From humble beginnings in Sydney, Pie Face scaled the fast food franchise ladder all the way to Japan, United States and Singapore and then came crashing down into administration in 2014. Having secured financing to continue however there are still franchises dotted around the country to deliver the famous variety of mass produced pies. But how does the Pie Face pie stack up to the mum and pop variety? We found out.


One of Pie Face's CBD outlets is located at Southern Cross Station close to the entrance on the corner of Spencer and Collins Street. Given the range of pies on offer was dwindling as were the crowds as it ticked past 6 PM on a rainy Thursday, we opted for the classic Steak and Peppercorn pie. Service was abrupt and disengaged (expected of most chain/franchises) but the pie was delivered warm nevertheless.


Biting into the pie, the pastry held up decently and was sufficiently flaky. The meat as well was chunky with legitimate pieces opposed to the minced mess that we typically steer away from (Four N' Twenty we are looking at you) and the peppercorn delivered a nice punch amidst the salty gravy.

To say burgers have been experiencing a renaissance in Melbourne and around Australia would be a gross understatement. The notion of a 'healthy' or 'gourmet' burger was ill found in the vernacular of the everyday Australian until self-proclaimed 'gourmet burger' franchise Grill'd rolled into hipster laneways and streets across the country.

To tell the truth, the proposition was simple. Hand-crafted burgers made with high quality ingredients and interesting flavour combinations that would stand head and shoulders above the heavily processed offerings from traditional fast-food outlets such as McDonalds, Hungry Jacks and KFC.

It turns out that paying $10+ for a single burger was completely fine with most Australians as long as they were incredibly delicious and so began the nation's unexpected burger revolution.

Now that there was big money involved, everyone wanted a hand in the pie with premium burger outlets across the country popping up such as the intrepid Mr. Burger, hipster abodes Huxtaburger and 8Bit, foreign invaders Carl's Jr, the omnipresent local fish and chip shop, Crown's inevitable attempt to cash in on the latest food trend with the Merrywell and Neil Perry's belief that his sacrosanct magic touch may win over everybody with the ambitiously named The Burger Project.

(Don't worry, eventually we will have reviewed all of the aforementioned attempts at burger glory)

For now, our burger adventures will commence with the original player in the gourmet burger game, Grill'd.


Degraves Street is quintessential Melbourne and the perfect place to try Grill'd's offerings. It has the perfect location for a disruptive outlet such as Grill'd embedded among the heart of Melbourne's cafe culture.

Upon entry, it feels like we are almost driven a menu into our face by a enthusiastic but a clearly robotic and annoyed attendant. Despite the imploring attendant asking us to try the Black Crumb Chicken Burger that looks like it just came out of a coal pit, we decided to stick with the more traditional options from the fairly extensive menu that incorporates a variety of chicken, beef, lamb and veggie patties on a number of different buns including a 'low-carb super bun' that looks more like a biscuit to us from a distance.

Sticking to the Simply Grill'd ($9.90) on a Panini bun and a snack-sized portion of the Grill'd Chips ($3.80), we knew a burger outlet's original burger is the real test of its strength.

Upon depositing our charity bottle cap to our jar of choice (the charity with the most caps at the end of each month gets $300 and the other two get $100 each. We sat down and the burgers arrived in decent time despite the waiter absolutely unapologetically butchering our names.


The burgers themselves were neither gigantic nor the minuscule portions generally associated with McDonalds cheeseburgers. As it should be, the patty was appropriately juicy and cooked well while the herbed mayo was a nice flavour kick alongside the crunch of the fresh salad. The bun too was soft yet crisp on the outside exactly like it should be. But was the burger on a whole revlatory? No (the chips too were standard fare in our minds-nothing too special). It was pretty good but nothing to brag about and that's where it seems Grill'd has nestled in amongst the other fast food offerings. A slightly up-market burger joint that is tasty and reliable.

What about the 'healthy burger' tagline? Of course the Simply Grill'd without the mega salty accoutrements such as bacon does fairly well coming it only 37% of the daily sodium intake with 858 mg and 28% of saturated fat at 6.8 g according to the nutritional information. However, it is important too remember that the serving of chips really can push it over with 352 mg of sodium at 15% of your daily intake. Of course, burgers should never be your daily go-to meal but they are definitely a delicious treat.

