty simple:

1. Self-serve yoghurt machines where you can mix and match your favourite flavours – though they have some really weird ones including rootbeer float as a flavour
2. Add the toppings that you want – this includes cheesecake pieces!
3. Pay at the counter based on the weight of the cup

I think it’ll be a hit! Just need the competition to start and I’m sure we’ll be getting plenty of yoghurt worlds/yoghurt empires/yoghurt dynasties in no time!

Quick rating: 7/10. Another chain that will provide a great way for international students to get an under paid job and provide crappy service!

W: http://www.yogurt-land.com/

I don’t normally eat breakfast simply because it impinges on my sleep time. In fact, to save time every morning, I generally don’t brush my hair or put make up on either and tend to grunt instead of saying good morning.

I have improved though – as a kid, I used to sleep in my school uniform so that I wouldn’t have to wake up and get changed (I still think it’s a brilliant idea).

Just because I don’t eat breakfast, doesn’t mean I don’t like it though. In particular, I had a pretty damn good one today at Cafe Vamp (and I even got to see the judge of ‘Thank God You’re Here‘ which is probably one of the biggest celebrity encounter I’ve ever had).

Atlantic Breakfast – smoked salmon, poached eggs, buttered spinach on toast.

Pan-fried Mushies – grilled haloumi and lemon, mushrooms scrambled eggs & rocket.

Quick rating – 8/10. Great size, variety, quality and service. Go get yourself some!

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Cafe Vamp
727 Genferrie Road
Hawthorn, VIC
Phone: +61 3 9818 3141

The past few Fridays in a row, I’ve been steadily (and happily) losing my brain cells drinking at Nihonshu.

This place has recently become my favourite bar because:

• Great drinks at reasonable prices (a must try is the Yuzu – a drink that tastes like a mix of mandarin juice and lemon gelati but is still alcoholic)
• Friendly staff
• Sit down at the bar style drinking
• No ‘doof doof’ music
• Not a big place – so I don’t feel like I should be hanging there with all my facebook friends
• Good japanese food (they are part of Izakaya Chuuji)

By the way, I’ve decided to make this my belated ‘May Restaurant (ahem…Bar) of the month’. Previous winners can be found in my older posts.

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Nihonshu Shochu & Sake Bar
163 Lonsdale Street
Melbourne
Phone: +61 3 9663 8118
Operating hours: Mon-Fri 6pm – 1am, Sat 8pm – 1am
Web: http://www.nihonshu.com.au/

…makes me want to stab myself in the eye with a fork. Actually I think that applies to all their drinks as well.

I actually shuddered when I took a bite out of this ‘lemon zesty slice’…

I even blurred the photo to try and make it a distant memory, but I guess there’s no point in polishing turds right?

A few months back, I did a post on Hu Tong Dumpling Bar and titled it ‘KTang’s restaurant of the month.’ That was in February which means I’m missing restaurants for March – July. But don’t worry, I’ll eventually catch up once I get out of my current eater’s block, but here are the belated restaurants of the month for March & April that are Sydney inspired…

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Ding Tai Fung
World Square Shopping Centre
644 George St
Sydney
Phone: +61 2 9264 6010
Web: http://www.dintaifung.com.tw/en/index.asp

Makoto Sushi Bar
119 Liverpool Street (Cnr, Pitt & Liverpool St.)
Sydney
Phone: +61 2 9283 6767
Web: http://www.masuya.com.au/en/makoto/

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What did we eat?

Ding Tai Fung: Xiao long bao. Yep this is another xiao long bao place, but it’s bloody good, so go get yourself 20 steamers.

Makoto: Various sushi from the sushi train.

What I liked:

Ding Tai Fung: The pastry is the so delicate yet it doesn’t break and you don’t have to be too gentle. Kinda like what a good boyfriend should be. Too bad boyfriends don’t have succulent pork fat soup on the inside.

Makoto: All the sushi is made on the spot like it should be! This means that the rice is still warm and the fish is cold. The staff are really friendly and the grilled salmon sushi…let’s just say if I saw an starving old crippled lady with a plate, I would steal it from her without hesitation.

What I didn’t like:

Ding Tai Fung: You will have to wait quite a while to get a seat because they’re that popular and they don’t take bookings.

They also have whacked operating hours:
Mon-Sun: 11.30 till 2.30 and then 5.30-10pm
Public holidays and weekends, they are open for an extra 30 mins later.

Makoto: …I can’t think of anything…

Top tip:

Ding Tai Fung: Wear comfortable shoes because you’ll be standing in line for quite a while. Also, don’t bother with Ding Tai Fung in HK or ShenZhen (China), Sydney is of a much higher standard.

Makoto: Get there early before they open. They have a sheet at the front of the door where you can write down the number of people you have, where you want to sit and you then take a number that they call out when they open.

Rating:

Ding Tai Fung: 9/10. I would be happy to come back as a pig in my next life to be in one of those xiao long baos.

Makoto: 10/10. Oiiishiiiiiii.

I’ve been going to Ten Ren Tea House for a while now purely for 1 reason – they have the best pearl milk tea I’ve tasted in Melbourne. The milk tea is made with proper black tea and blended with ice and milk powder (probably that melamine kidney-stone causing stuff, but hey it tastes good) and they generally have fresh pearls which are soft and sweet.

However each time I go there, I will without fail have a ‘what the f***’ moment. I believe the management at Ten Ren have a special skill – hiring  retards. In fact, make that hiring retarded retards.

Now as an Asian, customer service is not very high on my list of things that I look for in a good restaurant. In fact, I could probably count the number of Chinese restaurants with good service and good food on one hand. Most of the places with good food tend to be run by some angry middle aged woman and a grandma chef who doesn’t speak English – I can handle that. Ten Ren however, seem to have the following recruitment and operating policies:

• 3 girls who have been in Australia for less than 1 week to operate 1 POS at all times. 
• 1 angry girl to make all the drinks in the store
• No English speaking staff, in fact, limited language skills are better – simple utterances of eh? oh… mmm, ahh will suffice
• 1 minute wait while the 3 girls at the POS confer and finally decide that the reason you’re standing in front of them is to place an order
• Minimum wait time of 5 minutes while ordering so that each girl at the POS can push all the possible buttons in an attempt to put through your drink as an order. After 5 minutes, they ask the angry drink girl for help and group together in fear that she will stab them to death with her bubble cup straws.

So my fellow readers, I am torn. Great product, absolutely disgraceful and ridiculous customer service…would you go back?

Btw, they increased the price of pearl milk tea to $4.00. Come on now, seriously…I could have 2 double cheeseburgers from Macca’s for $4! As if $3.50 wasn’t expensive enough for a drink that will be the cause of my diabetes in the future.

 

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Ten Ren Tea House
146 Swanston Street
Melbourne
Phone: 9654 3268