Eating Melbourne

Your Thai My Thai

YourThai Rice & Noodle Bar
255 Swanston Street
Melbourne
Phone: 9663 8010

“Get over it, Dad!” That was my advice to the big S as we walked out the door of this great new restaurant. He said it looked suspiciously like a chain store. He’s got this thing about chains. “Who cares?” I said, “Chain or no chain, it's good!”

Yourthai is new, one of a growing number of Asian eateries at the mid to top end of Swanston Street, slap bang in the heart of the city. Its bright green doorway, sparkly surfaces and fresh smells gives it a modern and clean feel as soon as you walk through the door. It’s been filled with people—mostly young Asian students—every time we’ve walked past, just as it was tonight, so we decided to give it a try. After some arm twisting that is.

As soon as you walk in the door there’s this huge menu board full of coloured pictures of delicious food to make you mouth water, along with equally enticing pictures of the drinks you can order with your meal. This sold the place to me. They have over 18 different blended drinks, from the traditional mango smoothie to more unusual ones like avocado, coconut and jack fruit smoothies … hmmm, I think I’ll stick with the mango!

Besides these wacky and wonderful drinks, there is a lot to choose from in the food department. Being the wonderfully adventurous person that I am ... wink, wink ... I had Chicken Rice Paper Rolls. They were much better then I expected, but not the best I’ve had. Dad had Thai Prawn Fried Rice. It looked interesting but just a bit boring to me, but then that’s my Dad! Mum had the Green Curry Chicken Rice while little brother had Crispy Chicken Sticky Rice. All that with two smoothies and everyone was happy for a grand total of $38.

So, if you’re ever out and about on Swanston… this is a cheap and delicious option for dinner! Even if it does look a bit like McDonalds with chopsticks!

Not a bad burger!

81 Ormond Road, Elwood
Tuesday - Wednesday: 5pm - 9pm
Thursday - Sunday: 12pm - 9pm

Call it serendipity! After discovering the celebrated beachside fish-and-chippery was no longer (no thanks to you, you, or you for the hint!), we scooped up the beach towels and went in search of an alternative. A few wrong turns and we scored an empty car space outside Burgerepublic, a great little find in the Elwood village.

A small, well designed space with bright, clean colours, a big communal table at the centre, a long bar with stools looking out over the sidewalk and a handful of tables on the pavement. Cool music, friendly staff. Nice. So was the menu—simple and straightforward (Ali calls it ‘sexy’): a range of burgers in three categories—beef, chicken and vegetarian—and chips. No distractions!

After placing our order, we played table hopscotch. Starting outside on the pavement, A was too cold. Moving inside to the bar stools, S was squinting. We wound up at the communal table where we read magazines about celebrities. Turns out they’re all in rehab!

Anyway, back to the burgers. Nicely done. We both had the chilli burger: a good serve of grilled and juicy beef topped with salady stuff, mayo, chilli aioli and pickled jalapenos and served on a fresh, lightly toasted sourdough bun (sounds like an ad for maccas) ... excellent! Little brother had the ‘special’, an African adventure minus the avocado, while B had the lentil burger (the only downer: the coriander hadn’t been washed properly). There were others too: the bluecheese and bacon; the wasabi; the camembert and cranberry; the spicy moroccan. All sounded good. As for the bowl of thick chips we shared, they were some of the best we’ve had for a long time. Fresh, thick and crisp—nearing chip perfection we reckon. And all served on large white plates. A nice touch.

It turns out this Elwood burger joint is one of three—a micro-chain! But one that outdoes the big boys in spades. If you’re into burgers, this is a place worth visiting. If you’re not, well … maybe it’s still worth a try. You just might change your mind!

Stairway to dinner

Supper Inn
15 Celestial Avenue (off Little Bourke Street), Melbourne
Open 7 days, 5.30pm – 2.30am
9663 4759 (reservations recommended)
Licensed, BYO, corkage $2 per person
Entrees: $4 – $8
Mains: $10 – $15
All cards welcome

Ok, so this is not the fanciest eating house in Chinatown: a seedy laneway, a dingy staircase, a small cramped dining room filled with laminex tables, faux wood paneling on the walls with pink vertical blinds on the windows. But this place is a Melbourne institution, so we had to give it a try. Around since the mid 70s, the Supper Inn is renowned for providing some of the most consistently good, reasonably priced and authentic Cantonese fare available in Melbourne, and often when all the other places have shut down for the night. We were early diners and lucky to get a table as soon as we walked in. We watched as numerous punters were turned away at the door or, as we experienced on the way back down, cued on the rickety staircase waiting to get in.

Forks were not provided and little brother got to perfect his chopsticks technique. He said it felt like we were back in China. We eyed the prehistoric looking lobsters in the murky fish tanks and decided against seafood! Instead, we had the roasted duck rice noodle soup, the sliced beef Szechuan style (loaded with cashews) and an overflowing plate of fried rice with bean shoots. Oh, and we started off with a little bamboo steamer full of the most delicious dim sims. Between the four of us, this was more than enough food and made every tummy happy. Not the best Cantonese we’ve ever had, but good honest fare all the same. We stumbled back down the stairs $40 poorer but glad to have experienced the Supper Inn for ourselves. You gotta give it a try!

Small is good!

AIX Café and Creperie Salon
24 Centre Place, Melbourne
9662 2667
Monday to Friday: 6.00am to 5.00pm
Saturday: 8.00am to 4.00pm
Mains $4 - $7
Unlicensed
No bookings

The sign sounds French, the owners are Greek, and the reviews say it’s very ‘Melbourne’ … whatever it is, it sure is small!