So are Grill'd burgers healthy? They might not be the answer to the THR1VE but it's your best bet to satisfy your burger craving (much better than Maccas any day of the week).

Capitalising on the rising trend of Korean food in Melbourne, Suda presents a quirky mix of Korean fusion that seems to be spreading its tentacles across the city. Nestled in the confines of Healeys Lane in the heart of the city's legal district, Suda serves a steady stream of office workers during the busy lunch hours and a more select crowd for dinner.

Given it was lunch time and we were on the hunt for an interesting take on Korean, Suda was a perfect match. The restaurant itself was fairly busy but the waiter was eager to please and the service was quite good overall and we appreciated the fact that they were hasty to meet all our needs.

We didn't have much time on our hands with just under 25 minutes till our next meeting so we opted for the Bulgogi K-School Lunch Tray ($10.00). 

Bulgogi K-School Lunch Tray ($10.00)

The food came out at a reasonable speed and we were quick to tuck in. Overall, the food seemed a little underwhelming and nothing special really. The bulgogi was nothing to rave about and same could be said about the rice and the accompaniments. Perhaps, we didn't have a go at the true stars of the fusion menu, but for now, Suda just seemed to miss the mark slightly which doesn't bode well given the wealth of Korean and Asian options around it.

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It's Melbourne's "It" restaurant. The name on everybody's lips and the king of Chris Lucas' casual dining empire. Chin Chin (which is actually Japanese slang for penis). And we're here. Minus the typical queues given the unusual dining time of 2:30 PM on a weekday.

Despite the timing we are still bundled right next to (perhaps uncomfortably so) another pair of diners reminding us that this is certainly not the place for a business meeting or any private conversation for that matter. The noise is jarring, the music loud and the cacophony of it all means Chin Chin is certainly not the place for a quiet lunch.

Nevertheless, food reigns supreme and for all the buzz that is still Chin Chin's main drawcard. Glancing at the menu, prices are not cheap but aren't inordinately expensive either.

Given that we were keen to return to our Christmas shopping this was going to be a quick stop and we went straight to the mains. A simple combination would do so it was to be the Grain Fed Sher Wagyu Sirloin stir fried with Jungle Curry paste, krachai, cha om & holy basil ($28.50) and the Seared Yellow-Fin Tuna ($28.50) (apologies, we can't recall the exact accompaniments for that particular dish) accompanied by two lots of steamed brown rice of course ($4 each).

Grain Fed Sher Wagyu Sirloin stir fried with Jungle Curry paste, krachai, cha om & holy basil ($28.50)

Seared Yellow-Fin Tuna ($28.50)

Knowing that much of Chin Chin's dishes are prepared nearly completely offsite in Moorabbin before final touches are added in the CBD kitchen (as this terrific Broadsheet feature profiles), the fact that the dishes arrived in almost five minutes was no surprise.

The tuna was a decent affair with a subtle cooling tanginess to it from the salad but didn't amount to much in comparison to the punchy Wagyu stir fry.  As with many other restaurants around Melbourne, the waiter fulfilled the courtesy of warning us that the Wagyu would be hot. Twice. Upon ordering and then again on the dish's arrival. As with other restaurants, we dismissed these warnings as exaggerated for the quasi-spice dishes they were bundled with.

How wrong we were.

The wagyu was delicious but strikingly hot at the same time which left us wondering why there weren't more cucumbers to cool down with. Despite the heat, this was certainly a winner with an appropriately generous lump of wagyu sitting in the devilish curry paste to boot.

Coconut Sago with Sweetcorn Ice Cream Praline and Puffed White Rice ($14)

Finally the Coconut Sago with Sweetcorn Ice Cream Praline and Puffed White Rice ($14) was a delightful end to the meal with a sublime mix of crunchy texture intertwined with some iconic Asian desserts.

But the question remains: Is Chin Chin worth the hype? Service was nice and attentive and the food was generally pretty good. Definitely on the pricey side though but certainly some great flavours.

