Mama Morocco just like it's name served authentic Moroccan cuisine in Melbourne. Using a…read moretraditional recipes that has been passed down through generations combined with freshest ingredients around, Mama Morocco proudly owned and run by a warm family. delicious unique food, love it.

Wow! What an amazing meal! Friendly atmosphere and a great beer garden in the back! Authentic…read moreMoroccan food.....the eggplant baba ganush was extraordinary! Wow...

I had a hankering for a tagine, so after a quick search I found this Moroccan place on Sydney Road…read more I was a bit scared when we entered though as it was like a ghost town, a sleepy little porcelain and rug filled ghost town. A friendly staff member poked his head out of the back room, opened up his arms and beckoned us in and to take a seat. Confused, I checked the time to make sure we hadn't gotten there in the middle of the afternoon, but no it was 7pm - peak dinnertime, or so I thought. I decided not to let the lack of trade effect me, and started to treat the place like my own private palace, although there was a distinct lack of harem girls and the uncomfortable seats weren't exactly throne-like. I was able to fulfill my craving with La Paella's mouth-watering beef tagine. The meat was deliciously tender. Halfway through dinner, another punter walked from out the back to front for a fag. Wow, there are more customers I excitedly thought. I had to find out where the secret back room was. I walked past the kitchen to find the tent room. This place looks like it is a converted backyard with dodgy flooring but also has beautiful traditional decorations and feels like you're in a big tent - great for a party. I was told that there is also a large space upstairs, but was closed for now.

Overpriced average food, no chilli in the damn paella - takes 45 minutes to come out. The lamb kaif…read morewas better but still a let down. Avoid the brightly coloured enticing sign and go to one of the many better restaurants on Sydney rd.

Mankoushe is named after the main food source here - mankoushe. It might be best described as…read moreLebanese pizza, but really, it is its very own thing and it very good indeed. This teeny, tiny take-away is run by two brothers with a little help from their mama, which is kind of adorable, no? Tables are limited but there is space if you can find it. Otherwise, the wait is never too long for your take-away treat (unless it's mega busy, which it can be at times) and you get to jig along to whatever rocking tune is blasting out whilst you are there. Then it's just a short walk home or to the closest bench, curb, car bonnet, wherever is convenient to park your arse, and chomp! Thus far I have tried the haloumi, the spicy feta, the rocket cheese and the ton. For $2 extra you can have your dough made of organic spelt too. I'm not going to stop till I've tried each and every different mankoushe on the menu. There are 26 different kinds, or 52 if I try each one made with organic spelt as well. I've got some eating to do.

The odd hours of operation may leave you high and dry, but this Lebanese bakery is a newbie to…read moreLygon St. Opening in 2011, it has much of what those found on Sydney can offer - cheese pie, spinach and cheese pie is a winner - but is located closer to the East Brunswick Club than any other of it's kind. Nice people and you're served quickly, and while eating in is possible most choose the takeaway option. A good after lunch bite or late night pick up.

Excellent food. In…read moreMelbourne on holiday/vacation and came to this place on the first night. When we walked in the hostess stand wasn't apparent but was placed in the middle of the restaurant. The Gnocchi I received by mistake but it was a much welcomed one. The truffle was very pronounced. My husband had the Sofia Pizza, he said it was pretty solid but "had a lot going on".....full disclosure he says pizza has a lot going on when there are more than 3 ingredients on it. I would definitely come back if I lived here.

"FOR SHAME, JACKIE" I hear you all yelling. Yes, I know. I have lived in Melbourne for umpteen…read moreyears and have never once set foot in Trunk. It seems almost impossible, huh? I don't know how I managed it. So finally, last night was the night. It was a 42 degree day but was an absolute DELIGHT to be sitting in the Trunk courtyard, under their gorgeous candy-striped umbrellas and stunning fairy lights. The atmosphere was perfection. The four of us ordered a couple of pints of Kosciusko Pale Ale, while I went for the Chicken Club Sandwich and my friends went for the Mushroom Pizza, Chicken Burger and a Super-sized Chicken Burger (it was pretty big). Everyone's plates were clear within 15 minutes (you can't go wrong with a chicken club, right?) however it really would have made my day had it come with fries - it just looked so lonely on the plate. Then the dares came... We noticed on the menu that for a measly three clams you could try "STUPID HOT WINGS - 900 times hotter jalapeño!!!!" Game. Set. Match. The staff actually tried to talk us OUT of buying them. When they arrived on the table the spicy scent was ominous. Dripping with sauce, only two of us were game to give it a bite with one left gasping for air for twenty minutes after. The Stupid Hot Wings are stupidly hot. You've been warned. Trunk is the perfect spot for a mid-week lunch or dinner on lovely, summers day. It's just so damn pretty!

