Lot 7

95 Flinders Lane
Melbourne
VIC 3000

You can't miss Lot 7 while strolling down Flinders Lane between Exhibition and Russell, with the large smiley sign augmented with yellow and black balloons on the Thursday lunch time we visited. Phil had suggested a visit after reading about Lot 7, and their lunch specials.

The interior is large and feels spacious with the light flooding in through the industrial style roof. It were quite a few other diners around, including a couple of big groups, but it still felt like we had enough space.

We got a larger general menu, but both homed in on the smaller lunch specials flier.

I had the Orecchiette and the hearty pasta shapes were accompanied with eggplant, tomato, olives and basil to produce a great dish. I don't often have pasta when out, as I often have it at home, but this hit the spot.

Phil had the parma which came with chips in a deep fryer basket and coleslaw. Unusually the chicken breast was from a normal sized chicken rather than some sort giant/mutant and the tomato sauce appeared fresh and came with the addition of a basil leaf. He certainly seemed happy with the meal.

The service was smooth, until we received the wrong bill at first, but that was quickly sorted out, and the staff were all friendly. It's certainly a good spot for an Australian/Italian style lunch in the city at a decent price...

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Mr Tulk cafe

328 Swanston Street - enter from La Trobe street
Melbourne
VIC
3000

Situated in the imposing State Library of Victoria, Mr Tulk Cafe is apparently named after the first Librarian. On a spring Friday lunch time visit lots of the tables outside were busy.

Inside the decor was library themed. After a brief wait we were shown to a table and given a menu featuring a few breakfast items, sandwiches and some hot dishes. 

Trem had a basic but authentically French looking ham baguette.

 I went for the soup of the day, chorizo, roasted tomato and bean, which was flavoursome and satisfying and more exciting than the photo makes it look!

Both meals were around $10 and it's certainly popular and provides a nice environment to grab some food as an alternative to the nearby options on Swanson St. The service was efficient, and friendly but we certainly got the hint to move on once we were finished, which was fair enough given how busy they were...

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1+1 Dumpling Noodles... again

84 Hopkins St
Footscray
Vic 3011

Our first visit to 1+1 was over two years ago, and as they'd re-decorated and had some new menu's printed it was worth a writing about again.

Inside things feel much less stark and bare, although some music would be good to add some atmosphere, and conceal the sounds of noodles being slurped! The menu seemed bigger than last time, strangely there were notes mentioning that the pictures weren't of dishes from the kitchen!

We went for the spicy cucumber salad, which we'd enjoyed before and it didn't disappoint, with the chilli based spice building nicely.

The fried vegetable dumplings great and super hot on arrival, with spinach and mushrooms standing out in the filling.

The seafood dumplings in soup were as good as we remembered.

The baby greens with garlic provided a good contrast of textures and flavours.

Next time we will have to try some noodles, as they form half the name. It's good to see 1+1 doing well enough to refurbish and continue to produce great value tasty food, and I'm sure we'll continue to stop in on an irregular basis.

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