Shandong Mama

Shop 7, 200 Bourke Street
Melbourne
VIC 3000

After hearing about their out of the ordinary dumplings we decided to check out Shandong Mama. It's in the Midcity arcade running between Bourke and Little Bourke near Russell.

It did a pretty good job for a mall based restaurant, with a modern fit out that worked well.

The menu's on the windows featured a range of dumplings, as well as some tapas style dishes and more full on mains.

We tried a couple of smaller dishes as well as some dumplings. The sweet and sour cabbage salad was flavoursome and refreshing.

The boiled 'Melbourne' dumplings came next...

These feature a mixture of chicken, fish, mussels, prawn and calamari with herbs in a thick house made skin, which all combined well.

We had to give the famed fried mackerel dumplings a try and these certainly looked the part with their crispy skin and unusual shape. We may have been expecting too much, but they weren't quite a flavoursome as we expected, but not nice enough anyway.

The fried eggplant stuffed with pork was a little bit too oily for us...

The service was efficient, and we enjoyed our meal. The bill came to $40, and I'd happily try a couple f the other dishes, but wasn't quite as impressed as I'd expected to be.

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Yummie Yum Cha

189-193 Barkly Street
Footscray
Victoria 3011

Despite being open for several years, we'd never got around to visiting Yummie Yum Cha. It had always looked a bit tired and empty inside, but on a recent evening after noticing it had been renovated and was looking a bit busier, we gave it a go.

Inside the bright chairs and banquettes certainly added some colour.

The wooden tables gave the place a nice feel.

The menu features plenty of dumplings, plus some bigger dishes takeaway is also available.

Although it was only moderately busy, it seem that the numbers were a bit much for the team on duty, but we eventually got to order.

The steamed prawn dumplings looked and tasted great.

The steamed scallop dumplings had only a thin topping of scallop with prawn beneath, but had the distinctive flavour.

The Chinese mushroom and vegetable buns had a hard to place, odd, overpowering flavour...

The steamed Peking style vegetarian dumplings had thick skins, but the filling was fine.

The stuffed eggplant with prawn was probably the winner here and my first taste of this dish.

We were thinking of ordering some more food as we were still a bit peckish, but couldn't get the attention of the waitress, so ended up paying at the counter, from where there is a good view into the kitchen. Overall the meal was fine, but let down by the service. Being pretty close to home we may give it another go, and hopefully they'll get used to handling what was a fairly modest level of custom!

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Garden View Cafe

44 Nicholson Street
Fitzroy
VIC 3065

Although I'd seen the Garden View Cafe plenty of times, I'd never been able to find out much about it on line, and hadn't investigated further.

Eventually I visited with Brendan, rather than pressing on up to Gertrude St. As you go inside you enter the counter area, with the tables through a small opening, the space was bigger than I expected, with basic tables and chairs and bare brick walls.

The menu isn't that extensive but covers some the basic cafe bases.

Brendan had the burger with the lot, which was generously sized and lived up to its description.

I went for the veggie burger minus cheese, and was slightly surprised that there wasn't a patty of some sort. The content of egg, pepper, onions, tomato, beetroot and salad was certainly plentiful, but it didn't rival the Jerry's Vegiburgers experience.

The service was pretty swift and the meety burger good value, but I'd try something different if I visited again...

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Marinades Indian Restaurant, Cairns

43 Spence Street,
Cairns,
Queensland 4870

We got to Cairns and used Urbanspoon to narrow down our hunt for where to eat. Marinades was in the top ten and we were in the mood for curries, so we headed towards Spence Street. We arrived to find a small grouping of 3 smart Indian eateries and headed in to our chosen venue.

Inside the smart wooden floor board and tables were complimented by Indian artifacts and pictures on the wall.

We were a little greedy and went for three main dishes. The Bagarela Baigan, an eggplant based dish from Hyderabad was a new one for us and we enjoyed the flavours. The chicken saag and Bengali fish curry were both also good.

Our naan also impressed.

Other than not getting any sauces or salads with our poppadoms the service and meal went really well. The bill came to just over $80, and Marinades is worth giving a try if you are in Cairns and after Indian food.

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Whet Restaurant, Cape Tribulation

1 Cape Tribulation Road
Cape Tribulation
Queensland 4873


Approaching on foot on the winding path from the road at night, Whet certainly feels like it is in the rain forest. The cafe, bar and Restaurant opened in 2007, set amongst beautiful and untouched tropical Daintree was busy on the Friday we visited.

