Melbourne: Miscellaneous

This is our last post about our Melbourne trip – possibly time to start planning the next holiday? Manchester Press is extremely popular, again with a waiting crowd. In our opinion the food was average.Amazing milk shaved ice with mango cubes and mango popping jelly. We’re craving this all day every day, take us back please! Incredibly beautiful day and an incredibly beautiful beach. This is hands down the best steak I have ever had in my life. No exaggeration. A must-visit.Convenient, fresh, cheap and good quality sushi. Why can’t we have such things in Auckland too?Fun little shop jam-packed with goodies, we probably spent a little too long in here. A very popular tapas destination situated just opposite Federation Square. They have two restaurant spaces next to each other and both are full to the brim with a wait extending past the half hour. The food was very tasty and at a reasonable cost.

We hope you enjoyed these Melbourne blog posts!

Melbourne: The Hotel Edition

Not only did we do a crazy amount of eating, we also did a bit of hotel jumping on our recent trip to Melbourne. In total we stayed at three different hotels.

1: The Westin, Melbourne
The Pros – Clean minimalistic design, excellent service, incredibly comfy bed, perfect location right at the heart of the CBD, close to Flinders Train Station and the tram stops, bathtub available, large bathroom, grand lobby
The Cons – Poor wifi connection (we ended up asking for a router for the room), difficult toilet flushing (the toilet cover was half covering the buttons which were also very hard to press)

The view from our room

A mocktail before boarding the plane

2: The Blackman
The Pros – Good price, clean and stylish room and furniture, large balconies
The Cons – Poor location (no supermarkets or restaurants close by and nothing to do/see nearby either), slightly creepy artwork, poor security (they didn’t even ask us for I.D. when checking in)

Across the road from the hotel

The depressed girl and the dead girl artwork

The dead girl with the creepy black eye flower pot head

Massive balcony #1

Balcony #2

3: Stamford Plaza, Melbourne
The Pros – Good price, very spacious with a separate bedroom and living room, classic and clean interior, bathtub available, L’Occitane products for use
The Cons – Slow service

Melbourne: The Hardware Societe

Obviously we ate our hearts out in Melbourne. The Hardware Societe is a famous breakfast/brunch destination in the CBD. We waited for around 30 minutes. Inside, the cafe was bustling with people and sported a happy and light atmosphere. The staff were friendly and offered prompt service. Between the three of us we shared a baked egg dish and some mushrooms. Both were great. The baked egg simply stole our hearts, it had ample amounts of flavour with the egg cooked to perfection. There’s also an array of homemade jams and other treats for sale. It’s definitely worth a visit if you’re in the area and don’t mind the wait. Please do let us know of any baked egg recipes you guys may have, we’ve been dying to relive this delicious dish.

Sister bracelets!

Melbourne: The Breslin Bar & Grill

On a Sunday night we decided to go for a stroll along the Yarra River in search of some good food. We were told that most of the decent restaurants would be closed so it was really a hit or miss with what was open. As we walked along we checked out the menus which were conveniently displayed outside their respective restaurants (it’s like Auckland’s Wynyard Quarter but with about 100x greater of a selection). We settled on The Breslin Bar & Grill after having been lured in by the wonderful smoky smell that was drifting out of the restaurant. That, and we were getting hungry halfway down the river. I must say, we were pleasantly surprised. My favourite would have been the Pork Ribs which were grilled to perfection and was obviously the dish that created that oh-so-tasty smoky air. We also had a Char-grilled Wagyu Rump to share between the three of us. Tasty, yes but I had better steak at The Meat, Wine & Co. which is actually located further down the river.  The only real disappointment was the dessert, being a lemon meringue pie. It was extremely runny and too sweet, having lost that tang which seals the deal. With a great atmosphere and classy interior we were three extremely satisfied sisters. After having seen so many other delicious-looking dishes popping out of the kitchen, we were so very tempted to come back another night, but maybe next time!

Also, next post will be about Boni’s birthday dinner at the one and only Sails restaurant in Westhaven. Hurrah on turning 23. Follow us to stay updated on Instagram @twohonesttruths or click the +Follow button at the bottom right hand corner to subscribe by email or WordPress.