By no stretch of the imagination is Chin Chin Melbourne's best restaurant but it's pretty good and the perfect start to a noisy and exciting night.

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Seldom has a chip garnered such support when it was pulled from shelves and rarely does one chip flavour have such a cult following yet Kettle's Chilli Chips are no ordinary chips. These bad boys can't be found anywhere else in the world and it's important to remember that Kettle Australia are completely separate from the American company of the same name.


It's easy to wonder what the fuss is all about but take it from us that these chips are some of the best on supermarket shelves. A distinct crispiness, subtly fiery chilli and relatively low sodium and saturated fat levels in comparison to other chips make this a no-brainer to alleviate your fried snack cravings.


Admittedly, the chilli has been dialed down in comparison to its previous iterations but that is only a slight blemish to one of our favourite snacks.

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Stranded on the west side of Flinders Street with a ravenous appetite and burdensome shopping bags in tow, we decided we weren't going to move much for a lunch. So upon reaching the second joint along the street we pushed expectations aside and straddled into the most appealing and clean place we could find.  The name 'Four Seasons House' was not very indicative of what particular cuisine this outlet specialised in but we soon found out they focused on Malaysian dishes with Asians staples thrown in to bolster the menu. The lunch crowd was mainly office goers and a small space but it was obvious that value for money was the biggest drawcard here.   Indeed the Mongolian beef that we opted for, clocked in at only $9 complete with orange slices and spring rolls (the frozen party food variety).  It would be fair to say that the taste was satisfying for the price and decently presented.  Nevertheless, a good place for a quick and cheap Asian meal.  Follow Hashtag On Social Media: Tweets by @hashtagblogau

Amidst the platoon of eateries along Crown's Southbank dining precinct, there is a corner on the St Kilda road end that is home to the most awarded collection of restaurants within the casino. Given this, we made a beeline to this cluster of Qantas touting Australian celebrity chef Neil Perry's Melbourne establishments. The iconic Rockpool Bar and Grill (modern Australian steakhouse), Rosetta (traditional Italian fare) and Spice Temple (contemporary Chinese) had all bagged two stars apiece in the latest iteration of The Age's Good Food Guide. Given our tendency for Asian cuisine, we opted for Spice Temple which is headed up by young and rising Benjamin Pollard.

Bottling high expectations, we entered and we were  promptly escorted to a table for two. The premises is split into two levels with the ground floor much more aesthetically pleasing compared to the painfully dark lower level (good for ambience not reading menus).

Service was great with waiters attentive, dishing warm greetings and enthusiastic to explain the menu.

The menu itself is inspired by different regional provinces with each showcased their individual flare. Admittedly this is not the economical meal you will find in Chinatown and some of the dishes are quite pricey for average portion sizes. Nevertheless, we were looking at the "hot and numbing wagyu beef" accompanied by steamed rice and vegetarian noodles but upon our waiter's recommendation of something less dry, we went for the "House fried rice-house made lap cheong, peas and salted chilli" ($18) and some "Handmade vegetarian noodles with tofu, sesame and Handmade vegetarian noodles with tofu, sesame and Sichuan sauce" ($12).

House fried rice-house made lap cheong, peas and salted chilli ($18)

Handmade vegetarian noodles with tofu, sesame and Handmade vegetarian noodles with tofu, sesame and Sichuan sauce ($12)

We were a bit disappointed at the wait time for the food but the balance of flavours of was very well done. Now. The name 'Spice Temple' adorns the entrance for a reason and boy is the food HOT. We didn't even go for the extra spicy dishes marked in red on the menu but we needed a extended breather halfway through the meal. Some would label this kind of spice overpowering but as spice lovers, we quite enjoyed it. However this level of spice should be an occasional venture.

To cool down, we went for a "Lychee granita with poached gooseberries and elderflower" ($16) (unfortunately we couldn't get a photo) and it was another quite good dish that rounded off the meal nicely.

Having had a chance to sample Spice Temple and one of Neil Perry's restaurants, we will definitely be returning to have more extensive taste of the menu and popping into Rockpool sometime soon as well.

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Chicken Bulgogi

Vegetarian Mushroom Salad

Beef Bulgogi

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