Boombap

Tucked away on the ground floor inside the Exchange Tower on Little Collins Street, Boombap is a hole-in-the-wall kind of place. But its size is very much disproportionate to the flavours they pack into the food they serve.

Top: Boombap storefront
Bottom: buttermilk fried chicken & coleslaw bap, iced mocha

The storefront is welcoming and has a definite street-food feel about it. Menu items are handwritten on chalkboards above the counter and along the top of one of the back walls (which is also lined with cassette tapes).

While there isn't a fixed menu, I'm told there are three regular items - the buttermilk fried chicken & coleslaw bap, the gumbo, and the Texas BBQ beef roll (previously, the philly cheesesteak). Today's menu features crispy fish po'boy, sauteed mushroom baguette, corn & chilli chowder and hot & spicy chicken wings amongst other soul food classics.

I order a buttermilk fried chicken bap and an iced mocha and seat myself on one of the four seats available to dine-in customers (limited seating doesn't seem to be a problem as most people order to go).

The bap arrives in a brown paper bag, and it's huge! The bap is overflowing with crispy pieces of fried chicken and plenty of coleslaw that makes the whole thing taste healthy! Bonus points to these guys for serving this in a little polystyrene box to catch all the bits that fall out.

The iced mocha is nice and refreshing - not too sweet and without the mounds of whipped cream that usually make an iced mocha sickeningly rich. 

Amazing food and excellent service. A very pleasant start to my day off!

MissChu

Location: 297 Exhibition Street, Melbourne VIC 3000
Phone: (03) 9077 1097
Link: www.misschu.com.au
Cuisine: Vietnamese

After quick and simple Vietnamese food in the CBD? MissChu is the place to go. It has a tiny shopfront so if you're not looking for it, it's pretty easy to miss.

 'sashimi tuna' and 'satay chicken & coconut young' rice paper rolls

Rice paper rolls are what MissChu is known for and these certainly impressed. We ordered one with sashimi tuna, and another with satay chicken and coconut. Both were delicious. The sashimi was fresh and delicate. The chicken one was packed with flavour and sweet pieces of coconut. And the dipping sauce was sweet and savoury, a little spicy and totally to die for.

coconut juice

There was a little disappointment at seeing the coconut juice arrive in the form of packaged coconut juice. Given everything else on the menu seemed to be made on site, I had been hoping for some fresh coconut juice. That said, it was sweet and fresh and went great with the rest of the meal.

Peking duck pancakes

These peking duck pancakes were tasty. The pancakes were light and delicate, the duck was tender and the skin was a little crispy. However, it lacked

traditional pork Hanoi spring rolls

This is nothing like the typical boring spring rolls you get from the take away store, which are usually filled with a bunch of shredded vegetables and little to no meat. The traditional Vietnamese spring roll is filled with a fragrant mince mixture with a range of different textured vegies. These were the most authentic I've had in the Melbourne CBD - crispy on the outside, fragrant juicy meat filling on the inside.

The only complaint I'd make is that for $6, I'd have expected more.  In Springvale or Footscray, one would get a good 6-8 of these crunchy treats.

Overall Impression: 9/10

Fu Long: Lunch Specials

Location: 942 Whitehorse Rd, Box Hill [near Station Street]
Cuisine: Chinese

Dad and I went to Fu Long for lunch one weekday for their lunchtime specials. On weekends they have yum cha, but during the week they've taken to copying the surrounding restaurants and serving cheap and quick meals. Well, it was supposed to be quick.

We ordered a roast duck on rice and a pork and century egg congee with fried dough stick (for the congee). The lot totalled under $15 and we even had a bit to take away!

The only negative was that the congee took over half an hour to come out - we have a feeling they forgot about the order. In any case, it was worth the wait in the end because it came out in a little claypot and used roast pork instead of bland plain pork. I was an instant fan!

Am so going back for the specials again!

Overall Impression: 9/10

Northland Shopping Centre: Manhattan Diner

Location: Food Court, Northland Shopping Centre, 50 Murray Road, East Preston
Link: www.northlandshopping.com.au
Cuisine: Takeaway

Clearly one of the best hotdogs I have ever had. Sausage, barbecue sauce, caramelised onions and cheese on top of a soft bread roll...beautiful!! There may possibly have been too much cheese, as towards the end I found myself taking off some of the cheese, but the overall taste sensation was awesome. And the chips were pretty good too - a bit like Maccas chips without all the oil.

Hotdog with barbecue sauce, caramelised onions and cheese with fries

For $9.50, I got a hotdog, chips and a drink (had to pay extra for the onions - which I think are essential to any hotdog!)

Overall Impression: 9/10

Aromatic Cafe and Restaurant

Location: Orica Building, 1 Nicholson Street, East Melbourne
Link: www.cafearomatic.com.au/
Cuisine: Café, Quick Lunches


Another café on the Nicholson, Albert, Lonsdale and Spring Streets intersection, this time located on the ground floor of the Orica building, Aromatic is another hot food counter and cafe. Given the close proximity to where I was working, I also found myself at Aromatic a few times. The first meal I had there was a butter chicken on rice. The chicken was done surprisingly well for a takeaway/glass counter dish, and the serving was very generous. My second meal from there was a gnocchi, which was somewhat disappointing to me. The gnocchi was very floury and not quite soft enough. Either that or I'm not a gnocchi fan. Did not get photos for either.


