Niska, Melbourne by Bureaucrat

Robots? Yes!  Ice cream? Yes!

Welcome to the future of ice cream, Melbourne!  Just in time for the school holidays, the Melbourne Show and the footy Grand Final, Niska has arrived in Australia.  It's a no-brainer that this futuristic robotic ice cream shop will be popular.  

Thanks, Pepper! I love it when my decisions are validated.

Niska's robots (named Pepper, Eka and Tony) are on-site to take your orders and serve up locally-made ice cream.  Customers put in their orders with Pepper via a touch screen.  You can order one or two scoops (from a choice of about 16 flavours) and a range of toppings.  

Gallery Restaurant, Ballarat by Foghorn Leghorn

For a few decades after the gold rush of the 1850s, Ballarat was one of the wealthiest cities in the world. You can still see the wealth in the buildings from that period, and one of the best examples is Craig’s Royal Hotel, built in 1862. Back in the day, it was the hotel of choice for Mark Twain and other celebrities.

Assiette of duck with nettle puree and roast carrots

A few years ago the building was completely renovated with a modern addition: the courtyard was enclosed with a glass ceiling, creating a light and airy space for a modern restaurant. It displays a changing set of artwork on the walls, so it’s called the Gallery.

On a cycling weekend in Ballarat, Mrs Shiraz and I went to the Gallery for lunch. After a morning of strenuous bush-bashing (trying to cycle the Goldfields Track to Creswick - more info on this later) we’d worked up a bit of an appetite.

Hunters & Disciples, West Melbourne by Foghorn Leghorn

I’m a long term fan of Southbank restaurant Tutto Bene, so I was pretty keen when I heard that their former chef Nathan Scarfo has opened up a café in West Melbourne. What’s more, it was a trip to the old neighbourhood, because I lived in West Melbourne for a couple of years in the early 1980s.

The café, Hunters & Disciples, is in a courtyard off Spencer Street. My recollection is that this was a truck depot, and the drivers used to drink at my local, the Moomba Hotel (now a backpacker place). The renovated café space is cool and funky industrial: polished concrete, exposed ducts and cables, with a spacious feeling that comes from the high ceilings of the original building. There’s background music at just the right volume.


Charcuterie board

The menu is café style, mainly muesli, eggs, toast and a few other odds and ends. There’s a specials board with pasta, soup and pizza. The café is still waiting for its liquor licence, so drinks are limited to non-alcoholic.

After a bit of discussion, I went for the spinach and ricotta gnocchi (from the specials board), and Tam O’Shanter chose the Hunter Burger. There’s also a breakfast burger on the menu, but hard experience has taught us to avoid anything with this description. One thing a breakfast burger doesn’t contain is a burger. There should be a law against it, but there isn’t yet.

Curator 23, Mt Waverley by Bureaucrat

As fun as it is to try new places, it's always good to return back to those cafes that made a good impression.  Two years ago, we checked out Curator 23 and for a cold blustery lunch one day, we thought it was timely to go visit it again.  

The biggest change to Curator 23 was the decor.  It used to smartly decorated in bright yellow and modern touches, which I liked.  But now, it's transformed into this almost Alice in Wonderland does high tea with nanna, which I love!  And clearly, I'm not the only woman who thinks that - the cafe was filled with smartly dressed ladies having a yarn over tea and lunch.  There's lots of greenery (albeit of the plastic variety), velvet cushions, marbled table tops, Laguiole knives, Le Creuset crockery, gorgeous wooden trays, dainty heavy golden teaspoons, and lots of pink, pink, pink!  The owners have clearly spent some serious coin in decorating a modest suburban eatery.  Even the Lawyer said he felt conscious of the fact that he, along with two other guys, were the only men in the cafe... lol.  

Muddings Bakery, Glen Waverley by Bureaucrat

Muddings Bakery is an institution in Glen Waverley.  Along with Rock Kung (an old school Chinese restaurant, which is located a few doors down), Muddings is the only eatery in the Kingsway area that's been there long before property prices shot up in Glen Waverley; and you could hardly imagine that Kingsway would be congested with double-parked cars and diners galore.  Admittedly, despite being an institution, my last visit to Muddings was back when I was a teenager.

Yes, this is definitely making me happy!

In the past few months, I've reminded myself why I liked Muddings as a teen.  Despite a modest shopfront, I'm glad to say it's still popular among the locals.  There's always a steady stream of people coming in for their fix of cakes, pastries (sweet and savoury), bread, pies and sangers.  

Middle Brighton Baths Cafe, Brighton by Bureaucrat

Back in the day, as footloose DINKS, taking the time out for a leisurely lunch at a fine dining restaurant was an option for us.  So in 2013(!), we enjoyed a lovely meal at The Baths at Brighton.  Skip forward to 2019, with Boy Chick in tow, we once again found ourselves in Brighton but this time, we decided to check out the cafe that's attached to The Baths (both eateries are located at the same place - the restaurant is referred to as 'Upstairs', while the cafe/bar is 'Downstairs').

Boy Chick and his chocolate milkshake (kid's size)

As you could imagine, the cafe is more relaxed than its counterpart upstairs.  We chose to sit on the patio which overlooks The Baths' own private beach.  While I recall the food in the restaurant being reasonably good, the cafe fare was amazing!