At first glance Bivano and Sons appears to be a high quality and well stocked fruit and vegetable…read moreshop. But anyone who has had the pleasure of visiting this well known grocer knows better! Yes B & S has the best looking and diverse range of fruit and veg I have seen, but it doesn't stop there. There is a beautiful range of flowers to choose from as well as a deli section I could very well live in. Any shop that has a fridge of Ben and Jerry Ice-Cream has my vote. And yes, they do stock a range of sauces and deliciousness from Gourmet Simon Johnson. This grocer is not only filled with beautiful products but friendly staff and a conjoining butcher for all your carnivourous needs. This place is a pleasure to visit and its produce joyous to consume. Yes, it is that good. All other greengrocers take note please.

I love the Fruit Pedallers. It is a little bit like a little rabbit warren with lots of nooks and…read morecrannies to find yummy tidbits of organic produce. It can be hard to find exactly what you need if you are after something specific, as the shop is not laid out in a methodical manner, but for me this makes the shopping experience all the more enjoyable. Sometimes I think the staff at the Fruit Pedallers must think I'm a little fruity myself, when I spend hours browsing the shop only to come up to the counter with a bottle of milk and a cucumber, for example. Up until recently their fresh fruit and veg have been very very expensive. But with a recent change to their buying strategy, they have dropped prices significantly. Yay! Now we can all eat more organic food. Who knows I may even come up to the counter with a cucumber and a head of brocolli. They also have naturopaths on staff - where you can get some free advice (as long as you buy their awful tasting herbal mixtures of course) on your lingering cold etc.

The Fruit Pedallers is a ditty little health food shop on Westgarth's High Street selling all…read moremanner of organic whole foods alongside natural therapies such as naturopathy, homeopathy, massage, reflexology, aromatherapy, kinesiology, art therapy, acupuncture and more besides. In foodie slash health conscious Melbourne, where organic food stores are ostensibly a dime a dozen, The Fruit Pedallers is notable for its friendliness and excellent range of herbs and vitamins alongside fresh organic fruit and vegetables and a ruddy good selection of organic and fair trade chocolate. Its staff are helpful and extremely knowledgeable and although The Fruit Pedallers can be a little dearer than its competitors, this little Westgarth health food haunt is a local favourite, and with good reason. The Fruit Pedallers is a particularly good health food store to visit if you're in the market for vitamins or supplements and don't quite know what you're looking for. Excellent all round.

Good restaurant. It has good outdoor and indoor spaces. Both were quiet but very warm and…read moreuncomfortable on a Friday night without cooling. It didn't matter. Our party of six still had a great night. We enjoyed a good range of dishes, both starters and mains. We had shared spring rolls as an entree. These were very tasty. All the mains were terrific too and a number of these were well know standards. These comprised of gado gado, nasi goreng with chicken, beef rendang, yellow rice and finally sayur lodeh, vegetable curry. This was very tasty fresh food and happily we couldn't fault it. It was a very good meal and service was good too. Sadly there were no ice or ice buckets for wine which was disappointing on a hot night. But still a most enjoyable night.

Yuni's kitchen is an Indonesian restaurant, tucked away on the side of a church building on High…read morest. Northcote. There is a sign at the front but at night it's hardly noticeable and on a windy day, you might see the signage on the ground rather than upright. It's a shame, because once you walk in to the side gate, the venue is quite amazing. Gorgeous courtyard that's friendly and secure ( for kids to run around) and lots of outdoor seating for the warmer months. I can see many diners spending a relaxing evening here with delicious food and some beer or ice cendol. Inside the restaurant, it feels like a reused old pub, with church like structure and walls. Lots of gigs posters around which sends the message that it's client group are maybe the hip young professionals. Certainly when I was here there was no other Indonesian diners. Food wise, it's not the usual 'street food' you would find walking down the streets of Jakarta, so whilst the menu is familiar, it's certainly not a typical day to day meal. Looking at their Instagram account, I see Yuni visiting Bali and talking about lots of Balinese food, so maybe the flavours are more traditional Balinese ( but not the ones you find at popular tourist haunts). It's definitely a home cooked traditional meal. Although I was salivating scrolling through the their pics and menu, I have to admit that the flavours I got was not the ones I was craving. Not that the food was not good, it was delicious but like I mentioned, had flavours that maybe are specific to a region that I'm not used to. The tempeh for example was battered and deep fried, where you would usually find them crispy fried on its own or marinated and fried in its saucy goodness. The meals also came out more expensive than other places, especially if you were used to the student budget Indonesian haunts. The Nasi Ayam campur ( mix plate of rice, chicken and sides) were $22. Other mains were $13-$20 without rice. So it does start to add up. Overall, it's worth trying for yourself if you enjoy Indonesian food and see what you think

