Melbourne Patron

Despite still being new-ish to the South Yarra area, I'd already walked past A25 Pizzeria (720 Chapel Street, South Yarra) multiple times before actually getting around to trying it. (I find decent Chapel Street venues a bit few and far between, so tend to dine out in other areas instead.) Over the Easter weekend, a friend from interstate stayed with me. When she landed, we were both starving - where was there wine and tasty food within walking distance, that was not likely to be too noisy or jam-packed? Hey, let's try this place I've been meaning to check out... A25 is on the northern end of Chapel Street, a few minutes' walk from Toorak Road. Named for a freeway between Rome and Pescera, it is a long, thin venue (along the street front, not perpendicular to it), with indoor and outdoor seating, amply cocooned by clear plastic shades and heated. The initial impression is clean and bold: white, black and blonde-wood hard surfaces and occasional splashes of green ...

It sounded cool. Pizza - which, as everyone knows, can be amazing when done properly - in a favourite old haunt of mine in Collingwood, just one block down from Smith St, with fluoro lights and even a disco ball, to boot. But there were a few things about Lazerpig Pizza Parlour (9-11 Peel St, Collingwood) that just didn't sit right with me. Occupying the site that used to house a great (albeit quiet) little pub, the Star , halfway down the notorious Peel St, Lazerpig is in a fairly accessible Collingwood spot. Its corner entrance is clearly marked by a fluorescent flying pig overhead. I'm yet to find a good explanation of the restaurant name (possibly something to do with gaming?!) - but it's certainly memorable. Lazerpig is the newest venture of the Grace Darling crew, which I found surprising, because I thought the Grace Darling was a fairly classic operation, and I didn't get the impression Lazerpig was being run very well, when I was there. Service was ...

On the Sunday of a long weekend in Adelaide's CBD, there's not much open. And when you're a caffeine addict like me, that is a terrible, terrible thing. Fortunately (well, unfortunately for her), my little sister has been privvy to my state when I have not been caffeinated in a timely manner before. So she used that clever technomalogical thingy called Googler or iCall or something to locate a cafe within walking distance for our breakfast and all-important caffeination. It was called Jam The Bistro  (112-114 Wright Street, Adelaide), and it was very nice. Being on holiday, we figured we deserved alcohol at breakfast time, so we had a Bellini each (prosecco with peach juice). Bellini-licious The coffee was made on a pretty red Ruggero, and was also served up all pretty-like: We both had the same thing for breakfast: a beautifully-presented concoction of smoked salmon bruschetta with poached eggs, goats curd and beetroot jam. As well as the fac...

This joint is the kind of joint you call a joint. Know what I mean? It's only been open a few months, and it ain't much to look at from the outside, but inside it's retro, kitsch, fun and loud. A funky lil downtown craft beer bar and pizza joint. Bar, complete with booths and disco ball Fluoro numbers let you know when your pizza's ready   Frankie's Pizza is marked by a fluoro sign outside its bouncer-minded doorway at 50 Hunter Street, Sydney. It doesn't appear to have a website as yet, or even a phone number, so you'll just have to trust me on this. Head down a stairwell and you'll find yourself in a friendly-feeling, dimly-lit pizza restaurant with classic red checked tablecloths and a central bar. Pizza is by the slice or by the pie and it's pretty decent: Spinach pizza Can't remember... Something like Capricciosa? Through a side door is where the real party hides. A long, dark den serves as the main bar...

For my first night back in Sydney for Christmas (which happened to be Christmas Eve), my parents wanted to show me a great little pub they'd found in Balmain called the Riverview (29 Birchgrove Road). The upstairs dining room was booked out, but bar food was available in the main pub area on street level from 6pm. We had arrived rather hungry at 5.30pm! So we perched on semi-uncomfortable stools around a long tall table and chewed the fat for a bit. The waiter was chummy, the wine plentiful, and the food (post 6pm) very tasty. All of us wanted the duck salad, but each ordered different things for the purpose of variation! I had the mushroom gnocchi, which was just the right amount for gnocchi, which can often be too much/too filling. My mother's prawn pizza looked great, but she hasn't expected the hidden jalapeños and extra water was required! Dad was content with his steak, and my sister's duck salad looked OK but probably not as great as all of us had hoped. ...