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April 21, 2017October 20, 2023

Cumulus Inc, Melbourne

As I do posts about our Melbourne trip, I only realised how many of the places we had gone to were the ones people rave about. Thanks to Zomato, we had made it quite a few on the list. And this next post is about Cumulus Inc, thanks to my cousin and Zomato again 🙂

Located close to the hotel we were staying at, we hoped by going there on week day at 9 would be not so packed. I imagine, the office workers would have been busy at work, right? And of course, we were wrong! It was packed!!!And not just the take away lines, the whole place is packed with people having breakfast. And that raises the question in our mind: so, what time do these people actually start working? ( ⚆ _ ⚆ )

Thankfully it was not a long wait for seating on long sharing bench, which we did not mind at all. We mostly knew already what to order, so did not spend long browsing on the menu this time. It took a while for our order to come, but again thankfully for the seating, we can see one of the chef prepared breakfast orders. That was awesome, we enjoyed seeing her work, how fast and smooth she did one after one after one order.

Anyway, I ordered their housemade crumpets while hubby got their full English breakfast. Don’t they look lovely?

The housemade crumpets were lovely, golden crispy on the outside, light and fluffy on the inside. It pairs deliciously with that ricotta and honey. It is a perfect dish to me and hubby agreed as well. Hubby said his full breakfast was also yummy – it is not overly greasy but tasty. And the blood sausage was actually good, he says.

After breakfast, we walked around and found ourselves needed another caffeine kick – so we went to League of Honest Coffee. We actually went to this place last year but it was closed, so it”s great to see it open and busy this time. My understanding is they also uses coffee bean from Padre, the Seasonal Blend. And of course, it is so good!!! I can confidently say that my favourite coffee is from Padre – loving both their Seasonal and Daddy’s Girl (DG) Espresso Blend. The seasonal blend is more of toffee notes, rich and full bodied. The DG blend is more mild in acidity and creamy. DG is the one used in Hardware Societe, which I am also a big fan of their coffees.

The bustle and bustle during morning tea (or coffee) break

Cumulus Inc.

45 Flinders Ln, Melbourne VIC 3000

Phone: (03) 9650 1445

Email: info@cumulusinc.com.au

cumulusinc.com.au

The League of Honest Coffee

8 Exploration Ln, Melbourne VIC 3000

Phone: (03) 9654 0169

leagueofhonestcoffee.com.au

April 19, 2017April 17, 2017

Sofitel Melbourne on Collins

For the last two nights of our Melbourne trip, we moved from Atlantis Hotel to Sofitel Melbourne on Collins. The choice was not made by us because we booked a mystery hotel from one of the travel website and turned out to be Sofitel. So, it was a happy result of the mystery hotel booking 😀

Located on Collins St towards the end near Parliament House, is great location for the shopaholics. It is so close to shopping strips and restaurants. And being on Collins St, there is a tram stop so close to the hotel, if you don’t feel like walking after shopping 🙂

There is also a small food court below the hotel which are buzzing with office workers during weekday mornings. The hotel itself is beautiful as you would expect of a hotel of that class. The facilities it offers, the beautiful room, comfortable bedding down to nice bathroom amenities all impressive. For us, the best part is that huge comfy bed and pillows – I definitely had the best sleeps here!

Without further ado, here is our room tour:

The other facilities we used while staying here was the gym and of course those massage chairs located inside the gym. The view from the gym room was awesome, there are enough equipment available and had never been full house whenever we visited 🙂 It has been a lovely stay at Sofitel Melbourne, but just one thing about the service. They are friendly but felt a bit distant (it’s a shame considering its league). But then again, we had very minimal contact with any of the staffs anyway.

Sofitel Melbourne on Collins

25 Collins St, Melbourne VIC 3000

Phone: (03) 9653 0000

www.sofitel.com/gb/hotel-1902-sofitel-melbourne-on-collins/

April 17, 2017August 25, 2023

St Ali Coffee Roasters, South Melbourne

My cousin recommended us to try the iced filtered coffee at St Ali Coffee Roasters, which she spoken of highly. So, after our burger meal on a very nice Saturday, we headed to South Melbourne. It didn’t take long to get there by tram and a short stroll in the area. Even though the distance is not at all that far from CBD, South Melbourne surely has a different vibe. It is a lovely area, laid back and has so many local shops that offers many interesting items. And of course, all the hidden little shops inside those little lanes also can be found in the area.

St Ali is located in another alley, inside a looks-alike-ex-warehouse building. Once you entered the door, it is actually much spacious than it looks from the outside. There are crowds of people, graffiti on the walls, and smell of coffee and delicious looking cake displays near the cashier.

