Amazing customer service, very friendly and helpful. Lovely people, delicious kombucha (the…read morepineapple & coconut is great for a hot day).

Sustainable beer never tasted so good. love Deano's style too. Have seen him pouring beer at heaps…read moreof small festivals, doofs, events over the years. he's one committed greenie and brewer

I don't know how I stumbled across this lunch delivery but I'm certainly glad I did. While there…read moreare so many options for healthy lunches in the city, I feel that a good, tasty, inexpensive salad is more of a hidden gem. The menu goes up a few days before and orders close on the Monday, for delivery on the Wednesday. Jacq comes and delivers it to your workplace and it looks like she's getting busier and busier, with this week's menu being sold out before I got a chance to order. She's definitely come up with a great idea for lunches with the focus on making healthy packages that she would want to eat. ie stuff from her 'nonno's garden'. When I first saw the lunch, I thought it was small, but my eyes were obviously too big for my stomach. Our lunch was the: TRIPLE DECKER BLISS SALAD QUINOA CRUMBED EGGPLANT - TOP layer #1 MIXED MEGA SALAD - MIDDLE layer #2 MIDDLE EASTERN RICE - BOTTOM layer #3 I couldn't get through it all, not because it wasn't tasty (it definitely was 'freakin good') but because it fills you up pretty quickly. I ended up saving some for my afternoon snack and it tasted just as good. Good Freakin Food is already on my email contact list, ready to place the orders quick smart when the menu for next week comes out.

Freakin yum, that's what! If it weren't for Jacq and her amazing lunch time deliveries, I think I…read morewould have died of scurvy by now. Well maybe not died, but I know I wouldn't be as well nourished as I am. On weeks that I get a salad delivery my boyfriend and I eat those MASSIVE lunch boxes two days in a row and my body is super happy. I love the variety - from rice balls to noodle salads, loads of mixed fresh organic veggies and usually a piece of fruit thrown in, it's always delicious and incredibly filling. Often I have to eat half for lunch and the other half a few hours later because they're so choc-ful. At $12 per salad it's an absolute bargain too, with the $20 lunchbox offering the best value. As well as the salad you get a seasonal juice and a healthy ball thing that's loaded with nuts and coconut and deliciousness.

From the first glance around the shelves it's clear that Brunswick IGA is as independent a…read moresupermarket as they come. The tell-tale signs are all there; the comparatively cramped space the store inhabits, the slightly nonsensical layout of the isles and displays (with some exceptions; putting a huge tampon display next to the chocolate isle may not be as illogical as it first appears), the surplus of markdown stickers overtaking the shelves. The latter feature is one of Brunswick IGA's greatest assets, which boasts more specials each week than your pocket calculator could ever dare to comprehend in a quick trip to the shops. Indeed, the prices on the whole tend toward the lower end of the scale when compared to most other independent grocery stores, with a few items managing to compete with the giants of the industry. That said, there are cheaper places in the neighbourhood to purchase fruit and vegetables, but the quality is generally decent enough. The bottle shop is small but moderately priced, albeit located on the opposite side of the store to the car park. License restrictions also require that all alcohol be purchased from the counter on that side of the store, which can be slow during peak times. If you hit the store at the wrong time, the checkouts might be clogged with elderly folk insistent on paying in loose change. Still, the staff are mostly fairly efficient, despite the odd sour demeanour (though this phenomenon is hardly unique to this store). The store also boasts a fairly decent range of obscure and specialty food items catering to the multicultural nature of the area, from Greek through to Lebanese goods. My personal victory find was Harissa paste. One of the main downsides to is the early closing time of 9pm, which is occasionally ushered in a little earlier. On the other hand, it tends to open on most public holidays. On the whole, a Brunswick IGA is a convenient and reliable grocery store (though it couldn't hurt to double check expiry dates).

Not too shabby a supermarket. You have to be careful about the sale items, because I noticed a lot…read moreof expired or near-expired items in the dairy section, but otherwise it's got a good selection and decent enough prices. I wouldn't buy everything here since there's so many good markets nearby, but it's great for the basics.

This is one of my favourite places to eat in Melbourne. Minh is the ultimate professional who…read moreoversees high quality service and food.

Started out great, then stirring my Pho, a cockroach came up from the bottom. End of story. See…read morepics.

This isn't the closest fruit and veg shop to my house so I don't come here unless I happen to be on…read moreSydney Road and it happens to be a convenient time to do some vegetable shopping. The first few times I came here I thought they were rather pricey compared to my local fresh produce shop, but a recent visit has led me to change my mind. La Manna had lots of good deals going, and I managed to find tarragon there, which I hadn't found in other stores in the neighbourhood. I don't know if I just never get the nice, smiley staff member at the cash register, or if none of them smile or make an attempt to be friendly, but that's just how it goes in La Manna. It would be nice if they were nicer to me, but if it were that easy for everyone to be nicer to each other, there would probably be less fighting in the world. How on earth did I go from fruit and veg to more peace and love in the world please? I think it's time for afternoon tea break.

Last Sunday my partner and I did something we've never done before... we awoke before 9am. But more…read moreimportantly, we got our butts out of the house and decided to stock up our fridge for the week (and stock it healthy.) La Manna is just a short walk away and is an absolutely gem of a local grocer. Piles of fresh fruits, veggies, flowers and all that other healthy stuff that you look at in the supermarket but always walk right past. You know the ones - quinoa, freekah, sunflower seeds and anything green... We stocked our basket sky high with enough veggies to feed a small family and smugly strutted out on to Sydney Road - proud smile on our face for all that we had achieved before 10am on a Sunday - and all for just a few clams! A highly recommended destination when you want the best and freshest veggies without the hefty price that can often come along with them.

