Tag Archives: cafe

10 UNIQUE F&B OUTLETS IN MELBOURNE

December 25, 2016 Big Roy Leave a comment

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Hey y’all!

I told myself to complete this write up before my next trip and here I am now compiling all the unique eating places which I’ve been to during my last trip in Aug this year (2016). There are definitely more hidden gems located in this beautiful city which I call my second home. Maybe I can unearth them up during my future trips there to visit my beloved God daughter and buddies.

For those going to Melbourne for the first time, this may not be a good guide for you because first timers usually go to the usual touristy and popular places. Follow a tour if you need to but if you like free and easy like me, maybe you might wanna check out my previous posts of the following:

Cafes and Eateries In Melbourne – Day 1

Cafes and Eateries In Melbourne – Day 2

Cafes & Eateries In Melbourne – Day 3

Cafes & Eateries In Melbourne Day 4

Cafes & Eateries In Melbourne Day 5

Cafes & Eateries In Melbourne Days 6-10

Ok let’s start this unique eating journey now.

1. GLADSTONE VIEWS FISH & CHIPS (CAR BONNET EXPERIENCE)

If you’re renting your cars from APEX like I did, you may be hungry after all the documentation. I found this little takeaway store not too far away, just to try some local fish and chips. It was surprisingly good, so was the burger. Just don’t look at how they prepare the food though, hygiene is definitely questionable. But after deep frying, no worries mate! Afterall, how often you get to enjoy lovely weathers and savour your food off your car bonnet? 😉

Location: https://goo.gl/maps/7fkKQd5uRF12

2. HELLO COFFEE (DOCKYARD EXPERIENCE)

Found this little gem when I was at Apollo Bay. Located amongst a dockyard area, Hello Coffee started less than a year ago. Very self-sufficient by roasting their own beans and getting supplies from the neighbouring farms. Totally envy them on the the freshness of these supplies! A very nice place to chill and would revisit if I have another chance.

Lovely fireplace which is a gem during winters

Coffee by the fireplace is just so warm at heart

Location: https://goo.gl/maps/z1kRSjfsiHC2

3. FOCUS COFFEE (RARE COFFEE BEANS EXPERIENCE)

Little do many know that this coffee joint imports their beans from the world renowned Ninety Plus Coffee whose coffees are largely sort after. Coming here you will definitely satisfy your caffeine cravings. You may wanna check out their daily specials as well if you’re feeling peckish, they change their menu frequently.

Location: https://goo.gl/maps/eEb9hZDzU9S2

4. LONGRAIN RESTAURANT (HIDDEN GEM EXPERIENCE)

Tucked at the end of Little Burke Street, this restaurant is always crowded with locals mainly and little do they know that the chef there used to work in Michelin starred restaurants. It was recommended by a manager at a whiskey distillery down at Apollo Bay area. The Thai-influenced fusion food was amazing all the way from appetisers to desserts and the wine selection was pretty good as well.

This tuna salad is really good. Gotta eat with the crackers.

This grilled squid was very well done and the dipping sauce it came with was the bomb.

Can’t remember the name of this egg net thing but it’s a big portion. Best for sharing.

Caramelised figs, aerated white choc, and Thai Milk Tea ice cream… What a way to end the dinner.

Location: https://goo.gl/maps/BtEmZaTm7Tw

5. THE VERTUE OF THE COFFEE DRINK (BEHIND PETROL KIOSK EXPERIENCE)

This one’s a winner. Finding this place is half the fun! I circled around a few rounds just to find this place. What’s even better is, they have awesome beans which are roasted in-house and the food is just to die for! Service wise is just excellent. Definitely needs a revisit!

Crispy Pork Belly ($22), served with soft duck egg, spiced sweet potato puree, black pudding and quince gel. A damn awesome dish!

Their signature blend, Sabertooth. Love it!

Location: https://goo.gl/maps/Y4mStF9jQXS2

6. AUNTY PEG’S (NO MILK EXPERIENCE)

Aunty Peg’s is a spring off of the famous coffee roaster/cafe Proud Mary. This premise not just roast for their own branches but supplies to other cafes as well. so what’s so unique about this place? They only serve black coffee… meaning, they do not have milk at all. So if you love coffee as it is, you can order your filtered coffees and espressos here like I did. Nightmare to milk base coffee drinkers. Heh heh…

The bar. If only I can buy these good machines. Sigh…

Location: https://goo.gl/maps/Lg1taTM87zy

7. IZAKAYA DEN (UNDERGROUND EXPERIENCE)

Like some of the places listed here, half the fun is finding them. I came across this place by chance and was indeed quite hard to find. Service is excellent, food is damn good. A little pricey though, but the quality is what you are paying for. Check out below how I found the place.

