Red Pepper

14 Bourke Street, Melbourne, 3000

Red Pepper is at the top end of Bourke Street near Spring Street and Parliament. It was busy on a Friday lunch time visit with a largish group. We were seated upstairs and a waitress took our order, however most orders were being taken at a desk downstairs.

We waited a while for our orders, and when they arrived they were placed on the table at the closest point for us to distribute.

I had the Palak Tikka Masala with rice and naan.

The dish was tasty and well spiced, and most of the naan bread was fresh.

I also tried a bit of butter chicken, which was much spicier than I expected.

My meal was $10.

Update (8/9/10) - I went back and had the veggie thali special:

A good variety and all tasty!







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Ha Long

Ha Long
76 Nicholson St
Footscray, 3011

We hadn't eaten at HaLong for a while, I think it had been closed for a while, changed management, and/or been refurbished in the interim.

The location of the restaurant just back from Barkly street near the old Royal Hotel, where Droop, Barkly and Nicholson streets meet and near the Little Saigon market, and it's a triangular shaped building, meaning plenty of light gets in and you can watch the world go by outside.

We had Pho Ga, which was adequate but not as good as we remembered from previous visits. With the great competition around, I doubt we will be rushing back. It's a shame because I like the layout and site.





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The Metropolitan Hotel

42 Courtney St
Melbourne, 3051

The Metropolitan Hotel, in North Melbourne is built into the corner of the impressive former North Melbourne meat market. We ate in the bar, which was impressive enough, with some great stained glass windows, the dining room was even more formal and grand.

The menu offered fairly standard Australian pub food with a few more unusual dishes.

We shared the black pudding (for the two poms present) and  the salt and sechwan pepper Calamari, with garlic chips, pickled ginger and nam jim dressing for entrée.The black pud was great, not too strong and meaty but with the distinctive flavour still there, although the ladies weren't hugely impressed.the calamari was good, although some of the diners hadn't read the menu and were expecting a more standard salt and pepper calamari...

The parma's were large, came with plenty of chunky chips and a glass of salad on the side. All good except for the a lack of ham, which I was expecting. After some research it doesn't seem that all parma's have to have ham, but I've got pretty used to it as standard now...

The market fish - salmon got good feedback and came with plenty of rocket and a great salsa verde.

I tried a bit of the corned beef, it's actually the first time I'd had any of the non-tinned variety, and it was very different, tender and enjoyable...

The bill came to around $180 for 4 with drinks...





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