Will you have my hand and my heart, Mister Close?

I've probably walked past this place at least 4 times a week on the way to the gym for a whole year, but I've never noticed it till I was practically rammed into the sign by crazy boxing day shoppers outside Dick Smith. Headed over with Jovial and her mom last week but I didn't have my camera, and with Christina and Bella a few days ago.

Mister Close. 
246 Bourke St, Midtown Plaza Melbourne, VIC 03 9654 7778
Mon - Tues, 7am - 4pm, Wed - Fri, 7am - 6pm, Sat 9am - 4pm
http://misterclose.com.au/

You can't exactly see the café from Swanston street; you'd have to look inside Midtown Plaza and spot who/what I'm assuming is Mister Close (right). It's extremely convenient that there are the main banks' ATMs right outside, because they have a minimum of $10 on Eftpos.

Look at that cold drip! With the beakers and all, it's like some mad Scientist's experiment, which, now that I think of it, is probably how cold drips came about in the first place.

Christina, Bella and I were served by this guy (I forgot to ask for his name, damn), who had the cutest shy demeanor ever. I think Bella must've really fazed him or something. He was really friendly though, and very helpful with the menu.

What I really like about Mister Close is that their menu changes everyday, and it's also updated daily on their website. Most of their menu items are displayed upfront, so you can have a good look at what's available before taking a seat. It's a little sad that their breakfast menu is only till 11am on weekdays though, their American waffles sound absolutely divine! 

Pot of chai latté, $4.

I'm pretty impressed that they use real chai leaves instead of the powdered stuff that. $4 for such a big pot of real chai is a bargain, really. I don't like chai much, but Jovial did say this is among the better chais she's had.

Gluten-free cookie (I've forgotten what it's called), $3.

Jovial is in love with this gluten-free cookie of theirs It's got a notes of maple syrup to it; and the cookie itself just melts in your mouth. I've heard that their muffins are really good as well, both sweet and savoury are available.

Grilled pumpkin sandwich with blue cheese, caramelized onions and rocket with garden salad, $12 
(ordered this was when I was there with Jovial and her mom). 

Yeah, me and pumpkin. The sandwich was slightly bigger than I expected, and with the amount of pumpkin I was given, I was pretty filled up by the time I finished it. I was a little annoyed that I discovered that I could choose my salad but I wasn't asked when I ordered.

Mexican Chicken Burger with guacamole salsa and sour cream, $16

Christina's dish was my first choice originally, but I typically ordered something else when she ordered this. I did get half of the burger though - the portion was relatively big; probably enough to unexpectedly fill up even a guy's stomach. It's not your typical burger; it was served in what I think is a Turkish pide instead of a burger bun. The chicken patty itself was tasty and juicy.

Butter Chicken with steamed rice*, $16.50

*I had the rice switched out for flatbread instead. At first I was slightly disappointed to be given only 3 pieces, but after finishing the dish I realized that if I had any more, I'd explode. The butter chicken was pretty good too; not your authentic Indian butter chicken, of course, but it was tasty nonetheless. I love how the chicken was juicy, not to mention and abundance of both chicken and curry (gravy? sauce?) in that one bowl. 

Meet Bella, who practically lives at the gym cause she's almost always there, and Christina, who works with me at V-Café at the gym and goes to PlanetShakers as well. 

"So long as you have food in your mouth, you have solved all questions for the time being" - Franz Kafka. 

You wise, wise man, you.

Overall, I really liked the look and feel of Mister Close. The fact that it's just a stone's throw away from where I stay and the gym (sometimes they're the same thing, really) and most aspects of the place have impressed me will probably keep me coming back.

Food: 7.5 - 8 

Coffee: N/A (for me)

Ambience: 8

Value: 7 

Staff: 8 (would've been a 9 if the salad incident didn't happen, oh well)

I'm starting a new workout/diet program today - The Bizzy Diet by Cory Gregory. It's a 21 day intensive shredding program and it follows an extremely strict diet routine and workout program. That means, for 3 weeks, I wouldn't be going to any new cafés. :( No fret though; I do have a couple of places I've yet to blog about, so I'll work on those. Wish me luck, God knows my weakness is my cravings, or rather any kinda food put in front of my face.

may.