I love that scene in The Simpsons where Otto walks out of a shop called Stoners Pot Palace and says…read moresomething along the lines of, 'that's a flagrant case of false advertising'. Hilarious. Naturally On High conjures images of those shops in NZ where you can get 'party pills' over the counter and they get you high in a sick kind of way for about 20 minutes, then you come down for five days and it's worse than any actual drugs you've ever taken. Reality is, they only sell organic dry goods, grains, nuts and produce here. Boring. But not really. They also do bread and it's pretty good, though you never seem to be able to get the same one twice, which kinda sucks. And they do all these sweets but then you get them home and you realise the chocolate's actually carob so you try and pass 'em off to you stupid nieces but they're wise to it and turn their spoilt brat noses up at them. But this place does do great healthy stuff. And they do know their shit. But you gotta put up with some pretty flaky service and narrow aisles and shit. I'm on the fence about this one...

Bulk goods and organic products are the calling card of Naturally on High, despite the inevitable…read moreassociations its' name conjures up. Not everything is totally organic and there's some gelatine based lollies down the front end, but all the bases seem to be covered from skin care through to dried fruit and nuts. The prices are very reasonable and there are some interesting brands on offer. However, the place is always ridiculously busy, so you end up spending a longer amount of time in a queue than you would at most other places, and the service can be a bit impersonal and spacey at times. It's also a very cramped store that's difficult to navigate if you're carrying a lot of stuff, but it's not too impossible a quest.

The delicious aromas as I entered Som Tam were enough to start me salivating. I thought our luck…read morewas going to be out as every table appeared to be reserved but thankfully a spot for two was available. Note to self made that in future it would be wise to make a booking as this place was buzzing!!! A spicy little salad was brought out to us whilst we contemplated the menu which contained plenty of choices for both meat lovers & vegetarians. I opted for the yellow curry of silken tofu & heaps of veggies whilst my dining companion had the lamb curry. Cute individual dishes of sticky rice were served to accompany our curry. The chefs are more than happy to adjust the heat of the dishes depending on your palate. As far as dessert goes we both opted for ice cream, sampling the coconut & green tea. Both were topped with some interesting but unknown, possibly fruits & rather randomly a couple of kidney beans!!! A nice palate cleanser but next time I think I'd give the topping a miss. Overall a yummy Thai meal in a place with a great atmosphere & excellent service. I will be heading back that's for sure :)

After tasting one dish, awesomely Authentic Thai Food, just BYO your wines …read more... This place is located along what could be the longest esplanade of food in Melbourne or Australia or even the world .... the building doesn't looked prominent, must really looked for it or have the address on your GPS. I just happened to drive pass, the name is so catchy Som Tam which is Papaya Salad in Thai so I stop for lunch. It was a great decision, this Vintage building is tastely renovated, not over-doing it, very smart, great layout, the interior is so simple yet warm and very inviting, just a great ambiance. All those vintage elements are still there blending in with the modern decor. The long dining table at the back Courtyard is stunning. You will enjoy their Toilets too, stunningly renovated and fitted, WELL DONE! On the wine by the glass, the Riesling was a disappointment though, next time I shall BYO. Now to the food, based on one dish alone, Massaman Beef Curry with Jasberry Rice (Red Rice) at $10.90 - Lunch Special Menu, I can say that the Chef can cook authentic Thai. Curry flavour was balanced, not overpowering sweet nor too coconutty, other spices are prominent, just right, Beef was tender, Sweet potatoes not mushy. Enough curiosity to come back for more. Looking forward to coming back for either Lunch or Dinner so I can order more. Quite an enjoyable lunch, thank you Chef!

