james test

Our final night at the theatre as MTC subscribers was a memorable one. For starters, we had my dad and his wife Anne joining us as our belated 2007 Christmas gift to them. Then, after reading Jon's great experience , I decided to book the four of us in for Ezard's pre-theatre tasting menu (four courses, $65) to round out the evening. So the stakes were high when Michael and I lost the four theatre tickets . Nevertheless, I cheerfully confirmed the details of the night to my Dad on the phone on Thursday with nary a mention of the house in disarray around me. My faith in the Melbourne Theatre Company proved well-founded. On Friday morning one of their employees endured my convoluted explanation of how we purchased those four tickets in two pairs and on what days and which names might have been used and gosh, I'm so sorry and embarrassed , and within half an hour this unfazed gent had worked out our precise seat numbers and arranged for passes to be picked up on our wa...

January 2016: Doing a bit of blog tidying up and it looks like this place has been closed for ages. Cindy's been agitating for a visit to Laksa Me for some time - there's been plenty of good press for it and the affordable, speedy Asian food it promised seemed perfect for a pre-theatre bite. It's tucked away on trendy Liverpool Street in the city, and would be pretty easy to walk straight past. There's nothing too slick about the inside either - it's all clearly aimed at being low-key and minimalist, with lots of concrete and bare tables. We had no problems wandering in and getting a table at 6:45 on a Friday and, despite a couple of decent-sized groups turning up, it didn't look like bookings would be worth worrying about. The menu is pretty substantial, but the vego options aren't super abundant: there's a few starters, a curry, a laksa and a pad thai - not a bad list, but not a huge range either. We started with one of the starters each: a ve...

28/09/2015: As noted by Natalie below , Bismi Gold An Fork is no more. Ever since we purchased our first Melbourne Cheap Eats Guide and read about the 29 different types of roti, we've been intending to try out Bismi. Somhow, even with the added convenience of a city shop, we'd failed. Finally the need for a speedy pre-theatre dinner gave us the motivation we needed to make our first visit. It's set in a fairly desolate section of Elizabeth Street, but is a pleasant, welcoming venue - lots of crowded tables, Bollywood film clips playing on a tv and a long queue snaking away from the front counter. Cindy and I stood off to one side and gave the menu our attention, quickly settling on two different types of thali. It was only once we'd made it to the front of the line that we realised that the thalis were a lunch only phenomenon. So it was back to the side to study the menu some more. We made our decisions and rejoined the line, but my hopes were dashed once more wh...

Edit 25/04/2017: Enlightened Cuisine is now rebranded as  Vegie Kitchen . Not strictly Friday, and not pre-theatre. Instead, we wandered across to Enlightenment Cuisine in South Melbourne early on a Saturday evening following a matinée showing of Holding the Man at The Malthouse. Cindy had one of her semi-regular faux-meat cravings, and our previous trip to the incongruously located (across the street from Crown) Enlightenment Cuisine had been relatively successful. It all added up to good excuse to make our theatre-related dinner a slightly more expensive experience (although it turns out they're now offering a series of $9 'food on the run' meal combos straight from the lunch menu, so it needn't have been quite so expensive). Cindy, bafflingly, is rarely able to expand her faux-meat enthusiasms from the sickly sweet Chinese treats she remembers from her childhood: usually honey chicken, sweet and sour pork or lemon chicken. This week it was lemon chicken - I alw...

At the eastern end of Bourke St sit three Indian restaurants in a row: Red Pepper, Jaipur Curry Bar, and Green Pepper. Mellie recently recommended them to us , so Michael and I met up there for an early dinner in 36-degree weather before our second night at the theatre. Green Pepper was closed so we were faced with a choice between Jaipur and Red Pepper. We picked the latter because I knew it was one of the Peppers that offered Mellie's favourite naans. It was the wrong Pepper but never mind - the naans here were great! Red Pepper is in fact a sister restaurant to Green Pepper, which might explain why we encountered excellent naans and rudimentary service eerily similar to what Mellie described. The atmosphere is no more sophisticated than a cafeteria - line up to order from the couple of menus or the chalkboard of specials, then take a number and a seat at a vacant table. If you're lucky the table will be wiped and there'll be a few napkins in a holder, but don't...

In 2008, Michael and I are stepping into the unfamiliar world of high culture with a subscription to the Melbourne Theatre Company . Thus, on seven Fridays in the next ten months, we'll be hunting for delicious dinners around the CBD that we can gobble down before the curtains rise at 8pm. I'm clumsily dubbing this series of posts Friday Featre Food. We've got a few ideas for future meals but we're also keen for your recommendations - casual or classy, just be sure it's tasty and timely. First up, an old favourite with a new flavour: Lord of the Fries . They have a second outlet now at Shop 5 Flinders St Station, facing Federation Square. We picked up the $13.40 deal - an original regular-sized burger, a spicy regular-sized burger and a cone of chips. The night's sauce of choice? The Indian chutney/yoghurt mix. It was pleasant enough, but the Belgian mayonnaise holds a special place in my heart (or is that arteries?). We relaxed on the grassy south bank...