La Tortilleria

La Tortilleria
72 Stubbs Street Kensington VIC 3031
 


Long time no blog! A small hiatus from writing but that doesn't mean I've been away from eating.. Visited the west side with my mates for a birthday dinner at La Tortilleria. If you haven't heard of these guys, they hand grind their own corn flour in-house, using the traditional Aztec "Nixtamal" process. This creates a delicious, fresh and gluten-free tortilla, ready for filling.



We ordered the tasting plate for 3, plus some empanadas and some Jarritos (Mexican soda). The empanadas were spicy, and the deep fried tortilla was deliciously crispy and offset the soft meaty filling.



The first of the tasting plate had plain cheese quesadillas, guacamole and chicken sopes (thicker tortillas like a big biscuit).



This was followed up by delicious pork and medium rare beef tacos. Both these dishes were on the less spicy side, but with the DIY salsa and chilli sauces provided you could flavour it as you wish.



The total was $90 with soft drinks for three of us, yet I left feeling like I could still fit dessert in. Still satisfied with the meal. The atmosphere was just like a street stall, very friendly staff and authentic street food.

I would be tempted to go back and grab a kilo of tortillas (45 pcs) for $15 to make my own amazing feast at home.

Urban Coffee Farm and Brew Bar

Urban Coffee Farm and Brew Bar

Queensbridge Square, Melbourne VIC 3000 

As part of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival 2013, Hassell have created a fantastic pop-up garden cafe with shipping containers and wooden pallets. Perched on top of the parking entrance to Crown in Queensbridge Square, this little oasis in the city is the meeting place for all things coffee. A different cafe brews up $3 every day, and a different bar mixes up coffee inspired drinks each night. 

 

Melbourne's love affair with coffee is most evident here, packed to the brim with people squeezing in for the "tasting flight" - for $3 you can taste 3 single estate espressos grown in different regions, to understand the difference between different environments. To further the educational trend, at 4pm every day there are coffee workshops from coffee brewing techniques and cupping sessions. See the MFWF website for more details. 

We grabbed a coffee (from the guys at Monk Bodhi Dharma) and headed up the steps through the 100+ Arabica coffee trees - transplanted from Rosebank Road Coffee Estate in NSW. As you walk through the trees, you can learn about the process of coffee getting from the source to your cup. 

  

The coffee farm is up until 17th of March, so get down to Southbank and enjoy a coffee and learn all about it! 

The Moat Bar and Cafe

The Moat Bar and Cafe
Basement @ The Wheeler Centre, 176 Little Lonsdale St, Melbourne VIC 3000



I visited The Moat with the Dinner Club, just a small restaurant/cafe/bar below The Wheeler Centre (State Library). I featured this place in my recent coffee list, but had never visited for dinner. The dark ambience along with the red carpet and shelves full of books make you want to find a couch in a corner and read books, drinking coffee all day.



The menu is mainly based around share plates, so we picked a few to go around.

Canadian scallops wrapped in pancetta on apple purée, black fermented garlic, apple and hazelnut salad


Mojito cured ocean trout with a red egg, finger lime caviar and Valencia orange jelly


Farmer's Plate – Mount Keira cured lamb, chickpea purée, cheese, cucumber and apple relish, olive bread


Ben wasn't being adventurous so he picked the Moat-made meatballs in a rich napoli sauce, with grana padano and crusty bread. Plus a beaker of beer!


All in all, a tasty meal but not entirely filling - especially for the price, however, it would be a nice place to meet up with friends for pre/post show drinks and tapas.

Salford Lads Club

Salford Lads Club 
1 Fennell St, Port Melbourne VIC 3207



There's some great places hidden around Melbourne in unsuspecting locations, and the Salford Lads Club is one of them. Hidden away in the back blocks of the Port Melbourne industrial area, between Globe and Toyota. Only a short ride away from the CBD, I visited one morning while taking a "mental health day" from work.







I love pork, so I couldn't go past the ultimate breakfast - Pork cooked 3-ways (bacon, sausage and crispy pork belly) with poached egg and corn relish. Fantastic combo, with a nice soft egg and fresh corn relish.


RMIT Superbike commuter

 
"Coffee Supreme" beans


A great place to kick back and have a coffee (or two), read the paper or watch the world go by.





B.

Thursday Night Drinks - Beer Deluxe

Beer Deluxe
Federation Square/Flinders Street, Melbourne VIC 3000

Thursday night, warm weather and the sun setting over Flinders Street Station - the best way to enjoy a beer and burger at Beer Deluxe. Usually the $10 beer and burger deal, the price increase to $14 still offers great value for money. Along with the "Burger Deluxe" (double patty, lettuce, mayo, cheese, bacon, onion and deluxe sauce) on a fancy stone platter, you get fries in a fancy basket and a schooner of beer on tap. Probably $25 worth of burger and beer for only $14? That's my kind of deal. 



The burger stack is quite large with the double patty, which was well cooked but not pink on the inside. Difficult to eat the whole stack in a single unless you can dislocate your jaw. The brioche bun is too delicate for the size of the burger, and fell apart with all the juices and the bacon was a little undercooked. Overall the burger was enjoyable though, value for deliciousness factor was high. Include a great beer and you've got me covered!

B.

Downstairs @ The Merrywell, Crown Casino

The Merrywell
Corner of Clarendon St and Crown Riverside, Southbank VIC 3006 
 
Visited the West-end of town and dropped into The Merrywell, Crown Casino for a bite to eat with the dinner club this week. "Gourmet" burgers of all shapes and sizes have swept across Melbourne, and this American-styled pub features a casual burger bar downstairs. A simple menu of burgers, sandwiches and snacks is followed by an extensive drinks menu, featuring everything from spiders, cocktails and even jugs of sangria.



