SHE loves airports. While they can be some of the most stressful places on earth, many of us end up spending considerable time trawling around them. Especially if you’re travelling internationally and have obeyed the instruction to arrive 2 – 3 hours prior to your flight. If it’s an early flight, you’ve probably forgone breakfast. So having checked in, it’s off to find something remotely satisfying amongst the food and beverage outlets. McDonalds, Hungry Jacks, ordinary coffee in a paper cup, ordinary focaccias that have been sitting in a glass display for hours…Ho hum.
And now, at last…what a wonderful surprise to find the very stylish Cafe Vue shining like a beacon in the newly revamped Melbourne International Airport terminal! Pass through security and customs, pick up your duty free and treat yourself to a great Melbourne cafe institution. When SHE visited a few weeks ago, SHE perched up at a lovely high table and watched the airport world go by. It was early-ish (around 8am) so breakfast was calling.
Crispy corn fritters with avocado purée. Yum. At $11 it’s far superior to the buffet breakfast offering in the main airport. Real food, cafe quality, cooked to order and beautifully presented. Coffee by 5 senses with organic milk in lovely crockery. Delicious.(Of course you can do takeaway coffee but SHE doesn’t do paper cups or coffee on the run – life’s too short to drink from cardboard!)
Bread is baked on the premises using organic flour. There’s sandwiches, pies, salads, cakes, pastries and biscuits made daily. Wonderful, fresh, appetising options. SHE loved the Plane Boxes: for those travelling on low cost airlines you can choose from a picnic style box that might include a sandwich, fruit and a macaroon (oh yumm!). Definitely more interesting (and much healthier) than the trolley offerings on board.
The licensed Cafe’s open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner (menus are available for alacarte dining). There’s a ‘Menu du Jour’ 2 courses for $35. Open 21 hours.
It’s definitely not your standard airport fare. And it’s sure to scare some people away with it’s upmarket cafe presentation. SHE thinks it’s the perfect way to while away time waiting, waiting, waiting… Very stylish, very Melbourne.
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SHE loves eating out – and eating at great restaurants is a real treat. Unfortunately it’s not always possible to enjoy a top notch restaurant without a hefty price tag. SHE was delighted to discover the Bar and Grill at Rockpool in Melbourne’s Crown Casino complex. More specifically – the Bar within the restaurant. Unlike the very grownup restaurant, bookings aren’t accepted in the Bar – the secret is arriving early. SHE was given a recommendation to arrive around 6pm, apparently this is the key to snapping up one of the 10 or so tables. And that advice was spot on. At a little after 6pm on a Friday night, SHE was amongst the first to arrive and be shown to a table.
SHE thinks Rockpool is the kind of place you could settle into very easily: comfortable leather chairs, muted lighting, excellent service every step of the way. Choosing a bar table doesn’t mean compromising on the service or indeed the menu. Order from the full restaurant menu or choose from the more compact bar menu; the choice is yours. No matter where you sit or dine here, no-one’s looking down their noses at you. On a Friday night after a long week, a burger and a few wines were definitely in order.
And what a burger it is: Wagyu beef with bacon, gruyere cheese, and zuni pickle; at $24 it was an absolute bargain. A side of crispy, moreish onion rings were the perfect accompaniment. SHE and her buddy enjoyed a very reasonably priced bottle of Pinot Grigio from King Valley in Victoria – surprisingly affordable and very easy to drink. SHE loved the helpful advice of our waiter Hamish – SHE overheard him offer the diners at the next table the option to choose different burgers (either the fish or wagyu and have them cut in half to share). A nice touch for a restaurant that easily commands $55+ for a fine piece of steak. And when our burgers arrived, the waiter suggested the best way to eat it was to cut it in half and pick it up with our hands. Permission to forget the knife and fork… priceless!
If you’re watching the dollars or want to impress someone with your inside knowledge, SHE thinks this is really one of Melbourne’s great options. And SHE thanks the talented Neil Perry, and the wonderful staff, for making Rockpool accessible to everyone – no matter what your budget.
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SHE’s been hosting some great mates and a few fabulous Kiwis (that’d be our New Zealand friends!) in Hobart this week. SHE’s found some really cool places to have a glass of wine, maybe a pizza, and of course a great recovery breakfast. Here’s the favourites from in and around Salamanca…
Grape Bar & Bottleshop: how very grown up to drink a glass of fine Tasmanian wine from a Riedel stemless wine glass. Now that’s stylish! Lovely snack items available to accompany that glass of wine.