Manchester Press has a new menu!

I've been here 3 times in the past 2 weeks, and dozens of times in the past year and a half. Strangely enough, I've never properly blogged about the place.

Manchester Press
8 Rankins Lane, Melbourne VIC
03 9600 4054
Mon - Fri, 7am - 5pm, Sat - Sun, 9am - 5pm
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Manchester-Press/171807409566156

I was really excited to see a the new menu! The old, plastic boards with the embossed stickers, yeap, long gone. Let me start by pointing out what's new, or what's been changed as far as I remember.

For one thing, this is their weekend menu; I did go 2 other times on weekdays when they had their (new) weekday menu, but I've lost the photos on that memory card :(

What's Really New

1. Breakfast: Cereal of the week
2. Bagels: Grilled Blue Cheese with grapes, roquette and walnuts
3. Bagels: 12 hour Roasted Pulled Pork with lettuce, BBQ sauce and homemade apple slaw
4. Salads: Beetroot and Chickpea with mixed leaves, cherry tomatoes, red onion and fetta

What's Changed
1. Breakfast: Raisin bagel now comes with Pineapple and apricot jam instead of blueberry passionfruit jam.
2. Bagels: Thick sliced Pastrami now comes with tomato, sauerkraut, swiss cheese and thousand island instead of dill cream cheese and roquette.
3. B.L.A.T is now topped with cranberry and plum relish instead of homemade basil mayo.

What's Gone
I can't be too sure what's not there anymore, but I do know for a fact that their Baked Eggs aren't on the weekend menu, but is still available on their weekday menu. Also, either their Hungarian Salami or Chorizo bagel has been omitted - I'll go back and check again (or does any reader out there know? Leave a comment!).

I went with Demie and Maxine on a Sunday mid-morning, and I was surprised that at 10.30am, there wasn't a line or a waiting list. The crowd was slowly building up outside as we were leaving though.

Flat white, $3.50

Manchester Press' latte art is pretty different, I must say. Demie got her coffee and immediately wailed 'WHY IS HE GRUMPYYYYY??????'

Maybe because you were late and made us all wait, little one. Just maybe.

Soy latté, $4. 

Such a beautiful rosetta made on a soy latté, really. 

Cappuccino, $3.50. 

I have a feeling the baristas observe the customers who order the coffee and try to make the latté art faces look like them, because Max's latte art lady looked pretty familiar.....

Now I really love these two to bits; for one, they ordered different items, and for another, they both ordered the new/altered items on the menu! 

Thick sliced Pastrami with tomato, sauerkraut, swiss cheese and thousand island, $13

Demie's dish looked pretty magnificent: the approximately 1cm thick pastrami just kept me gawking and wishing that I ordered that instead! I tried a small portion, and the pastrami was really good. The taste of the swiss cheese and thousand island didn't come through very well though. I was just really impressed by the portion and quality of the pastrami.

Grilled Blue Cheese with grapes, roquette and walnuts, $13

I liked it when I tried a bit a few days prior with my new housemate, Nicole. Grapes and blue cheese is a definite combination you should try. I didn't really like the amount of roquette on top though that's a personal preference, and the bagel itself was a little more chewy than crunchy that day. That aside, the bagel was surprisingly extremely filling, even for me.

12 hour Roasted Pulled Pork with lettuce, BBQ sauce and homemade apple slaw, $14.

I've had this twice now, and Max ordered this that day. This dish gives you plenty of bang for the buck; what you see in the photo is probably 3/5s of the portion of pulled pork given to you. You barely have to think about chewing the pork as it was, shall I say, pulled very well. It actually shadowed the apple slaw too. This bagel probably ousted the fruit and nut bagel as my favourite thing to order at Manchester Press! I kid you not. 

