Visiting wine bars is my new favourite thing (I know – I’m severely behind the times) because regardless of which wine you choose, you’re winning and the food is equivalent to fine dining without the hefty price tag.
Banish all thoughts of McCain’s cheese and bacon pizza pockets (as satisfying as they can be) because Melbourne chef Guy Grossi has opened up a casual eatery called Pezzo, which specialises in pizza pockets that house ingredients decidedly more gourmet than homebrand cheese and bacon – think calamari, polpette (meatballs) and cotoletta (veal breaded cutlet).
A short menu makes me nervous because I’m afraid there won’t be a dish on it that will cater to all my intolerances, but I shouldn’t have worried at Little Andorra.
What I loved best about Camus was how nostalgic flavours of my childhood – from the chickpea pancake and the fried okra to the lime pickle – punctuated dishes in fresh and exciting ways that I hadn’t tasted before.
A few happy hour wines deep one Friday night, Beer Jenga Master, Gingko Leaf Girl and I hatched the idea to form a Fine Dining Club.
I first learned about Handsome Her when it made headlines for charging men an 18% surcharge to account for the gender pay gap, proceeds of which go to women’s services – a noble endeavour that I am 100% in favour of.
Nosh has a readymade ‘signature poke bowl’ menu, a DIY bowl option and nori tacos where corn tortillas are replaced by seaweed, a novel idea but for the fact that each taco costs $7.50, a hefty price considering seaweed isn’t nearly half as filling as a taco shell.
It’s a laidback vibe at Benny Burger. You get paper menus from the front counter and happily settle into pinball machine tables-cum-booths set against graffiti-splattered walls or two-seater tables if you’re not lucky enough to nab a booth.
Only upon my usual pre-meal menu stalking activities did I realise that there were entirely separate menus for fructose-intolerant people and vegans respectively at Maccaroni Osteria Italiana i.e. what is this heaven and why had I never heard of it?
One of my favourite things to eat that I can’t eat are pies, be they Four’N Twenty meat pies or apple pies of the McDonalds variety, hence why I jumped at the chance to try The Pie Shop, an offshoot of Matt Wilkinson’s Pope Joan.
Whatever Floats Your Bloat 