A couple of weeks ago, Dave and I spent two nights in Melbourne for an exam he had to sit there, so as is always the case when I'm in Melbourne, I tried to get around to as many cafes and restaurants in the 36 hours or so that we had there.
Fonda
As we arrived mid-afternoon, our first meal was dinner that evening, so we decided to head to an old Mexican favourite, Fonda. There are few branches of Fonda in Melbourne now, and we had never been to the one in the CBD, so for convenience sake, we decided to try it out (prior to this we'd only been to their restaurant in Windsor, and have walked past another one in Fitzroy). We arrived at about 6:30pm on a Tuesday, and there was a pretty long queue out the door, which is always a true sign of a good eatery. After putting our names on the list, we probably only had to wait 15-20 minutes for a table.
Once seated, we picked out a few options to share before ordering food and drinks at the bar. We decided to share a couple of corn on the cobs with parmesan and lime, a couple of tacos (I went for the beef brisket while Dave had the chicken), as well as a mushroom quesadilla and a pulled pork quesadilla. Each dish was very flavoursome and up there with some of the best Mexican food we've eaten (even better than what we had in Mexico). Sharing a few dishes is definitely the way to go at Fonda.
Manchester Press
The next morning, while Dave was busy studying for his exam, I went out to Manchester Press to pick us up some takeaway coffees and breakfast. Dave wasn't feeling overly hungry so he decided to get a bagel with cream cheese, and I thought I'd try out the acai bowl with mixed fruit and granola. The coffees were excellent and the refreshing smoothie bowl paired with the crunchy granola and fresh fruit was a wonderful start to the day.
Hopetoun Tearooms
While Dave was at his exam, I decided to take my laptop and do a bit of work in Hopetoun Tearooms, a cafe that I have wandered past many times, but had always been a bit put off by the queue wrapping around the outside of it. However, mid-morning on a Tuesday was a great time to go, as I only had to wait 5 minutes for a table. I decided to get another coffee and a slice of their lemon tart. This morning tea was very nice and an enjoyable experience, however I do think that the beautiful interiors are what really draws people in, and I'm not sure that I would queue up for a long time to visit this spot again.
Irish Times Pub
Once Dave's exam was done, we met up with a few others who had just sat the exam as well and decided to get drinks and a late lunch at the Irish Times Pub. I thought I'd stick with an Irish pub classic and go with the Guinness burger, which was a beef burger glazed with Guinness sauce with lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, onion, melted cheese, onion rings, and a side of fries - definitely a filling and satisfying meal after a morning of nerves and stress as we waited for the exam results.
Chin Chin/Go Go Bar
After finding out that Dave passed his exam, we met up with a friend for celebratory drinks at the Go Go Bar, which is located beneath Chin Chin. After a round of cocktails, we were able to snap up a table in the bar and decided to order dinner from Chin Chin's menu there, rather than queuing up for a table in the restaurant upstairs. We shared a few dishes between the three of us, including the chicken and shitake spring rolls, the wagyu beef pad seuw, the crying tiger and the caramelised sticky pork, before finishing with some dessert including the palm sugar ice cream sundae, the sticky rice and the banana roti. While the crying tiger and caramelised sticky pork were definitely on the more spicy end of things, everything was incredibly delicious (evidenced by the fact that we ordered a second round of the pad seuw) and our tummies were completely stuffed by the end.
We flew out pretty early the next morning, so didn't have a chance to get breakfast or brunch in the city, but given how much we had at Chin Chin, we definitely weren't in need of further sustenance. All in all, these couple of days in Melbourne were filled with a lot of lovely, tasty meals (made even better by the fact that Dave passed his exam), and hopefully it won't be too long before we're back in this city for even more amazing food discoveries.
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