Second order on Uber Eats. First time was good, second time very very ordinary. Every dish was…read morecool to cold. Every one. When we should have been eating, we were microwaving to get the food somewhere near warm. A pretty ordinary experience. A combination of the restaurant and the Uber driver I'd say. It'd take a lot for me to try this place again as there are so many other good options in the area. I'd wanted to order from Gler and that was the better option. 22 days earlier It's a solid 4. Solid competently made local Thai fare. The basil fried rice was good. "The rice is nice" as the beautiful one put it. The green curry with chicken was lovely too. The highlight of the three dishes. The pad Thai with prawn was good as well. Not inspiring food but very solid. Good on Uber Eats tonight. The speed of the delivery was excellent. Under 20 minutes. Outstanding. It's a 3.6 for me.

Lovely family-owned Thai restaurant with plenty of choices at very reasonable prices (especially if…read moreyou're bringing your own wine) with choices that includes vegetarians. However, if you don't want to BYO they've got a really good beer and wines on their menu.

Super location, great food and pretty relaxed vibe…read more Corner Store is one of those places that sells itself as a bit of an alternative to the plethora of cafes in the North Fitzroy area. The place has this kind of homely feel about it and they pride themselves on hearty food, served without fuss. They have a bunch of pre-made choices for breakfast and lunch -- quiches, pies, pastas etc -- and in my experience they've always been generous and tasty. Where it falls over slightly is some inconsistency in coffee. It's a pretty big boo boo in any coffee lover's book, and the food has more than made up for any disappointment in my visits (which, it's worthy of note, have not been frequent in recent times due to better coffee experiences nearby). It is a bit of a family cafe also, so you have to be tolerant of the odd screaming kid. A tip would be to do lunch here and coffee up the street a bit further. But then, I can be a bit of a fuss pot.

Walking into the Corner Store is like walking onto the set of the League of Gentlement (I'm…read morethinking Tubs and Edward here). But when you can get your Saturday morning regular and newspaper this quickly, it doesn't really matter. With a good selection of goodies to boot, the Corner Store is a friendly and relaxed alternative to the mayhem you get at close-by establishments. They're also pretty generous with the free coffee stamps. PS. Best soy chai lattes in North Fitzroy (the just get that spice and honey combination right!)

Help, I can't stop Yelping about Thai food! This will be my last in a while, I promise…read more Okay, so I'm gong to say it right off the bat: Absolute Thai isn't as good as Ying Thai 1 or 2. Of course. But it's a considerable distance away from both, so let's pretend those other two restaurants don't exist. I dined in at Absolute with a rowdy group of people. No, we weren't drinking Absolute, but quite a lot of wine went down both before and during the meal. The staff tolerated us with humor and an awful lot of patience - I think it took over half an hour for us to figure out what we wanted to order and then we confused the waitress by all shouting things at once. We were terrible customers. After the ordering debacle, the food started to come out fast and steady. The ginger fish, vegetarian green curry and masaman beef were stand-out dishes, each having surprisingly subtle flavours. I didn't really like the pad thai (a bit bland) or the beef salad (not enough chili) but others loved them - each to their own. The restaurant is nothing swish but it's clean and comfortable. For a Saturday night it was quiet - there were only two other tables occupied, but they seemed to be doing a roaring trade in take-away. All up, I'd happily come here again.

Solid Thai food. I can't really comment on the dine-in experience, but the quality of food when we…read moreorder take-out is great for the price point. We live in the neighborhood, and this place is now my go-to. Ingredients seem fresh and every dish ordered has been flavorful and tasty - never greasy or heavily spicy (unless ordered that way). The prices are about average for the area.

This is my favorite butcher in Thornbury. Conveniently located across the road from Psarakos, the…read moreorganic meat here is excellent quality and price.

The best butcher in the local area by a fair bit. Their lamb.... is actually lamb, and not cheaper…read moremutton. The organic range is small but not outrageously priced. Best way to test a butcher is their mince. It's the easiest product to cheat on and go very low quality. These guys don't. They also mince on the spot for you if you ask Try the grass fed and aged beef or the free range pork.