I'm usually told that Manchester Press is overrated and I used to agree, but really, I think it's because people are bored of the old menu. Give their new stuff a try, really!

Food: 8 (this includes the other things I've tried there)

Coffee: 7.5

Ambience: 6.5

Value: 8

Staff: 6 - 7 (they're pretty hot and cold, really. Some are pretty great but some treated me like I was annoying)

do you guys think i should give my blog layout a makeover?
may.

Fandango with fellow brunchies Jovial and Jia Yin!

It was either slaving another week or so trying to work out Adventures of Tour Guide May Part 2 (Part 1 here) or an hour writing about this gorgeous café I tried yesterday. I opted for the latter; I like blogging about a café while it's still fresh in my memory.

Fandango
97 Errol Street, North Melbourne VIC
03 9329 0693
Mon - Sat, 7am - 3pm, Sun, 9am - 2pm
http://www.fandangocafe.com.au/

The lazy in me would usually take a tram (tram 57, stop 11) but I've recently discovered that walking to (or from) brunch makes you feel a lot better about yourself, especially when you know you are about to (or have had) a deliciously sinful one like the one I did at Fandango.

That, and because Jovial would never not walk unless it takes more than 30 minutes.

The two of them have been here before and they insisted on sitting in the courtyard at the back; it had a real old school, rustic feel to it on top of it was a beautiful day out. The pictures did the weather no justice at all.

We ordered three dishes and shared it all among the three of us. I absolutely LOVE it when people do things that way. It's nice to have your own full portion of a dish sometimes, but I'd rather try a little bit of a few things than a lot of one thing!

Curried Eggs - Indian spiced chicpeas topped with two fried eggs, spicy aubergine pickle, minted yoghurt cheese and warm roti, $17.

I haven't had anything curry in a long time, but this one tasted really good, almost authentic even. I've developed a preference for crunchy roti and that's exactly what I got. As it is with most curries, it was a massive burst of flavour. And yes, I did eat the yolk! In my opinion, a little on the pricey side for a vegetarian dish (though most Indian restaurants would charge about that much for a serving that size).

Pancakes - 3 thick serve pancakes with fruit compote, strawberries, honeyed cream cheese and maple syrup, $15.

Both of them raved about the pancakes, and so did Jeremy, who couldn't make it that morning, before I got to try it; and I was very, very curious. However, we were left a little disappointed because the pancakes were a lot heavier than the last few times they've been there. The taste was good; the honeyed cream cheese was something different too.

Pesto Scrambled Eggs - soft scrambled eggs flavoured with basil, pine nuts, garlic and parmesean (basically, pesto), with a grilled tomato on toasted sourdough - $16, add mushroom +$3

To me, this one was the dish that really got to me. The pesto that flavoured the scrambled eggs was made well - not too salty and parmesean-y, not too much basil, and not too much olive oil. The sourdough was AMAZING - unbelievable crunchy on the outside and fluffy on the inside - it had the likeness of sourdough that was freshly baked. The mushrooms were well fried as well - buttery and garlicky. 

According to their menu, they've 'got a great love for pickling and bottling fruits, veggies, sauces and preserves'. The items come and go and some are available for you to have with your meal for about $3 a portion, or in jars to buy and take home.

Hey, at least you know their pickled items are homemade.

Cutie patootie tea cosy! I think you'll get it if you order tea but we didn't that morning. At first i didn't see the letter 'F', and I was thinking to myself, 'ANOANCO?? What is that??''. I'm really quite blind.

So happy that I've found fellow brunch addicts/enthusiasts/mayniacs (haha see what I did there), and that we click like bread, peanut butter and jam!

I really liked the comfort I get at Fandango's. Upon reading other blogposts, I'm not the only one who feels that way. The staff and the place makes you feel right at home, and the food there really hits the spot.

Food: 7.5 (better luck next time with those pancakes!) 