AIX Café and Creperie Salon is an intimate, elbow-to-elbow little place. It’s one of the many holes-in-the-wall that line Centre Place, a shadowy, narrow, graffiti covered laneway--filled with as much atmosphere as people--that runs between Flinders Lane and Collins Street. It’s a great place to go after a leisurely stop at the wonderful City Library in Flinders Lane.

AIX has made it in to the Age Cheap Eats guide two years in a row now, and for good reason. It's just what you'd imagine finding in a hidden laneway in Paris. Though it is small, there’s a family-sized table tucked away in the back, and the wait staff always make you feel at home, especially the kids. Their genuine welcome says stay as long as you like! And the red walls and soft red lights make it a cosy place do just that.

The lunch menu is a mixture of crusty baguettes and foccacias stuffed full with fresh ingredients, and an impressive lists of teas! But the draw card, especially for the kids, is the list of delicious sweet and savory crepes. All $4 to $7, they’re filled with mouth watering combinations like:

hot salami, goats cheese, capsicum and olive tapenade;
Peking duck, cucumber, iceburg lettuce and plum sauce;
field mushrooms and tallegio cheese.

Or for the sweet tooth:

chocolate hazelnut and double cream;
lemon and sugar;
banana, ricotta and honey;
mixed berries and rosewater yoghurt.

The ambience is relaxed, the music is great, the coffee is good (Grinders) and the price is right. Go ahead … squeeze in!

York Surprise

York Café
338 Little Lonsdale Street, Melbourne
9642 2882
Open lunch and dinner Monday to Saturday
Mains $6 - $8
Take Away available
BYO with $1 corkage per person
Bookings and credit cards accepted

The proliferation of small Asian cafes in the CBD is boggling; wonderful but boggling. Where do you begin? How do you begin? Well, our approach is simple: start where you are, wander no further than you have to, and be open to surprises in unexpected places.

York Café is about at local as it gets for us. It’s a comfortable but unassuming little place, lots of contemporary dark wood furniture and stark white walls with the occasional Chinese pop-out paper art blessing you with good luck. It can feel a bit sterile to begin with, but the attentiveness and welcome of the service staff make up for it. Most importantly, kids are always treated well. It’s an out-of-the-way place, hardly ever crowded but there’s always a steady stream of customers, many of them regulars; it’s obvious from the way they’re greeted and make themselves at home.

York is in its second year now. The folks that run this place are originally from Hong Kong. While the specials board always includes good old Aussie-Chinese stalwarts like sweet and sour pork, this place is far from your typical suburban Chinese. The menu includes a great selection of noodle soups, rice dishes and some great vegetarian options. We especially liked the Hokkien fried noodles, the delicious boneless chicken curries, and the stir fried beef with chilli and garlic sauce. The vegies and other ingredients are fresh, the serving sizes are large and our family of four does well with two to three mains between us. Around $30 does the trick. This is not top-flight stuff, but the people at York care about what they do and it shows. We’ll be back.

Mekong Rocks!

Pho Bo Ga Mekong
241 Swanston Street, Melbourne
9663 3288
Open 7 days a week, 9am - 10pm
Mains $6.50 - $8.00
BYO, corkage $1 per person
No bookings and no cards: cash only

What Bill Clinton has to do with good pho is anyone’s guess. But the sign on the door says he ate two bowls of the stuff. After frequent visits to this place, we can only conclude he’s a man of good taste, and a big appetite!

There is no doubt about it. Pho Bo Ga Mekong, a traditional and family-run Vietnamese restaurant slap bang in the middle of the CBD, serves one of the best value meals around. Situated on the busy Swanston Street strip between Little Bourke and Lonsdale, this simple shop front is anything but glamorous. Obviously the inner-city stylists are yet to drop by. Laminated posters of family prints are stuck with blu-tac, slightly skewed, on the walls. A TV mounted from the ceiling runs continuously with Chinese language programs; muted, thank heavens! (For us, good food and bad TV just don't belong together.) The place is basically furnished, scruffy lino on the floors and too many laminex tables squeezed in with barely an inch to spare, but it's always full. Mekong's been here for ten years now. And judging from the crowds, its take on simple Vietnamese fare is not about to change.

As soon as you sit down a thermos of hot tea is whisked to your table and before you know where you are the waiter is standing there ready to take your order. We have to admit, the folks here are not memorable for their friendliness or patience, but the service is certainly prompt. The menu is simple and straightforward: one side of the laminated card is in English and the other Vietnamese. We can’t say much about many of the items listed, ‘cause we always get the same thing. We begin with the rice paper rolls and sometimes, if we're feeling especially rich, the spring rolls, but the main event is what this place is known for. It’s the pho, a traditional Vietnamese soup with rice noodles, herbs and whatever meat or fish you choose. We almost always order the chicken breast. Along with the soup comes plate loads of fresh Vietnamese basil, chillies, lemon and bean shoots. Toss it all together and slurp away. It’s a feast: always fresh and uncomplicated tastes. The pho comes in three sizes, but the smallest bowl for just $6.50 is ample. And you leave feeling full, satisfied, but never stuffed!

You’d think a simple thing like pho would be hard to get wrong, but not so. We’ve had our fair share of tasteless variations. What Mekong does, it does well. And our family of four has never left spending anything more than around $26. We love it, and so does Bill. So how could you go wrong?