Pho Chu The

92 Hopkins St
Footscray, 3011

After we found Sekai shutting on a Monday evening, despite the sign saying it was going to be open every day from 10:30am - 8:30pm, we headed across the road to Pho Chu The.  The shop window was decorated with the obligatory fake palms and bamboo and some Christmas decorations left over from last year.  When we arrived, most diners were tuned into the flat screen TV on the wall showing Asian music videos.

Our waitress who arrived promptly with some tea didn't even need to show us menus - we knew exactly what we wanted and we were not left waiting for long until our delicious bowls of pho ga were served. Note:  there are no spring rolls on the menu if you are that way inclined.

The chicken broth was extremely flavoursome and there were large chunks of lovely tender chicken.  The noodles were perfectly cooked and the usual garnish consisting of bean shoots and thai basil was fresh and plentiful.  The only thing missing was freshly chopped chilli - a chilli sauce was provided in a bottle if you wanted the extra kick.

Our stomachs were satisfied as were our wallets.  This place is definitely now in our top 5 places for pho in Footscray.









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Yarra Glen Grand

19 Bell Street, Yarra Glen 
Vic 3775

The Yarra Glen Grand Hotel is the most imposing building on the main street in Yarra Glen. I'd popped in before but never eaten there.


It was busy on a Sunday lunchtime when we visited, but the service was still pretty swift. The menu was huge, and covered standard pub food with quite a few pasta dishes and a couple of curry dishes too.

I had the fish and chips which were great, decent portions and tasty fish in a crisp batter, that wasn't greasy.

The spaghetti marinara got good review, plenty of good prawns!

I tried a little of the Baileys chocolate mousse dessert which was very tasty too.









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Geppetto Trattoria

78 Wellington Pde

East Melbourne, 3002

Geppetto Trattoria is a small and fairly old school restaurant, not far from the MCG.

 

Amongst the entrées were Calamari:

Salsiccie - pan fried home made pork sausage, which was tasty, but perhaps could have had some thing served with it...

Crumbed Sardines with a garlic aioli.

The mains were:
The risotto con funghi e gorgonzola, which had a great texture as well as flavour.

The fish of the day - Kingfish, which was apparently a little dry.

The gnocchi ragu, which was perfectly cooked and melted in the mouth.

It was a great pre-footy meal, and Geelong won, which meant one of the diners us was happy!









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The Waiters Club

20 Meyers Pl
Melbourne, 3000

This was my first visit to the Waiters Club, and it was good my fellow diner had been before as it's not that easy to find, up a flight of stairs above the Myers Place bar.

Inside the place can't have changed for  years, in fact there was an article on the wall from 1999 discussing how retro it was then! The menu and specials are up on blackboards on the walls.

We had some garlic bread to start, soon followed by the Penne Putanesca which suitably fishy and salty!

The ricotta ravioli were good, the sauce was a little basic and sweet.

We shared some tiramisu which lived up to expectations, with well soaked sponges!

The bill came to around $65 with a drink each, not bad, but  little more than I'd been expecting, although it's hard to know when the prices are on the 'menu' boards...




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