Coffee: N/A

Ambience: 8

Value: 7

Staff: 8

How do you guys like the new blogroll on my sidebar? They're the blogs I read from time to time; most of them are foodies, some are healthy recipe/fitness blogs, and others are my friends' blogs! Check em out and if there are any ads, do them a favour and click away!

when violet eyes get brighter
and heavy wings grow lighter
i'll taste the sky and feel alive again,
may.

Two couples, One breakfast at Two Birds One Stone.

If there's anything I'm wary about with cafés, it's an overhyped one. There was such a massive response to this café that it made me curious, yet uncertain about going there. 

Two Birds One Stone

12 Claremont St, South Yarra VIC

03 9827 1228
http://twobirdsonestonecafe.com.au/
Mon - Fri, 7am - 4pm, Sat - Sun, 8am - 4pm
[ train to South Yarra Station ]

It was a chilly morning in comparison to what we've been experienced over the week. When we got there at early 9am, it was already relatively full with the exception of the tables outside and we were put on a waiting list. At 9am!! Wow.

Demie and Billy were a little late, and Jason and I were seated about 15 minutes before they came. We got a couple of dirty looks from other customers who had their whole group ready to eat, and even from one of the waitresses handling the waiting list.

In a way, it was our fault and dirty looks from the waiting customers were completely understandable, but really, the dirty looks from the waitress was completely unnecessary and it really put me off despite feeling bad about hogging a table.

Strong latté, $3.80, and soy latté, $4.30. 

We thought the coffee there was good, but on the whole, pretty average in comparison to their competitors. I'm guessing Two Birds focuses a lot more on their food as compared to their coffee. Didn't really leave that big an impression on us.

Blonde omelette with hot smoked salmon, fennel, chili and coriander, $16.50.

Demie's smoked salmon omelette. Again, she said it was pretty average. Some parts of the salmon were overcooked and others undercooked. I find it a little strange to put fennel with salmon, but maybe that's just me. 

Scrambled eggs on toast, $9.50, with mushroom, spinach (+$3 each) and sausage (+$4).

Billy ordered a kinda custom made breakfast. I didn't really ask how it was cause he was relatively new to my dictatorship at the table and I didn't wanna scare him. But I do remember him saying that it's good, though in a non-committal way. 

Two Birds: eggs, bacon, tomato, pork chilli and fennel sausage, mushrooms, spinach and tomato relish, $18.50. 

Jason ordered their spin on a big breakfast. I tried a bit of the scrambled eggs and those were pretty good. Had a good look at the sausages and the bacon and I thought they were pretty oily but no one else had a problem with that. The tomatos were grilled well though.

25th Nov Specials: Beef Wellington - Scotch fillet, puff pastry, salsa verde, horseradish, and a fried egg, $16.50.

I was so excited when I saw this on the specials menu. I've been meaning to try beef wellington for ages; I've watched too much MasterChef US and Australia. 

Now, a beef wellington, as far as i know, is supposed to look like this:

And the one here, obviously, didn't look anything like it. It was more of a deconstructed beef wellington. If only they'd mentioned it in the menu, then I wouldn't be as shocked when it was put on the table.

(Yes, I actually ate the yolk. U proud?)

The puff pastry was really nice and crispy. The salsa verde was really good: it was sour but not too much, had a hint of salty and was just yummy. I really liked the mushroom as well. However, the main part of the dish, the Scotch, was rather average and the egg was slightly undercooked (saw a little bit of translucent egg white).

Naw cutie patooties. Thanks for joining us for breakfast, guys!

You could probably guess by now that I'm not very impressed with the place. It was all pretty average overall, to be very honest. What makes it worse is that it's miles away from it's origin, Three Bags Full in all aspects. Maybe it's because I expected so much more because of that, and because it was overhyped.

Food: 6.5

Coffee: 6

Ambience: 8

Value: 7

Staff: 6

Can't wait to have some guests in Melbourne again!
may.

Breakfast Thieves Stole my Soft Boiled Egg Virginity.

