Melbourne Restaurant Tips by allikat

Sillittos Italian Cafe: Italian by Candlelight

This pretty Italian restaurant quickly caught our eye. Just up the road from our hotel on Exhibition Street, the restaurant is like a small garden lit with hundreds of twinkling candles and fairy lights. Even on a chilly, wet evening you feel as though you are sitting outside, as you enter the restaurant via a gravelled garden path and the tables are enclosed by a kind of temporary conservatory. You feel warm enough though, and the glow of the candles is so pretty. I suspect this would be a really great place in summer!

Favorite Dish: Five of us sat down to dinner, and everyone enjoyed their meal - good pasta, lamb and meatballs and a good wine list to explore as well.

Address: 275 Exhibition Street, Melbourne

Comparison: more expensive than average

Price: US$21-30

Rating: 5

Theme: Italian

Blue Train Cafe: Blue Train Cafe

The Blue Train Cafe is a fun, hustly-bustly kind of a restaurant, with a great atmosphere and menu to match. Situated in a multi-level boutique shopping mall on Melbournes trendy South Bank, the cafe has an outdoor area that overlooks the Yarra river and city skyline. Open from breakfast till late, they serve a varied menu where you can grab anything from a coffee to a full, 3-course meal and spend anywhere from a couple of dollars to twenty bucks-plus for a fillet steak (Aussie dollars of course).
A group of us spent a fun, slightly tipsy Sunday evening here as a fitting end to the Big VT Meet events. I liked it so much I came and had brunch the next day, sitting outside writing postcards and sampling the eggs benedict.

Favorite Dish: I honestly don't recall what I had to eat on the Sunday evening here - I know it was great but I was having far too much fun for the food to make sufficient impression on my memory. It was pasta, that's as best I can do. I can, however, vouch for the eggs benedict the next day. I always try to check out a cafes eggs benny - gives me a good yardstick to measure from, and the Blue Trains definitely came up to scratch.

Address: MR5 Mid Level, Southgate Landing, South Bank, Melb

Comparison: about average

Price: US$11-20

Rating: 5

Theme: Eclectic/International