Melbourne: The Streets

I sincerely hope we haven’t overwhelmed you with Melbourne photos but point is this is our first trip to Melbourne (Kely’s to Australia) and as excellent tourists, we will snap away at anything and everything. It’s only natural. Please bear with us. The following are photos from Federation Square, the cultural precinct of Melbourne. It’s a brilliant CBD space where you can meet people, have some lunch, get on the tram, get on the train and enjoy some street exhibitions as you go. We need something like this here in Auckland. The art of the city is heavily embraced by Melbourne’s laneways culture. The street art offering ‘a feast of colour, ideas and energy.’ It brings a lot of life into the CBD, something we thoroughly enjoyed on our stay.

Melbourne: Pie Face

So following on from this crazy pie hype going on in the country, I thought it was only apt that we share with you our great Pie Face experience. I always believed we here in New Zealand all had an unexplainable love for pies, be it the apple pie from McDonalds, the Big Ben frozen pies from the supermarket or the gourmet award-wining pies from the standalone stores. Everyone claims to have been brought up with pies, like we see with the Georgie Pie comeback. But oh, we are not alone in this flaky pastry heaven. Aside from the beautiful buildings in the Melbourne CBD, another thing which stood out was that there was a Pie Face on every corner of the street – I kid you not. A lot of the stores we saw were even open 24 hours, the pie love is immensely strong. At first I was a little skeptical, surely all those gold and silver award labelled pies we got here would be better than a chain store. I was wrong. We ordered a Steak and Cheese Pie, a Sausage Roll and Minestrone Soup. Although the latter wasn’t to our liking, the former two were enough to have us reminiscing about Pie Face after returning back to Auckland. The pastry was puffy and crisp with a great buttery flavour. There were chunks of steak and cheese was oozing out of the pie. Now now, don’t get sad that you’ll have to fly four hours over the sea to try some of these happy looking pies, they’re actually opening soon here in New Zealand! (I had no idea too, until I spotted the familiar red face splashed all over a vehicle in Ellerslie after work.) Here’s some photos to give you guys a ‘taste’ of it first, the many faces the pies sport give it the extra happiness – an ‘S’ frown for a ‘S’teak pie! :S. A little side fact: Pie Face was actually started by two fashion designers.

Melbourne: The Pancake Parlour

On our trip to Melbourne we visited the famous Chadstone Shopping Centre which boasts 530 stores and is the largest mall in the southern hemisphere. It dwarfs anything that is available here in Auckland. The centre has an abundant amount of natural light shining through by way of its transparent glass ceiling, which makes it easy on the eyes and comfortable to shop. To no surprise, we couldn’t make it to every corner of the mall and inadvertently needed a rest. Happily we found that The Pancake Parlour was conveniently located inside, having just seen the standalone store on our way to the mall. The pancakes are amazing. We ordered the Regular Stack, and as The Parlour likes to say, ‘there’s nothing regular about the Regular Stack’. You have my word. There is 100% truth in that. It might not look like anything astounding, but believe me it was incredibly good. Secretly I hoped they would sell their mix in powder form so I could relive the memories back here in Kiwiland.

Melbourne: The State Library

Something that amazed me about Melbourne was the architecture in the CBD. Every second building you came across on the street seemed to embody some sort of historical facade. To me, it seemed to give the city more life as opposed to a concrete jungle where every second building was a tall, glass skyscraper instead. I’m not quite sure how long we spent on our visit to The State Library, there was so much to see and the place was so large that at some point we got lost. The library was reasonably full, but remained wonderfully quiet. With an interior so grand and captivating, it actually made me want to sit down and study with all the students that were there- though I’m doubtful on how they concentrate when people constantly walk past, at one point we even saw a tour group.

Melbourne.

So having lived right next to Australia, for possibly nearly 17 years we have never actually been to Melbourne (at least Boni’s been to the Gold Coast, but Kely hasn’t even stepped on Australian soil before!). The trip was rushed though, and somehow exhausting – we honestly rely on our cars too much here, but all in all it was a great trip and nice reunion with our sister who’s currently living in Taipei. Here’s a few snaps to start with, there’s more coming soon so remember to follow us!