Joshep joined Jason and I for brunch on probably one of the hottest days so far this year. I've heard a lot of good things about this place: It's all over instagram, and all the food blogs that I follow, and I had pretty high expectations.

Breakfast Thieves

Shop 1, 420 Gore Street, Fitzroy VIC
03 9416 4884http://www.breakfastthieves.com.au/
[ tram 86, stop 20 (Rose St (Keele St)/Smith St) ]
Tues - Fri, 7am - 4pm, Sat - Sun, 8am - 4pm

The place was a really short walk away from the tram stop. I think Google maps gave us the wrong directions: according to the map, we were meant to turn left at Rose St/Gore St, but the café was immediately to the right of the intersection. *shrugs.

Of course, brunch on Saturday mid-mornings usually go hand in hand with filled up cafés and waiting lists. We were on the waiting list and it took about 10 minutes before we were seated. 

I was in a bit of a hurry for an appointment (we were already late with the tram delay and the seating delay) so i didn't get any pictures or the treats available, or even a name card. Boo :( The staff members were friendly and cheery as your usual brunch spot café staff would be.

The café was cosy and the area was spacious. What I really didn't fancy was the way the tables were arranged: big tables where more than one group of customers would dine with another. It's not bad; in fact, it's good for big groups but perhaps I wasn't in the mood to listen to other people's conversations that morning. 

Strong latté, $3.80. 

Beans were from STREAT. It was really good, though Jason has had so much of STREAT's coffee over the exam period (from the STREAT stall in Melbourne Central) that he was really used to the taste.

Charlie's Honest Squeezed Orange Juice, $3.90, Double espresso, $3.50

I didn't feel like having a coffee that morning, so I had orange juice. Joshep had a double espresso and a couple of orange juices to aid his hangover. Tsk tsk. In my opinion, I think Charlie's juices are always pretty good, but just a tad overpriced. 

The Legend, $18 - Spicy baked eggs with Spanish chorizo, roasted mushroom, green peas, spiced tomato ragout and goat's feta with herbed garlic toast.

Both Joshep and Jason ordered the very popular baked eggs dish. I tried a bit of the chorizo and the roasted mushrooms, and it tasted pretty good. They were both really impressed with it, so I'm guessing that's more than enough proof that it's good. Joshep really liked the herb garlic toast, 'It's real garlic!'. It was quite a big dishful of baked eggs too. Jason's only qualm was that it was a little oily.

The Breakfast Chain, $17.50 - Honey baked apple sultana with hazelnut crumble, granola and fruit yoghurt, soft boiled eggs and cheesie toastie soldiers.

The hazelnut crumble was AMAZING. I'm a sucker for any kind of crumble, and this just hit the spot. the apples were soft and juicy and the sultanas were plump. Both Jason and Joshep tried it and they liked it too. The granola and fruit yoghurt was nothing much to shout about, but I did like the fruity bits on top.

/ mini story /

Now, anyone who knows me well enough would know that it's nearly impossible to get me to eat any kind of eggs with runny yolk. It's been a psychological problem that I've had since I was really young, and I've never tried it and I've never intended to. I couldn't even eat a minorly undercooked omelette, or look at runny yolk.

I really have no idea why I decided to go ahead with the soft boiled eggs when they said they couldn't scramble em. Perhaps it's seeing all the people around me enjoying their poached eggs brunch after brunch after brunch, and the feeling of missing out when i come across breakfast items I couldn't order because of the poached eggs.

/ end story /

It really wasn't as bad as I expected. I had no problems putting it into my mouth or stomaching it as I normally would have. It's highly unlikely that I'll have runny yolk eggs it on it's own, but if it's served with excellent cheesie toastie soldiers like that, I think I'll be pretty okay.

We don't look THAT alike.. do we? 

Amen!

Food: 9

Coffee: 7

Ambience: 8

Value: 7

Staff: 7

might've snatched up a second part-time job for the day time! fingers crossed.

may.