Overall Impression: 7/10

Albert Street Deli

Location: 478 Albert St, East Melbourne
Cuisine: Café, Quick Lunches

Located a little off the intersection of Nicholson, Albert, Lonsdale and Spring Streets, is a little café aptly named 'Albert Street Deli'. More like a miniature food court, the cafe has three main counters: a patisserie, a sandwich/roll counter and a hot food stand.

I dropped into this place a few times during my work experience up that end of town and found that most of the food there wasn't all that great, apart from the soup. The pumpkin soup there was one of the best I have ever had, and at a very cheap price too! For $6.50, you can get a large bowl of hot steaming soup, with a fairly large buttered roll. An awesome comfort food in the middle of freezing winter!

Pumpkin soup with buttered roll

There's barely any waiting time as the soup sits heated in the counter window. The service is okay, at times abrupt, but at such a cheap price, I went back and had this soup three times in two weeks!

Overall Impression: 9.5/10 [for soup only]

R4 Cafe

Location: 12 Equitable Place (near corner of Collins and Elizabeth Streets)
Cuisine: Quick Meals, Modern Australian

Hidden away on the western end of the Collins and Elizabeth Street intersection is a little laneway called Equitable Place. The laneway is full of little cafes and stalls, some sporting full seating inside, others which are merely a standalone stall with perhaps a table or two and some chairs just outside. There was food of all sorts - cafe food, sushi, a baguette and hotdog place, a sandwich bar and plenty of others.

As I walked past R4 Cafe, their daily specials caught my eye - $6.90 soup and bread. Hungry and cold, I went in. Inside is like a miniature food court. A long counter runs down one side of the cafe, with soups, pastas, salads, roast, sandwiches, rolls and so forth. The place even had salt and pepper calamari! The prices were also quite cheap compared to the cafes down Causeway Lane. Pasta was $6 for a small and $9 for a large [the box is HUGE!] There is also a breakfast menu that runs until 11.45am - a good place to stop over for a nice lazy breakfast one day!

Service was fast as most food comes over the counter. Staff are friendly and polite, but know exactly what they are doing. I know I'll be back for more!

Overall Rating: 8.5/10

Sushi Monger

Location: Shop 17, 309 Bourke Street [down the Causeway Arcade)
Cuisine: Japanese, Quick Meals

In short, this has got to be the cheapest sushi place in Melbourne. Two sushi rolls and a miso soup for $5. Hungry? Add another sushi roll and it's still only $6.80. Feel like the more traditional Japanese fare? All the various dishes (teriyaki chicken, gyudon, katsudon and so forth are also on offer.

The place itself is quite small and most people opt for the take-away option - cut up and places in a plastic container with your choice of soy, wasabi and ginger. Miso comes in a very handy take-away coffee cup.

One thing we've noticed about this place is that they use extremely fresh ingredient. You can even watch the background preparation if you have the time, because everything is done in the open. If you don't have the time, you can still taste the freshness of the ingredients when you bite into your food.

A word of warning, this place gets extremely busy during the lunchtime peak hour, so if you get a chance, try to get in before the rush, otherwise you won't be left with much to choose from!!

Overall rating: 10/10

Saigon Noodle Bar

CHEAPEST FOOD ON CAMPUS!!!

Location: Union House, University of Melbourne
Cuisine: Vietnamese, Chinese

After a quick and cheap feed on campus? Head to the Saigon Noodle Bar at Union House. Having been a regular fan of the place back in first year uni, I was very surprised that when I went back today, almost five years later, and found that the prices had not changed at all!!

The place is just another of those 'create-your-own-noodles' joints - choose you type of noodle, type of soup, and ingredients you want - but with a slight variation. There's a board of suggested combinations, grouped by price. $4.50 will get you a simple one meat, one vegie noodle soup. The more you pay, the more variety of ingredients you get. The bowl size is the same regardless of the price you pay.

The soup base is different too. It's more similar to the traditional vietnamese rice noodle soups, and a refreshing change to the usual chicken stock or miso soup bases at Chinese and Japanese places.

The only downside is that there no eat-in option, you have to fight for seating with all the other uni students hanging around at Union House.

Rating: 9.5/10

Queen Victoria Market

Location: corner Elizabeth and Victoria Streets
Cuisine: various
Company: Janette, Duy

Skip the food court, and take the entrance near McDonald's. Inside you'll find a vast array of freshly made pies, baguettes, sausages and boreks. The Queen Vic Market has so much food at cheap prices, and you know it's all fresh because the food sells like crazy! We jostled our way to the counter of one particular shop and ordered the borek, which looked like a sausage roll, but with a thinner pastry and actual meat inside. I didn't quite catch the name of the place, but you'll find it by the line up, and the menus [the boreks are $2.50 each!]

