THE PARLOR

Hummingbird cake

BLT

Potato bravas

Corn fritters with avocado salsa & tomato relish

Benedict

Love the relaxed homy ambience. Love the friendly staffs. Love the food....just.hate.how.far.it.is! It took me 1hr from home to go there by tram, train, and finally bus. If it wasn't for a good friend of mine and the three of us are leaving soon, I wouldn't even bother.

But hey, the trip was worth it! Although I reckon there's no harm in increasing the quantity of food servings, the ingredients are fresh and the presentations are delightful. Heard the buzz that they serve the small milkshake in milk-carton-like-glass with cute stripe straws, and was happy that it really was what I thought it was as I've seen it before at Myer's Basement....and creme de la creme to that was...the aforementioned friend bought me one yesterday...YEAY!! :)

The cute milk pint glass

Lil corner towards the back room where they display all these cute items (they are for sale, and so does the adorbs milk pints!)

Cute little tags for your gift (update: these are actually small bottles of herb seeds with tags)

The back room is where the three of will 'open' the farewell weekend *sobs* it is initially A's farewell drinks session and Y and I just hopped on board and voila! It's ours too now lol. To 'close' this weekend, we're gonna have a Sunday brunch at, what better place than, my fave *drum rolls* Mess Hall although A will have left Melbourne by then.

The back room: where the farewell will be held

Lovely wall piece made of torn strips of cloth in chic patterns

Melbourne, it's one week to go......

The Parlor Milk Bar & Kitchen

40 Weatherall Road, Beaumaris VIC 3193

(03) 9515 4514

A PEEP INTO HOBBA

By 'peep' I mean really this is not a review (not like I've been writing good, solid cafe reviews anyway...because I am mainly intrigued by the euphoric smell of coffee and the design of the space rather than the food) so this is just a quick overall look of Hobba Coffee + Kitchen. We were there for take away coffees on our way to Mornington. Half sleepy, I couldn't resist crossing the street from the place we rented the car from.

Set in a converted garage, Hobba still has that industrial looking elements in the space like the perforated metal counter, aluminum high chairs (okay, to be fair you can find them everywhere, but they enhanced that industrial-garage-feel here), to the bare brick walls and their seats.

Hello there, pretty lady :)

There were lots of white collars (despite it was a Tuesday morning) and also mums with their prams. It was quite packed that morning and there was quite a long queue for the take-away coffee.

Been hearing the buzz of Hobba from few friends that said their food is fresh and great. Coffee wise, the mocha that I had was quite decent to my taand my cousin loved her soy latte. Judging from the crowd (every time I passed by it's always packed), I bet it's a good place to start your day with.

Hobba Coffee + Kitchen

428 malvern road, prahran
p: 03 9510 8336

Mon-Sat 7-5 / Sun 8-5

HOW STELAR

Brother Baba Budan @ 359 Lt.Collins St, Melbourne CBD

De Clieu @ 187 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy

You ask me if their coffee is one of the best...Yes. You ask me if those are chairs hung on the ceiling...Yes those are. You can just never go wrong with anything from Seven Seeds coffeehouses from Baba Budan's unique chairs, De Clieu laidback window sills that you can sit on..to their friendly staffs, and the awesome coffee. Simply stelar. Period.

If you pardon the pun....I'm currently hooked to Parov Stelar :)

LAWSON GROVE SHOP

Upon finding out that Melbourne was voted as the most liveable city in the world in 2011, I couldn't be aaaany more thankful to be here..you can read the news about the survey here. Well anyway, I was lucky enough to live here, and now I found out that South Yarra, the suburb I'm staying at, is apparently Melbourne's most liveable suburb. Awesomeness :)

Well this cafe might be another reason why South Yarra is really awesome (I pray to God that the people of South Yarra will not label me as the blabber mouth by spilling the secret). It's called Lawson Grove Shop...it's South Yarra's best kept secret from what I heard..that's why I've been wanting to go here maybe since a year ago, but my lazy bum prevented me for doing so. Well, to be fair, it was quite a walk from home. Me and V finally went there on one lazy Sunday morning, dragging our arses away from Rosco, which is like a minute away from home. Well it was quite a nice walk though. Maybe our inappropriate jokes along the way made us forget how tiring it could have been.

I've never been to this part of South Yarra before, but yeah it was worth the walk. Such a beautiful neighborhood..with posh houses, shabby chic flats and everything. No wonder it's the most liveable neighbourhood in Victoria.

Some of the things that I saw during the lengthy walk to Lawson Grove

Lawson Grove Shop is neatly hidden under an old art-deco-ish flat, it feels like entering a friend's basement...the kind that has a lot of food supplies along the walls...the kind of basement that you wouldn't mind to be stuck at when the Zombie Apocalypse broke out. Just kidding, so this cafe lives up to the word 'shop' at the end of its name, as these stuffs on the shelves are actually for sale. They also have pre-packed meals in their big fridges, along with some organic veggies, eggs and other staple stuffs in your grocery list.

You wouldn't mind, would you? :P

I love the coffee here...the mocha was great (sorry, I could be super biased at times, any awesome cafe could have been reviewed badly if the mocha was not nice lol). I think ended up V ordering 2 cups of flat white. I couldn't recall the name of the dish that he ordered but I managed to snap a pic of it.

Such a nice place to have brunch, but expect the queue and get prepared to the challenge of finding it. SO challenge accepted? :)

Lawson Grove Shop

1 Lawson Grove Melbourne VIC 3141
(03) 9866 3640

THE MILLSWYN

The Millswyn. Sounds like a very posh name. In short, this cafe is. I love everything about it. Beautiful interior, nice (uhm, slightly pricey) food and great coffee...but most definitely loved the very feminine white-dominant Victorian interior.

Funny how I've been living in this city for 1.5years now and this place is within walking distance from home yet I've never had the time to visit it. I guess I've taken interesting places near home for granted :P

Anyway, I managed to come here for coffee on a lazy Saturday morning few weeks ago. One of the friendly staffs told me that this place was frequently used for pre-wedding and magazine photo shoots. Looking at the 2nd floor, I totally understood why. The lounge area was beautifully decorated in neutral hues, and filled with cozy sofas and poufs...This place was oozing romantic-love-is-in-the-air kind of feeling. (Hmm, I reckon this might be a great place to pop the question too,yes?)

A great place to spend a lovely Sunday brunch or a place to read your fave book while enjoying their coffee!

THE MILLSWYN

131 – 133 Domain Road

South Yarra Victoria 3141

Telephone +61 3 9864 0600

Facsimile +61 3 9867 6137

www.themillswyn.com.au