And as per the recommendation, we tried their iced filtered coffee, flat white and one of their yummy cake. The food menu actually looks very appetising and delicious, but unfortunately for us who just had our lunch, therefore the cake.

The recommended ice filtered coffee in bottle

I personally am not a big fan of the filtered coffee because it has that acidic after taste. But it sure is refreshing for that hot sunny weather. On the other hand, hubby thinks the filter coffee is great. I, however, love the flat white – smooth and slightly fruity.

From there, we walked to South Melbourne Market and it was delightful. A huge building, with many shops and stalls and so many people. A lot of the products sold here are local produce, or made by local artists/designers – everything are just exciting! And there is also the Padre Coffee stall there, which I really love their coffee. So of course, we had to buy couple bags of their coffee beans to bring home 🙂

St Ali Coffee Roasters

12-18 Yarra Pl, South Melbourne VIC 3205

Phone: (03) 9686 2990

stali.com.au

April 14, 2017January 15, 2018

Betty’s Burgers & Concrete Co, Melbourne

When asked for the food that first come into mind in Melbourne, I personally would say burger (without doubt!). Maybe because we had a few burgers more in Melbourne than anywhere else we have travelled to. But in my defense, there are indeed many burger joints in Melbourne CBD alone; so it makes sense that I correlate burger with Melbourne 🙂

Anyway, having walked past Betty’s Burger joint multiple times and it always seems busy we decided to have an early lunch on a Saturday. We went there around 11 am and it sure was not busy because they just opened for the day:P Yay for us: no long wait and plenty of seats available.

Love those potted plants and fairy lights on the ceiling 🙂

Upon looking at the menu, I knew right away which burger to get. And why I even made a point of this is I usually couldn’t decide to get which one, most of the times I have at least 2 options I really want to try. But in here, I knew the one I wanted to order in one glance of the menu.

Here are our orders:

The Shroom Burger was awesome!!! Very nice delicious indeed with gooey melted cheese sandwiched between two huge crispy skin mushroom. It is a sinful and yummy treat 🙂 Hubby had Betty’s Classic Stack and he said the beef patty was good, not too dry. But we both agreed the shroom patty is the best part of the burger (っ˘ڡ˘ς)

Betty’s Burgers & Concrete Co.

97 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne VIC 3000

Phone: (03) 9642 5823

Email: infomelbournecbd@bettysburgers.com.au

www.bettysburgers.com.au

Update 15/01/2018:

Betty’s Burger is now also open in Darling Harbour, Sydney. It has opened since June 2017 apparently, but I had only seen that last week when walked past it. And here is their address:

E04/14 Darling Dr, Sydney NSW 2000

Phone: (02) 9212 7773

April 12, 2017October 28, 2023

Gukbab, Melbourne

One problem with having too many choices is you end up not being able to choose, any one agree with me here? That was how we felt on one evening during our Melbourne trip. I mean there are so many restaurants there, impossible to keep track of, and yet we just could not decide where to go. It had been a long day and we were just resting at the hotel while watching Food Network. The show was about exploring Korean food and that eventually inspired us to look for hearty Korean food in Melbourne 🙂

We often walk past Little Lonsdale St during our stay at Atlantis and there is a block where there are many Korean restaurants. Most of the time, there are always small crowd in front of the restaurants and even though we look at them curiously, we never happened to look closer. So, this time we walked past each of them and read their menu, see how busy the restaurants were and decided what type of Korean meal we wanted.

Since we were no going for Korean BBQ type, we ended up at Gukbab. And here are what we ordered:

And of course … rice! The only gave very few type of banchan aka Korean side dishes

The hotpot was so hearty, especially good for winter season. It has generous amount of meat, vegetables and tofu. The cheese buldak aka stir fried chicken with extra hot chilli sauce and cheese topping was delicious and hot! It was not as hot on the first few bites but after a while, I started getting the chilli punch. But, it is still a tasty dish and I love how they cut the chicken pieces into bite sizes. A little disappointed with the banchan served, usually we get a few more types in Sydney, but were only served three types here. Banchan is usually one of the things I look forward to when eating in Korean restaurant, just because they are so many types of them and always a great experience to get something unusual 🙂

Overall, we had a warming and hearty dinner here. It was decent meal albeit not the most memorable one. As for price, they are kind of similar standard with other Korean restaurants here in Sydney.

Gukbab

Shop 1, 535 Little Lonsdale Street, CBD, Melbourne

Phone: (03) 9939 0380