Not a very big signage so quite hard to spot

First flight of stairs downwards is a yoga studio

Second flight of stairs to the restaurant

Den Fried Chicken ($14) is nice and juicy… prep and fried on the spot.

Kale Agebidashi ($11). Deep fried, not too bad.

Grilled Cheek Barra ($17). Quite nice and fatty.

Fried Black Rice ($12). Quite a unique dish offered.

Pork Yakiniku ($19). Love the part meat part fats combi. Yums!

Location: https://goo.gl/maps/EgTSuduZkEG2

8. BROTHER BABA BUDAN (CHAIRS OVERHEAD EXPERIENCE)

Ok this place is not exactly hidden but I have not written about it for my previous trips. But the unique thing about this place is that they hanged all the chairs up on the ceiling! But of course their coffee is good as well… Seven Seeds is a little hard to go wrong. 😉

Location: https://goo.gl/maps/xjs4JQ3P8LE2

9. MART 130 (TRAIN STATION EXPERIENCE)

This is another unique place which is introduced by a friend. Love this old train station converted into a cafe. The food here is actually pretty good! Coffee is ok. Best place for brunch but can get super crowded.

Location: https://goo.gl/maps/na5uw1rjXKt

10. EASEY’S (TRAIN CARRIAGE EXPERIENCE)

Easey’s is one of the most unique places I’ve been. From the above train station, to eating in a train carriage. Not a common place for tourists but definitely a great place to satisfy your burger cravings.

Melbourne Madness ($23). Really satisfying!

Location: https://goo.gl/maps/aKHBsFnq47s

Alright that’s all for now, Melbourne never fails to amaze me with new stuffs with every visit. Feel free to ask me about Melbourne if you’re planning a trip there via eatwithroy@gmail.com. I’ll reply as soon as I can. Till my next post, Merry Christmas y’all!

Gastronomically yours,

Big Roy

Coffee House, Dessert, Shenzhen

Hollys Coffee 豪丽斯咖啡 (MixC Mall) – Shenzhen, China

November 11, 2013 Big Roy Leave a comment

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Alright folks, firstly I would like to thank y’all for your great support that this blogsite has hit more than 70k unique hits already. Awesome job guys! Secondly, I would like to apologize for not updating this site, reason is I’ve been bogged down by my move from Suzhou to Shenzhen. And immediately after my arrival, I got into work mode already and been busy till even today. I’m squeezing some time over weekends to update now and I have so much backlogs not just in Shenzhen but also my trip to Xiamen! I’m telling you, the food there… I really need to go again. This time I may organize a group of foodies to check out the place together. 🙂

Anyways, I would like to start with a place which I’ve checked out not too long ago. This is a famous coffee chain which is franchised from Korea, with more than 200 stores worldwide! Of course I didn’t know about this place ‘cos I’ve never been to Korea. But I found out the first store was opened in July 2012 in Shenzhen. So far they have 4 outlets in whole of Shenzhen! Check out my reviews below:

Love the mezzanine concept and high ceiling!

Selfie! 🙂 And showing the view from the top as well.

No latte art and foam was obviously scooped. The roast they use really doesn’t appeal to me even though it was a triple shot. Lack of robust. Something is really wrong with the formula.

Banana Caramel Waffles with ice cream. I reckon vanilla ice cream would be nicer with this combi but then again, not a big fan of sweets.

Pizza toast… Ingredients not a lot and toast is so thick… was basically eating bread…

Some Rock Candy which was bought by someone beside us… They had to use a mallet to crush it… Scary… That’s one huge lump of sugar! 😛

Rating: 4/5. Extra points for ambience and service. Not so much for coffee and food though.

Taste: For those who like sweet stuff, you may like it here but nothing very special ‘cos all the sauces used are all readily available from supermarket.

Service: I must say service is pretty good. Don’t like the self-collection part though (even for food).

Ambience: Very good. But during summer the aircon may not be cool enough ‘cos of the high ceiling.

Portion: Average.

Price: The 2 entrees above with 2 grande lattes costed around RMB$130+. Pretty alright.