After you have filled up on savouries, you can stop by one of the ice cream or juice shops, or skip them and try out the American donuts sold from the van near the groceries area. Again, so so cheap - 6 donuts for $5!!

~Overall Impression: 9/10~
The place to go when you're after quick, cheap and freshly made food!

Concorde Creperie

Location: Kiosk 3, Melbourne GPO [corner Little Bourke and Elizabeth Streets]
Cuisine: Crepes
Company: Mandy, Mel

~Food~
The place sells crepe, crepe and more crepe. It has a vast array of fillings, ranging from sweet ones like lemon and sugar, banana and nutella, and stewed apple and cinnamon, to savoury fillings such as cheese, bacon, tomato, mushrooms, smoked salmon and peking duck [the list could go one]. I ordered the lemon and sugar crepe, hoping it would be like the old crepe van days, to be fairly disappointed. The crepe itself was thicker than they used to be, and seemed more suited to a savoury filling. They also made it with too much lemon syrup, and too little sugar.

Not phased though, I plan on trying out the savoury ones over the weekend, and will post a note to this afterwards.

~Atmosphere and Service~
Very simple, it is just a small kiosk hidden in a corner of GPO near the post office. There is some casual seating scattered along the kerb like the other GPO cafes, but the crepe is served in a paper bag, and most people walk and eat.

The ladies who served us were friendly, but somewhat not so experienced. One left the crepe on for too long as she went off to help another look for the ingredients in their flour (a customer had asked if their flour contained yeast) and as a result the crepe was tougher than it should have been.

~Price~
Rather expensive, although the crepe is quite large. The sweet ones start at $4.90, and prices range up to $12.90 for the peking duck one.

~Overall Impression: 7/10~
Not overly impressed, but impressed enough to want to return and try the savoury ones.

Don Tojo

Location: Cardigan Street, Carlton
Cuisine: Japanese
Company: Terry

Lowei suggested this place when Terry and I were looking for a quick bite before our negotiations competition. Turns out I'll have to trust Lowei's judgment of food from now on!

~Food~
The menu was small and totaled about 10 choices, ranging from don (rice) to udon (noodle soups). My sukiyaki (beef) udon soup came loaded with beef, bamboo shoots and udon noodles. Although a little on the dry side (it could have had more soup), it was full of flavour and almost reminded me of the beef I had at Yoshinoya in Hong Kong. Terry's sukiyaki don came also heaped with lots and lots of beef and vegies.

~Atmosphere and Service~
The place was rather small, and very casual. It appeared like a place for people after a quick but filling meal, and the service was quite fast - quite possibly due to the limited menu.

~Price~
Very cheap. All dishes were under $10.

~Overall Impression: 8.5/10~Adding this place to my list of quick and cheap eateries!

Kenzan

Location: GPO, Bourke Street Mall
Cuisine: Japanese
Company: Jie, Liz, Helen

Not to be confused with the Kenzan on Collins Street, this Kenzan was tucked away in a small arcade behind GPO. It's a place for a quick, but fulfilling lunch.

~Food~
The menu was what you would typically expect from a small Japanese restaurant - an array of sushi, udon, ramen and rice dishes. Being cold and hungry, we all ordered noodle soups. My niku udon came with an amazing mushroom broth, the beef was also 'well-seasoned' as the menu said it would be, but cooked for too long such that it was on the tough side. The udon was soft and slipped into your mouth easily. We still wonder why Japanese people like to give out massive, spoons, it's not as though their mouths are any bigger than the rest of the world's!

~Atmosphere and Service~
Service was minimal. The place was very casual, with minimal seating inside the actually restaurant. We sat outside under some heaters, which were turned up just that little bit too much. It was actually a little like a fast food joint - pay at the counter for your meal, take a number and they bring the food out to you when it's ready. The lady at the counter could have smiled, but the waitresses who brought out our food out were friendly enough.

~Price~
A bit on the pricey side for a bowl of noodle soup [normally you would expect to pay $7-$10], but the udon was softer than I would normally get and the soup had it's own distinctive flavour.

~Overall Impression: 9/10~
Really really awesome food. Liz said that the sushi is also really good, so we'll have to try that one day too.

Tasty Thai

Location: Food Court, QV or Australia on Collins

Cuisine: take-away, Thai

~Food~
Menu is rather specific and includes a variety of stir-fried, pad thai, curries, appetisers, salads and so on. I had the Tom Yum Prawns which was pretty much Tom Yum soup with a few prawns, some tomatoes, mushrooms and various leaves. Quite tasty, but a little spicy.

~Atmosphere and Service~
Very quick, and the food was made in 3 minutes as promised - less time than it took for Jie and Liz to get their KFC!

~Price~
Slightly overpriced for food court fare - my soup was $8 and only contained 3 prawns. The soup was nice and full of flavour. For an extra $1 you can get rice to go with it. Combos are also available.

~Overall Impression: 7.5/10~
Quick and tasty, I might try out the Pad Thai on Saturday.