What is it with the trend for Southern American food at the moment? Are people watching 'Here Comes…read moreHoney-Boo-Boo' and thinking "Yeah, that's something I'd really like to emulate,"? Are they looking at the people on Maury and saying "Whatever they're eating is working for them, where can I get me some of that?"? Have the nasty images on cigarette packages finally put people off the durries and now they need to get their smoke-fix from food? Or are we, Melbourne as a collective, just determined to find a way to get more artery-clogging meatgoods into our bods? I just ate lunch delivered by Bourbon Street Melbourne. Correction: I just ate half of a lunch. The rest now inhabits the kitchen bin along with all of my hopes and dreams for decent southern style food delivered to my office. And a copy of 'The Celestine Prophecy' but that's a whole other kettle of fish (I was going to say "that's a different story" but 'The Celestine Prophecy's isn't a story, it's an abomination and an insult to bound paper). My junior colleague discovered BStM yesterday while searching on line for something that I'm sure was definitely work related as she claims. She ordered the BBQ beef in a bowl (instead of sandwich, $13.50) and I ordered the Chilli Sin Carne (also bowl, $11.50). Colleague then proceeded to get so excited about Tomorrow's Lunch that we had to put down plastic on her office chair. Seriously, it was out of control how psyched she was: anyone would think the Commonwealth Games were coming or something. Because no one should be excited about that either but there you go. 12.15 today: delivery time. Colleague had to be sedated. The delivery girl was very nice but she over-charged me by a dollar. That's ok, mistakes happen and I'm sure she didn't do it on purpose, like she has some kinda scheme going where she steals a dollar from every second person on her lunch route then at the end of the day she buys a ... I don't know, an elephant. Where would she get an elephant? Or keep an elephant for that matter? It's an absurd notion, let it go. $12.50 is still a good price for lunch and I would have been happy to pay it for good food. Sadly this was not the case. I'm not a huge eater, but this was a little serving (see photos). It was also cold but I can understand that food does get cold when being transported across time and space (I believe that is what they call entropy. Thanks Mr Campbell, year 11 chemistry!). The beans were dry and uninteresting. If you think you can't make beans interesting, you're wrong. I've done it and so has just about every Mexican in the world and there are over 110 million of them. Couldn't you have asked one of them, BStM? The 'brown' rice was actually white rice made brown with spices. Disguising something white as brown is blackface and that's racist and not cool, BStM. Brown rice is also super healthy, white rice is not. It came with cornchips that were stale. Literally everything about this dish was a fail. Colleague's BBQ was a bit less tragic - it was a fair bit bigger and came with coleslaw, and a pickle. Where's my pickle, dammit? WHERE?? For the extra dollar I really should have forgotten about how adorable cows are and ordered beef and gotten a pickle. In fact if my disappointing chilli had come with a pickle I'd probably be doing some actual work right now instead of writing a bad review of BStM.

This place and idea is amazing. Food delivery to your work, or home. Free delivery and nice tasty…read morefood. I have used this service a couple times now. Its so convenient and great for a nice lunch. The experience overall is great, From the cute delivery guy, to the last bite of the roll. I've tried the pulled pork (YUMMMM) and the Chili Sin Carne. They are both amazing. They also do kale chips, which i am yet to try.

The Daily Kitchen is a catering company, but it also has a little storefront on Little Collins with…read morea bunch of ready-made meals, salads, and sandwiches that are intended to be grab-and-go. I go here a lot to get their Ancient Grains salad, which is vegan and yummy and perfect for lunch. The Daily Kitchen storefront is really intended for take-out, although they do have a few tiny tables inside if you want to sit down. What I really like about this place is they have little labels on everything marking it vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, etc. so you know right away what you can and can't eat. What DOES annoy me about this place is that so many of their vegetarian options could easily be made vegan and aren't. For example, their avocado sandwich is vegan except for the tzatziki (which contains non-vegan mayo), and given that vegan mayo is super cheap and easy to come by (Praise 99% Fat Free Mayo, hi) -- well, this sandwich would be super easy and cheap to veganise. Ditto their hummus salad. It looks SO SO yummy but it has yoghurt mayo in it. Breaks my heart. There's also a falafel protein box. Totally vegan except for the egg. Arrrrgh!!! There are plenty of other sources of protein that are vegan that could replace the egg! Given that nearly half of vegetarians these days actually identify as "vegan," I think with a few tweaks, The Daily Kitchen could easily veganise their vegetarian options and open up their products to a whole new market of customers. Lots of vegans working in the CBD, yo. I personally would eat here like 2-3 times a week if they veganised the three options I mentioned above. Will also say The Daily Kitchen is a little overpriced, but they're catering to the busy professional who just wants to eat at their desk, so I kind of understand. They also have a few breakfast-y things (yoghurt, muesli, etc.) if you want something in the morning. They have a vegan mango thingie that I had once for breakfast but I wasn't a massive fan. They also have raw vegan desserts if that's your thing.

From the owner: We've all got busy lives and we know no-one wants to wait in queues for their food to be made and…read morethat most 'fast food' options are either incredibly unhealthy, boring or simply bad. So, we developed our food especially for you, the time-poor food-lovers who love life and would rather spend their lunch breaks in a park in the sunshine than in a queue waiting for their food or their latte.

Good coffee, good selection of gluten free cakes. Also bake their own bread GF. Very popular with…read morethe business crowds.