RTE: I wouldn’t return to eat but it’s a nice place to hang out and of course, eye candy! 😉

Location: 罗湖区宝安南路1881号万象城. It’s hidden around a corner so you may wanna ask the security guard from the mall (That’s how I found it too!) They would bring you to the road and show you which way to walk! Talk about good service yo!

Cafe/Coffee House

MQ Coffee Slayer Lab – Shanghai, China

July 28, 2013 Big Roy 1 Comment

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After reaching Shanghai in the afternoon today, I rushed to check out this cafe which has a roasting factory, 2 cafe outlets and a training center for aspiring baristas. I found them online and know that they roast their own beans. I took the cab and headed to their training center and realized they don’t serve coffees there after I made a call to them. Then I headed to their outlet at fengxian lu which is the only outlet that opens on weekends.

The walk under the 39 deg celsius sun is no joke even though it’s like only 3 blocks away. When I reached the cafe, I was drenched. The cafe is really a very small shop and when I was there there were already some customers there occupying the inside of the shop. So I had to sit the outer area which was serious super warm!

I first ordered the Mandheling which has mild acidity and quite a medium-high body. But tasting the dripped coffee in such a warm space is really uncomfortable.

Shortly after, some of the customers inside left and I moved my ass inside to catch some aircon… And I had to give some lesson on ‘how to adjust the aircon to cool mode’. I then ordered a latte, which was made from the branded Slayer espresso machine. The latte has some acidity, fruity and pretty full body. I found the milk they used is a little on the sweet side like the HL milk in Singapore and Malaysia. Nevertheless, it was a pretty good combination for their House Blend No.5, which is a mix of 3 different beans that I shall not disclose.

The cute thing about the small shop is that they have a vintage typewriter there for customers to type in their greetings! Very innovative!

Rating: 4.5/5. The temperature control in the cafe is very important.

Taste: Great!

Portion: Average.

Service: Excellent. The barista over the counter offered me a cup of water when I came into the cafe, all drenched. And she keeps refilling when I sat inside. Very good conversationalist too!

Ambience: Inside is alright but outside is not cool. Very small space but in a very prime area.

Price: RMB28 for the Mandheling and RMB25 for the latte.

RTE: I don’t mind if I’m in town next.

Location: 2 outlets

Australia, Perth, Western Australia

Jean Pierre Sancho Cafe – Perth City, Australia

July 14, 2013 Big Roy Leave a comment

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Was here on my second day in Perth after my grueling first day at the coffee school. It was a Sunday so many places were closed. I spotted this place while driving and all really by chance. So I parked the rented car on the side of the road and went into the cafe to place my order. To my surprise, this cafe has many awards for their bakery and also some business of the year for 2012.

Yeah got steps up to the counter… quite a weird design inside actually

Rating: 4/5.

Taste: Pretty good but could be better if they can heat up for us. The raisin and croissant were good!

Portion: Slightly bigger than normal.

Service: Could have given a 4.5 or 5 rating ‘cos they refuse to slice the organic loaf which we ordered for takeaway. And the pastries were not reheated for us but I understand some bakeries/cafes feel that reheating will spoil the taste and texture of the pastries. But I believe light reheating is ok. Latte also took quite long to brew.

Ambience: Seating for 3 or more mainly on the outside. Inside are catered for 1-2 pax seating mostly. Weird staircase in the middle that leads to a shopping mall I think.

RTE: I would if on a Sunday again. 🙂 Otherwise will try other places.

Location: They have 3 outlets but I went to this one at 878 Hay Street, Perth City. Check out their website see last picture.

Australia, Perth

Blue Rock Cafe – Perth, Australia

July 10, 2013 Big Roy Leave a comment

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Hey y’all!

Finally I found some time to update this blog as I’ve just started tourwithroy.wordpress.com. Have loads of backlogs to update hence will be juggling this blog, sleepwithroy.wordpress.com and tourwithroy.wordpress.com. So please be patient with me!

Ok Blue Rock Cafe was the first place I had my meals alone on one of the mornings and with my friends for dinner. Quite a gem really ‘cos no one would have thought a cafe at the far ends of Hay Street would serve such good food! I had my brekkie here as well as dinner. Food is really good and compliments to the hard working crew and chef! Check out the favorites which we ordered!

Me cam-whoring showing the alfresco part of the cafe.

