Sydney: Forbes & Burton, Cafe Sopra

My parents wanted to show me a place they knew I'd like. The first time we tried (might have been Christmas Eve?), Forbes & Burton (252 Forbes Street, Darlinghurst) was closed. The second time was a few days after Christmas - and they were right.

It's modern and a bit swanky, but also relaxed. Think designer wooden tables, clean glass surfaces and natural light. I'd feel out of place in jeans but it would be a great cafe to meet your girlfriends for a fancy brunch.

We only stayed for coffee, but saw the food from a distance and it looked gooood. This was also the only decent 'large' coffee I'd had in Sydney this time round.

That evening, I was treated to #2 "you'll like this place" by Mum and Dad: Cafe Sopra (81 Macleay Street, Potts Point), part of the Fratelli Fresh company. It's a grocer/deli and restaurant all in one, so you eat surrounded by the tall shelves of lovely fresh produce. The staff are excellent (our lovely English waitress patiently answered all our ridiculous questions and gave Mum several tastes of wines so she could pick one) and the food was fantastic - if quite filling.

I loved the menu, a huge blackboard leaning on a column, with everything you'd need to know:

This was the food we ate:

Dad's steak

Side of beautifully-cooked, huge mushrooms

Basic but yummy, very fresh side salad

Mum's lamb ragu pasta

My 'loose curls' pasta with chilli, salmon and scallops

I also liked the nod to old-school style in amongst the clean modern decor, for example, this print:

As a restaurant relatively local to my parents' place, I look forward to going back.

Café Sopra at Fratelli Fresh on Urbanspoon

Lane's Edge, Waiter's (Club) Restaurant

Meyers Place is one of my favourite Melbourne laneways to hang out in, not least because it offers a variety of bars to choose from. Yes, there are several, but together they form a chilled-out sanctuary from the ritzy, pricey hotspots around the top end of Bourke Street ( Siglo/Supper Club/City Wine Shop , Longrain , Madame Brussels , Gin Palace and 1806 all come to mind). Don't get me wrong - many of these are excellent; but when you venture out midweek on a regular basis, it's nice to know you have a cluster of affordable, more relaxed options available, as well as the schmancier, special-occasion places. Also handy is how easy Meyers Place is to find, compared to many other Melbourne laneways. "It comes off Bourke Street, near the Parliament end," is a phrase I'm sure I've spouted multiple times to uninitiated friends. Failing that, I tell them to look for the Palace Theatre - it's almost directly across the road. The Bourke Street entrance to Me

The Lui Bar

In my opinion, some places are simply better experienced than described. This post features many photos which hardly do The Lui Bar (Level 55, Rialto Towers, 525 Collins Street, Melbourne) justice, because no matter how many pictures I show you or words I write about it, there is just nothing like viewing Melbourne from 55 floors up, handcrafted cocktail in hand, listening to jazz. Albert Park Lake and beyond, from The Lui Bar The Lui Bar stems off Shannon Bennett 's revered restaurant Vue De Monde , the degustation meal of which is absolutely on my bucket list. The restaurant was moved to the Rialto site in 2011, and its adjoining bar has also been making waves ever since. Iconic in location, the venue not only occupies the top level of what was, in 1986, the tallest building in Melbourne and the Southern Hemisphere at 251 metres, but offers spectacular city views of up to 60 kilometres on a clear day. Even the Eureka Tower , currently Melbourne's tallest buil

Supernormal

Is it, though? So normal it's super normal? I think maybe not. There are a lot of 'normal' things at Supernormal (180 Flinders Lane, Melbourne) - you go in, get a table (if you're lucky), order food, eat it at said table. But there are a few things that set this restaurant apart. Kitchen behind the bar One is size. Supernormal is quite big for a Melbourne CBD restaurant. There are different sections: a looooong bar (behind which sits the kitchen, and which pretty much runs the length of the restaurant), a line of booth-style tables, a couple of walls hosting tables with bench seating, and stand-alone tables in the middle. Bench seating tables and random display flowers and bottles It also has a very high ceiling, which makes the interior feel very spacious and airy. Hard surfaces everywhere do echo the noisy chatter from so many covers, but the space above all the heads helps absorb it. Stand-alone tables in the middle and hi Another is

Melbourne Patron

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