Our table on the deck was almost within touching distance of the trees. Although we soon had some water it took us a while to order and then receive our drinks, probably due to a combination of the number of diners, some inexperienced staff, and at one stage a shortage of clean wine glasses!

We shared the Turkish pide with house made apple balsamic in olive oil with dukkah as an entree and it lived up to expectations.

The usual barramundi wasn't on the menu at Whet, as recent weather conditions resulted in the local fish not being of sufficient size or quality. In its absence I had the tempura battered wild local reef fish, chips, house-made tartare sauce and a topping of mini fries. The batter was crisp and the fish fresh.

The crispy skinned salmon was cooked to a perfect medium rare and served with asparagus, wilted spinach, a potato galette and a seeded mustard beurre blanc. The potato was the only disappointing component, being just a little too super thin.

The atmosphere and setting certainly sets Whet up well and the service was friendly if not particularly quick, but it is a great spot to  linger a little over a meal. The bill came to around $80 with a few drinks and we'd certainly head back for dinner if we were in the area again.

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Cape Tribulation Beach House Bitro

Cape Tribulation Road
Cape Tribulation
Queensland 4873

The bistro at the Cape Tribulation Beach House resort was another recommendation from the people running our accommodation. We probably wouldn't have it up the unmetalled road and then after parking, down the long track past the accommodation blocks in the dark rainforest to the bistro.

We found a table in the busy area, most of the space was on decking under a large awning with an open counter.

I had the snapper on a nicoise style salad. The skin was crispy and it was far better than the blurred photo...

We ordered a side of chips, which were almost too big!

The generous fillet of salmon came with a great herb crust.

Some of the staff were obviously new, which slowed things down a little, but it was still a nice spot to have a meal.

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Cafe on Sea, Thornton Beach

Cape Tribulation Road,
Thornton Beach,
Queensland 4873

Perched between the road from the Daintree River up to Cape Tribulation and Thornton Beach, Cafe on Sea lives up to its name in a very enviable location...

After a walk on to the beach we grabbed an outdoor table with an ocean view, and tried to keep away from the many deep fried options on the menu.

We ordered the Mezze plate to share for lunch, and it was a little smaller than we expected, and the quality of the fayre varied.

You wont find many locations to match this spot, its a beautiful, remote place place to stop. The food perhaps isn't as special, but its still worth a visit when passing.

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The Sand Bar

LOT 11 Cape Tribulation Road
Cape Tribulation
Queensland 4873

Cape Tribulation Camping has been around for nearly 10 years, and in 2011 “The Sand Bar” complete with wood fired pizza oven opened in what seemed to be the centre of the camping area.

Our accommodation recommended it as a good spot to get pizza and we decided to give it a try. Initially we found some bar stools near the counter, before ordering and then grabbing one of the outdoor picnic tables.

The table was near the wood fired oven, which seemed to be very active trying to supply plenty of hungry diners. The outdoor seat gave us plenty of opportunity to gaze skywards and we even observed a satellite passing overhead.

I had the cheese free vegetarian pizza topped with spinach, which was noticeably lighter and fresher than the margherita with added anchovies. Both the bases and all the toppings were good quality and well prepared.

 It took a while for us to get our pizza's but it was worth the wait. The Sand Bar isn't glamourous, but serves good food in an idyllic location.

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Port Douglas Surf Lifesaving Club

The Esplanade
Port Douglas
Queensland 4877

Right on 4 mile beach, the Port Douglas Surf Lifesaving Club, is situated away from the throng of Macrossan street.

The majority of the seating is set up on the terrace beneath the canopy, with views through the trees to the sand and coral sea.

There are separate counters for food and drinks, and the menu was up on the board as well as the printed versions.

We shares a serve of the Fish Taco's, accompanied by guacamole, salsa, nachos. They were a decent size and contained battered fish, faloursome sauce and coriander, a definite winner.

I had the cioppino or tomato based fish stew, filled with mussels, prawns, scallops and fish and topped with basil and served with bread and aioli.

The grilled reef fish with chips, rocket and tartar wasn't spectacular but delivered the goods.

The food came to around $60 and was pretty good value. It is certainly a good choice if you are keen on beach side dining.

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