Latte… no art but a good cuppa nevertheless. AUD$3.50

This is called the Full Breakfast. For AUD$18, I believe 2 ladies or small eaters can share this. Just love it and served hot even though the weather was cold.

Parmigiana Chicken with mushroom sauce. Nice and juicy!

Chicken Breast with cheese over it. Very large piece.

Rating: 5/5.

Taste: We finished every bit of the food. Really good and tasty!

Portion: Above average for some.

Service: Excellent! Very friendly staff and always checked back with us if we were feeling alright.

Ambience: Nice and cosy. Night time was a little chilly but for me it’s aight…

Price: See captions and last pic.

RTE: If I’m staying in the same hotel when back to Perth, I definitely would.

Location: Ground floor of Comfort Hotel Perth City, 200 Hay Street, Perth City.

Japanese

Chalon Cafe 沙龙餐厅 – Shanghai, China

June 20, 2013 Big Roy Leave a comment

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Surprisingly I got to eat such good ramen inside airports. So good I finished all the soup! The broth itself is amazingly thick and full of flavor! Wow! Check out the pics below:

Ice Latte without the ice to dilute the coffee.

Rating: 5/5.

Taste: Was very tasty. Pork rib a tad salty though but it is the result of soaking in sauces

Portion: Slightly above average.

Service: The one serving is pleasant and nice. The rest I don’t know.

Ambience: As per all China airport cafes, average decor.

Price: RMB60 for ramen, RMB40 for ice latte

RTE: Yes, whenever flying back to Singapore!

Location: Shanghai Pudong Airport Terminal 1, towards Gates 1-28.

Coffee House/Bistro, Thailand

Black Canyon Coffee @ Bangkok

July 6, 2012 Big Roy Leave a comment

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This is gonna be something new in my blog… No, not about writing for popular restaurants or cafe, but more about condemning them. I mean, come on, you’ve come so far, grown so big, franchised your business, cross nations, etc… at least provide your customers with the standards you portray or even close to it. Apparently, for this coffee bistro joint, it was so bad, that it spurred me to write this blog post!

I was waiting to watch my movie at level 6 of MBK (as usual) and would wanna have a good coffee to keep myself awake throughout the show. So I’ve decided to check out Black Canyon for it’s coffee and what looks like damn nice White Chocolate Cake.

I sat down, no one attended to me, had to put up my huge hands to catch the attention of the almost dying waiter… well he seems like that. So I placed my order of Ice Latte and White Chocolate Cake. The cake came, it was Oreo Cookies Cake. I told the waiter I ordered the White Chocolate Cake, so he changed it. The cake came, still with all the plastic wrappers around it, unwraped it, took a pic, felt the weight of the cake, and I knew I would not like it. True enough, the whole cake was very light, full of cream, and the white chocolate is only the shavings on top! It was really disappointing!

After a while, my coffee came. From the colour of the Ice Latte, I knew it would not taste good. True enough, there was no coffee taste, milk inside was bland, I was like, WTF happened to Black Canyon??? The coffee tasted like overnight coffee, mixed with more than 3/4 of water and skimmed milk. It was really bad and disappointing. It was so bad, I had ate the cakey and white chocolate parts of the cake minus the cream, and left behind half glass of the Ice Latte.

My advise to aspiring franchisors, if you cannot maintain your standards, maybe it’s a better idea for you to hold your expansion plans and work out a more detailed and extensive SOP and franchise plan.

Rating: 1/5

Taste: Horrible

Portion: Average

Price: Above Average

RTE: Are you kidding?

Location: Seriously you wanna know? Alright MBK Level 6.

1. GLADSTONE VIEWS FISH & CHIPS (CAR BONNET EXPERIENCE)

2. HELLO COFFEE (DOCKYARD EXPERIENCE)

3. FOCUS COFFEE (RARE COFFEE BEANS EXPERIENCE)

4. LONGRAIN RESTAURANT (HIDDEN GEM EXPERIENCE)

5. THE VERTUE OF THE COFFEE DRINK (BEHIND PETROL KIOSK EXPERIENCE)

6. AUNTY PEG’S (NO MILK EXPERIENCE)

7. IZAKAYA DEN (UNDERGROUND EXPERIENCE)

8. BROTHER BABA BUDAN (CHAIRS OVERHEAD EXPERIENCE)

9. MART 130 (TRAIN STATION EXPERIENCE)

10. EASEY’S (TRAIN CARRIAGE EXPERIENCE)

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