My boyfriend wanted me to try koshari, a dish he told me was hugely popular in Egypt. Plus our…read moreEgyptian friend recommended this place so we decided to go on Saturday night. We ordered the koshari and the foul to share. Both dishes were vegan. In fact, I was super happy to see that vegan dishes were clearly marked on their menu, and they had several options to choose from (both entrees and mains). Their babaganoush is also vegan, which I appreciate because a lot of places unnecessarily add dairy to their babaganoush. We were keen to try the falafels as well, but a bit disappointed that these falafels are made out of chickpeas and not out of fava beans, which is how Egyptians traditionally make falafel (unlike the rest of the Middle East, where they use chickpeas). So we opted not to get the falafels after all cuz we wanted uniquely Egyptian food. I enjoyed the koshari but the foul was totally bland. I've had plenty of foul by now and Leyalina has the most tasteless foul I've ever tried. Not that it was BAD-tasting -- it was just totally and completely blah. I wouldn't order it again. Although the dollop of tahini they put on the top was nice enough. The koshari was good. Not amazing but good. It basically consists of a layer of lentils on the bottom, a layer of little rigatoni pasta tubes on the top, some chickpeas, fried crispy onion shreds, and a smattering of pasta sauce. Everything was nicely seasoned with cummin and probably some other spices too. I liked it, but thought it was interesting, not phenomenal. The vibe of this place is nice. They played pleasant Middle Eastern music (instrumental) and there are some really cool lighting fixtures hanging above you. You can smoke shisha here (we didn't) and there's a cozy upstairs dining area too. Staff was friendly. Prices were OK, neither cheap nor too expensive (at least for the vegetarian dishes). I'd go back for sure to try their other vegan options.

Leyalina offers a place for stories, family and good food. Our hosts are Egyptian and bring…read morebeautiful manners, excellent service and glorious clever food to the table. Very handsome young men serve and they are willing to engage in any conversation. Beautiful women, who look like the Kardashians without the artifice glide past the tables and disappear upstairs. There is something wonderful and mysterious about this little alcove on Lygon Street, as if we may be magically transported to Gheza to some secret souk. The food is full of magic also, sweet spices, sumac and lemon over fish, with fresh simple salads full of green leaves and herbs. Fine lavash, both crisp and soft served with our meals. The menu has lots of vegan and gf options and a good reasonably priced wine and drinks list. The music is Egyptian - very seductive and there's a screen showing Bollywood style dancing in the background which I kinda liked. It was like meeting new, lovely people and sharing language and food, just as the promise on the menu. I left knowing that when I return it will be as an honoured guest, like family.

Awesome food, friendly and great atmosphere…read more Food was extremely tasty and portions were sizeable Laffa was just warm, salads were fresh, meat was well seasoned, chips were fluffy on the inside and crunchy on the outside Restaurant was very clean and would definitely come back here again with other people Great middle eastern, kosher food

Sometimes I'm tempted to walk into as many restaurants as possible and just order a beer and see if…read moreanybody will tell me to get out. Actually, I should also count the number of places that try to upsell me a meal, but I can't fault them for that. Yeah, I think this is actually a restaurant, but hey, not only did he sell me a beer, he didn't try to upsell be food either. Oh, and they have a balcony, and that balcony's pretty cool as well. I get to look out over the ocean, or at least Port Phillip Bay.