I decided on the Merrywell burger, and the Merrywell spider - can't go wrong with the house named meals, right? At $20 (incl. fries) the burger is a bit on the expensive side, but that's to be expected when dining at Crown. 

At first glance, the burger isn't massive but on the inside it looks impressive. The robust, flour-y white bun was a good fit for this burger, soaking up the special sauce and holding together well for a relatively mess-free meal. Nice juicy patty, perfectly cooked ("All burgers served pink and juicy" is the tag line on the menu). Melted cheese flowing down the sides and topped with bacon, pickles, onion, lettuce and tomato. Only downside was the bacon was slightly over-cooked, with charred edges and a slight burnt flavour.


On the side, I had the Merrywell spider which was just a basic root beer and vanilla ice cream.


The others rated the food quite well, which were:

The Bangin' Banh Mi (fish fillet open sandwich)


Veggie Boom (falafel burger)


Onion Rings


Overall it was one of the top burgers I've had in Melbourne, if a little on the expensive side.

B.

Coffee Shorts - Little Lonsdale St

I don't pretend to be a coffee expert, able to taste all the different characteristics of the beans grown at 6000ft in the Guatemalan highlands. I do love sitting down for a great coffee; but nothing is worse than a burnt, overly sour coffee. 

Most mornings I'll start up my Rancilio Silvia at home on which I pull my own shot, so when I'm out I'd expect something at least up to my own (mostly average) standard coffee. My habit is usually a caffe latte or flat white in the morning, and a macchiato or just a short black if I'm drinking in the afternoon. Below is a list of my favourite local coffee providers, just along Little Lonsdale St in the city. 
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Cafenatics QV
Red Cape Lane, QV Building, Melbourne VIC 3000




The Cafenatics chain has made a big name for itself since starting in 2004 in the Melbourne CBD, they now have around 10 shops dotted around the city. The QV location is my local coffee shop, if I'm not making a coffee at home I'll grab one here on my way to work. Always friendly, remembering my order and saving a muffin for my breakfast; consistently good coffee (across most of the Cafenatics I've been too as well); not overpriced, $3.30 for a "regular" 8oz (if you have a "large" 12oz Keep Cup it's the same price), $5.50 for a coffee/muffin combo.

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2Pocket Coffee
277 Little Lonsdale Street, Melbourne VIC 3000



2pocket is one of the newest coffee shops to open in the city selling fairtrade coffee, tea and other products. Their mission is "to support disadvantaged producers to improve their lives through business and commerce." A regular coffee is $3.80, while a large is $4.50 - and also beans @ $15 for 250g. When you keep in mind that a portion of the profits go back to the producer and supplier, it's a great price for a coffee. Got my coffee here this morning on the way to the market, still a bit quiet but very friendly and good coffee.
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Hardware Societe
120 Hardware Street, Melbourne VIC 3000 



Sitting at the top of the Urbanspoon "Melbourne Brunch Spots" list is Hardware Societe. This cafe always has a queue on a Saturday morning, I reckon if you weren't in before 9am you might not get a seat for 45 minutes! Whilst I haven't had the food here, the production line pumping the Padre beans through the coffee machine means that I've never waited more than a few minutes for a coffee. The coffee is decent, and the mini-donut on the top is a neat touch.
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1000 £ Bend
361 Little Lonsdale St, Melbourne VIC 3000



This hip little hangout has a very non-descript entrance, but inside the old Harley-Davidson assembly factory has been turned into a cafe with a large gallery out the back and a film room upstairs. The comfy grungy couches and outdoor seating area gives everyone a place to sit and relax, and maybe get a spot of work done with the free Wi-Fi. Coffee before 10am only costs $2.50 for a small (weekdays only), and on tight-arse Tuesday nights they serve $8 burgers and $2.50 pots. 
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The League of Honest Coffee
8 Exploration Lane, Melbourne VIC 3000 



The team behind Padre coffee run this Mon-Fri coffee shop, featuring the absolutely beautiful green Slayer machines on the deck. I'm a big fan of the Padre "Daddy's Girl" coffee blend, regularly running it through my EM0480. Definitely honest, good coffee here though I don't visit as often as I'd like. I'll usually visit Padre @ South Melbourne Market on a weekend for my Padre fix.
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The Moat
Basement @ The Wheeler Centre, 176 Little Lonsdale St, Melbourne 3000 VIC



I love a hidden cafe or bar, knowing that just above you or behind the door are hundreds of people passing by who have no idea what's there. The downstairs entrance to The Moat (under the Wheeler Centre, State Library) fits this bill perfectly. I've only ever popped down for coffee, but the food I've seen makes me want to return for even more.
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Plantation
Shop 253, level 2, Melbourne Central 300 La Trobe Street, Melbourne VIC 3000



This coffee shop is a hidden gem in the Melbourne Central shopping complex, run by the guys from St Ali. The focus of this outlet is cold drip coffee, but their regular coffee is great too. $3.80 for a regular is on the expensive side, but I'll sometimes grab the "Dark Horse" blend from here if I'm low on beans (roasted by Sensory Lab/St Ali). 
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In the future I'll have a few other lists in this series of "Coffee Shorts", around the city and near my work. Let me know if you have a favourite coffee place not on my list, make a comment below and I'll give it a visit!  

B.