Melbourne Patron

It's the place that was made infamous by the ' chopsticks incident ' last December, where a young Richmond Tigers AFL player drunkenly threatened to attack a woman dining nearby with his chopsticks. But of course, Mr. Miyagi had already developed a cult following well before that. LOOK OUT... CHOPSTICKS Opening in October 2013 on the ever-so-hip Windsor portion of Chapel Street , and tickling nostalgic fancies with its reference to 1984 classic  The Karate Kid , the restaurant has enjoyed a steady stream of customers since. I remember stopping by with a friend one Thursday night mid last year to enquire about a table, and we were told it would be a two-hour wait. Well! Either this place is really good, I thought, or really good at hype. Always a queue at the front desk I made a calculated plan with friends to score a table there on a Friday night recently. I rocked up nice and early, 6:45pm-ish, and put my name down for a table. They advised the wait would ...

Anyone who's met my current housemate will know she is a massive ramen fan. Along with nachos, it's pretty much all she eats. In fact, she was one of the first to take me to Shop Ramen on Smith Street, which has since become one of our favourites. Having lived with her for a while now, I am happy to admit that her ramen obsession has rubbed off on me. So it was not unusual that a group of us decided, after an afternoon drinking session at Naked In The Sky one Saturday, to head to Little Ramen Bar (346 Lt Bourke Street, Melbourne) for dinner. A tiny joint near the corner of Lt Bourke and Elizabeth Streets, Little Ramen Bar is consistently packed, often with a queue outside the door. Fortunately, the staff have a great system in place, manning the door and ushering in patrons as soon as a table becomes available. There is usually a quick turnaround, so even though waiting might be annoying to some, it's usually not for long. The front door queue Most tables s...

There's a lot of hype about Hammer & Tong 412 (Rear 412 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy), as there usually is about most new decent cafes, particularly ones so close to the hub of Fitzroy. In some cases, it's all hot air; in others, completely justified. In the case of Hammer & Tong, it is a mix of both. Housed in the former premises of The Brix (a short-lived bistro with a reputation for quality), Hammer & Tong's owners Dennis Ferreira and Simon Ward did little to change the fit-out, so impressed were they by its design. Their website describes the look as "light filled", "stylish" and its "own take on vintage-industrial chic". It is definitely more industrial than vintage. It's all hard surfaces and slate grey, in a long, narrow space with a cool but light and airy feel. I didn't find it particularly warm and cosy, but stylish it certainly is. I didn't witness too much in the way of "vintage" i...