When the London hotel in Port Melb was demolished, most people thought that Mr Lawrence disappeared…read morewith it. But they're wrong! Mr Lawrence and the great team moved one block further down Beach Street to the location of the old R-bar. The same great menu and the same good service, along with the $10 Turkish pizzas on Monday, make it a local favourite. They don't do the Lamah Joon anymore but the Persian lamb meatballs are still fantastic. But I'm biased cuz I'm a regular. :-)

I got excited when I heard that another Turkish fusion place had opened up in Melbourne. It was…read moreeasy to make a booking via dimmi and receive a confirmation immediately. It is located at the end of bligh street and is next to robot bar. You expect to enter a tiny dimly lit restaurant - but it is the complete opposite. It's very pink, very bright, has very loud club-style music, and you can feel frigidness and starkness as you step in which identifies with the history of the area the restaurant is housed in - a parking lot! It's got a downstairs bar and seating area with the cash register and toilets and an upstairs seating area. The menu has 3 types of feed me options and I would recommend that you try this as the portion sizes are tiny as. Mezze platters in all Turkish restaurants that I have been to in the past are huge and you always leave feeling overstuffed and warm and fuzzy all over from the delicious food. But Souk is the complete opposite (hence the backwards lettering in its name??!) We decided to get the fattoush salad (2 pieces), the eggplant mezze and the lamb dish. We also got overpriced sparkling water as they don't do sparkling water on top and the bottle was insanely expensive. The wines start at 11-13 dollars. They have an extensive drinks list with cocktails and mocktails. The fattoush salad was two crunchy slightly off cones with pomegranate, some tomato and onion pieces and some greens stuffed inside. Possibly the best out of the the three dishes. The eggplant mezze was 3 very small pieces of eggplant topped with pearl cous cous. The eggplant was very bitter (perhaps they forgot to salt it - how do you do turkish food and not cook eggplant right) and the entire dish was so bland. As we were eating, the waitress in her short overalls reminded us that we needed to finish our meals so we could have our mains. Is she for real? Our table was until 8 and it was only 7.10?????????? We then disheartedly ate our remaining eggplant morsel. The lamb dish which was almost 40 dollars was a tiny bowl of very sweet saffron flavoured rice with perhaps two morsels of lamb. We decided we had enough of this place. We quickly paid our $100 bill. My friend couldn't even find their toilet as the men's and women's toilets are not labelled properly (just have the labels on the door like everywhere else rather than on a random position on the wall). We were still starving after - so much so that we ended up having a very satisfying meal at a cheap and dirty but delicious indian place called curry pot for 1/10th of the price. Souk you left us poor and very souk!

Sometime, you look at a design, and you say it looks artistics, but sometime, a design inspire you…read moreto be artistic. That's the decor of souk. On the first glance, it looks like any typical new establishment in Melbourne CBD. I mean, they all looks awesome, so it is kind of hard to stand out. But here at souk, the more you look at the details, the more you realise how each elements harmonise into a symphony.

We arrived on the Sunshine Social's 3rd night open. To say there were under the pump is to put it…read moremildly. Nonetheless the staff did a great job of taking our orders and delivering our drinks and food as best and as quickly s they could. We started with the beetroot dip and bread, which was smoky as you'd expect for a BBQ joint, then I had the beef with lemongrass ginger and chilli. Yum yum very tasty. My wife had Morrocan Lamb sausages, not quite as tasty but impressive nonetheless. By the time we'd finished it had quietened down so we ordered takeaway desert, they come in pretty blue cups and were also very delicious, a great start for this local, let's hope they can keep it uo?

This is my second time here. The first time I had a burger and it was awesome. Second time it was…read morethe pork skewers delecious and thouroughly enjoyed it. The staff are exceptional and are very attentive. This is a fantastic venue and is great start for anyone venturing out in the west. This ticks all the boxes and and will be the place to be in the summer months with it's large outdoor area.

Since this is Kew I probably shouldn't be all that surprised to discover a rather fancy cafe here…read more Actually, it's the old post office that has been convereted into a cafe. When I first wandered around here I thought it may be just been a bar, and in a way it is, but it is much more than that. So, the next time I found myself in Kew I decided to pay this place a visit for some breakfast, and it certainly was worth it. The staff were certainly great, and while it was a little pricey, it certainly wasn't on the scale that would end up breaking my bank. I grabbed the big breakfast, which can be a bit of a mouthful at times, but in this case it was delicious. Oh, and the coffee wasn't bad as well.

Last minute dinner out. Hadn't been to this place for a couple of years. Menu was okay with not a…read moregreat deal that appealed to me or my friend as neither of us wanted a pizza. Shared the entree which was nice. Both main dishes were large and we didn't finish our plates. Service was as you would expect. No highlights and wouldn't rush back.