Stock Tips: The best places to eat and drink in Melbourne this weekend
Whether a bao that wows, a super-sized snag or the best-looking bikini in town, here are Dan Stock’s top tips for where to eat in Melbourne this weekend.
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Whether a bao that wows, a super-sized snag or the best looking bikini in town, here are Dan Stock’s top tips for where to eat in Melbourne this weekend.
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FOR INSTAGRAMMABLE SWEETS
First there were the drinks served in light bulbs, then came the Milo sizzling roti and the outrageously cute and OTT fairy floss rainbow milkshakes.
Now from one of Melbourne’s most inventive Thai restaurants comes the next must-shoot — and eat — item: cartoon bao buns.
Tony Rungpradit from Collingwood’s Son in Law restaurant says while savoury bao has been popular around Melbourne for the past few years, the time was right to introduce dessert bao buns — and they’ve already proven an equal hit with diners.
“We were so proud that people loved all our different creations. That was like motivation and inspiration and we can’t stop creating fun desserts,” he said.
“That’s why we always work hard to get something to surprise everyone each year. And yes, bao buns is a good choice to combine at this time.”
The cartoon buns — Hello Kitty, Pikachu, Totoro, Doraemon and Rilakkuma and more — come in four flavours: Thai milk tea, Nutella and banana, young coconut kaya and corn cheese.
There are plans to introduce savoury flavours to the line up in coming months.
“You might get one of the iconic Thai foods like stir fried Thai basil or tom yum in cute buns,” Tony says.
56 Johnston St, Collingwood. soninlaw.com.au
FOR A DELICIOUS DATE NIGHT
It heralded a new wave of South Yarra cool when it opened two years ago, but the Ramblr team has called time on their Chapel St restaurant.
Chef Nick Stanton — along with Jon Harper and Guy Bentley — is also behind burger and beer bar Leonard’s House of Fun and the recently opened, packed-to-bursting Leonardo’s Pizza Palace in Carlton, and it’s this cross-town commute for the team that is behind the decision to close Ramblr.
For now, the contemporary diner — ranked 20 in the delicious.100 — will continue to serve its famous calamari noodles with bone marrow, crab noodles in masterstock, Chinese bolognese, and marron kimchi mornay fries until March 2.
Get in quick for one last meal in the dark and moody and deliciously cool dining room.
363 Chapel St, South Yarra. ramblr.com.au
FOR SUNNY SIPS AND SNACKS
Bomba, of the city’s hidden gems of a drinking spot high on Lonsdale St, reopened last year with a new look that includes a second covered terrace that doubles the capacity of the space, with the central copper bar as much a focal point as the striking cityscape
A new focus on gins — paired with bespoke tonics and garnishes, the range includes their own made in collaboration with Kyneton’s Animus Distillery — augments the always-strong line in sherries and a cracking Spanish cellar filled with good drinking.
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Six taps pour all-Victorian crafties; the smashable Bomba lager at 4.2% has summer sessions taken care of.
But the best reason to head high in the sky are the bikinis. Named after the Barcelona concert hall where these pressed ham and cheese sandwiches were first served, Catalonian bikinis are now taking pride of place on the menu.
A toasted sandwich pressed thin and crisp, the traditional smoked ham and cheese is joined by a posh version made with Iberico jamon and truffle, but I’ll be back time again for the pickle-spiked, cheesy confit chicken number.
There’s something seductive about the crack of the thin white toast and the oozy mahon cheese that elevates the bikini from being a mere toasty.
There’s more carb loading with class, including patatas bravas where crunchy potato cubes come splotched with aioli and a spicy tomato sauce, and the baked chorizo with a paprika-scented slick that begs to be mopped up with bouncy house-baked bread.
Complete the trifecta with Bomba’s famous PX-braised pork jowl from the ground-floor restaurant, for a real blowout.
This is food made for sunny time drinking, not the beach. Summer in the city never looked so good.
103 Lonsdale St, Melbourne. bombabar.com.au
FOR THE BEST BARBIE
Prahran Market is set to become a real sausage fest on Sunday when its celebration of all things BBQ takes over.
Featuring a sausage tasting comp where market butchers put their best snag forward for the crowds to judge, as well as demos on how to make your own sausages and to master the art of barbecuing whether meat, seafood or veg, the inaugural Sizzlefest is sure to be hot stuff.
From 11am-3pm on Sunday. prahranmarket.com.au
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