The Squires Bounty: wander through Grape looking for the bathrooms and you’ll find yourself in the home of James Squire’s beers in Hobart. Lots of food options available here too. Nice place to sit perched on high bar stools people-watching over Salamanca Square.
Cargo Bar & Pizza Lounge: really great pizza and equally good people-watching at this groovy bar right next door to Grape.
Knopswoods Retreat : this pub is an institution amongst locals. Friday afternoon and the crowd spilled out over the footpath – no-one inside! A major find…Gillespie’s Alcoholic Ginger Beer on tap – oh yeah…that’s a very fine local drop!
And breakfast favourites…
Zum: great coffee, SHE loves the Italian beans with 2 beautifully soft poached eggs on a bed of spinach. Perfect recovery breakfast!
Smolt: more excellent coffee and breakfast offerings – weekends only for breakfast. The baked eggs are really good, there’s all things salmon and lots of locally sourced produce. Also great for lunch and dinner (7 days).
It goes without saying that if you’re planning a trip to Hobart do your best to include a Saturday – Salamanca Markets are famous – and rightly so! Local Tasmanian produce features strongly, handicrafts, clothing, beautiful wooden items…there really is something for everyone. Take that long deserved trip overseas and get amongst Hobart!
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SHE is off to Bali on our inaugural trip in just a few weeks – we’re all so excited! One of the important inclusions in any of our trips is a dinner each night – this is the meal SHE always struggles with when SHE’s travelling alone – and one of the many reasons why SHE decided to start our small group travel for women.
And it’s all about finding ‘the right’ restaurant for our group. Sometimes it will be a casual local restaurant on the beach with our feet in the sand; another night may find us slipping on our little black dresses and silver sandals and behaving like princesses for the evening! In keeping with the latter, SHE’s found one of the funkiest restaurants in Bali for a special dinner for the ladies to celebrate our final night in Seminyak. It’s called Sarong and according to local magazine Hello Bali it’s ‘Bali’s newest uubergroovy restaurant’.
Private Dining Room at Sarong
Chef Will Meyrick was the leading light at Jimmy Liks and Long Grain, two of Australia’s hottest bar/restaurants, and in Asia created Husk in Sofitel Bali, LOTUS in Hong Kong and sharpened his knives and his Thai skills in the five star boutique resort Karma Samui in Thailand. Recently he set the benchmark for modern Thai food at Blossom in Sentosa, Bali. Wow are we in for a treat!
And SHE knew we had it right when we received the email response to our reservation request. In the words of Wira at Sarong…
“Sarong offers cuisines from around Southeast Asia which is generally hot & spicy in nature. The cuisine may not suitable for the young and those sensitive to extreme spiciness.
Sarong strongly advise that we do not cater to children under the age of twelve (12). In the event the diners need to bring along young children, the management expects that parents ensure the children are seated at the table at all times during dinner and act in the manner where they shall not disturb other diners in the restaurant.”
Nicely put Sarong! Might this be a standard inclusion in replies from other wonderful restaurants regarding their expectations of their diners? Although we love kids, we don’t want them running around disrupting us when we’re enjoying a beautiful dinner. SHE thinks this is a polite yet firm way of making sure our restaurant experience will be everything we hope for. SHE’s really looking forward to this!
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SHE loves airports. While they can be some of the most stressful places on earth, many of us end up spending considerable time trawling around them. Especially if you’re travelling internationally and have obeyed the instruction to arrive 2 – 3 hours prior to your flight. If it’s an early flight, you’ve probably forgone breakfast. So having checked in, it’s off to find something remotely satisfying amongst the food and beverage outlets. McDonalds, Hungry Jacks, ordinary coffee in a paper cup, ordinary focaccias that have been sitting in a glass display for hours…Ho hum.
Crispy corn fritters with avocado purée. Yum. At $11 it’s far superior to the buffet breakfast offering in the main airport. Real food, cafe quality, cooked to order and beautifully presented. Coffee by 5 senses with organic milk in lovely crockery. Delicious.(Of course you can do takeaway coffee but SHE doesn’t do paper cups or coffee on the run – life’s too short to drink from cardboard!)
