Up a discreet flight of stairs on to the 1st floor on Bourke Street, we found The Grand Trailer Park Taverna. A homage to the vintage American diner, you will find Milkshakes, Fries and Burgers of all varieties here. We braved a wintry a Melbourne night to try its fare.


While not terribly extensive, the burger list has decent variety and comes complete with names that generate a smirk to slight bewilderment. Personally, we opted for the The Chunk - Double Double ($16.50) and a large bucket of Beer Battered Chips ($5.50). The atmosphere was quite dinerish with a great mix of families, the after work crowd and couples.


Packed with two beef patties, cheese, onion, pickles, jalapenos, pickles, mustard & tomato sauce in between a brioche bun, the Chunk seemed messy and overloaded at times. Despite being of decent size, the Chunk failed to hit the nail on the head conclusively.  It left us satisfied but was not the knockout blow we were looking for.

The jalapenos were a welcome kick of spice and the patties were cooked well but the sweetness of the brioche bun combined with the sauce failed to close the deal. On a side note, the chips were good in their crunchy batter without being too thick.

While batting above average, The Grand Trailer Park can't claim the crown of Melbourne's best this time around. We'll certainly be back though if we are craving burgers around the Parliament end of Bourke Street.

 

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).

It's been a slow and sweeping revolution. From the fringes of Richmond and Springvale to sweeping the outer metropolitan suburbs and the CBD. Roll'd rode the wave all the way to becoming a mega-successful franchise. We're talking, of course, about Vietnamese street food.

In the lull of the usual food court offerings, Roll'd has certainly been a breath of fresh air taking its upmarket price offerings to the suburbs. We are devout devotees of Roll'd's Rice Paper Rolls but this time we decided to venture out and try the Bun Noodle Salads.

At $10.90 a pop for the Bun Noodle Salad with Lemongrass Beef and then with Tofu & Vegetarian Rolls, this certainly wasn't Maccas.

Bun Noodle Salad with Lemongrass Beef ($10.90)

Bun Noodle Salad with Tofu and Vegetarian Rolls ($10.90)

Lakshmi Villas is somewhat of an institution in Dandenong and has been lauded for years for its cheap and authentic South Indian cuisine. At any given time in the day, it appears that this alcove of vegetarian cuisine is bustling with people of all walks of life and the kitchen is working like a production line pushing out dish after dish.

The food here is consistent, affordable and authentic which guarantees a steady stream of patrons and the large contingent of Indian diners indicates that the food must be spot-on. (Pro-tip: If there is a large crowd of people of the same nationality as the restaurant's cuisine then the food's authenticity is likely to be fairly accurate).

We didn't have much time to dawdle so we opted for the trusted Thali Special ($10) and the Lunch/Dinner Special ($8) with steamed rice, papadum and a selection of three vegetarian curies each, while the Thali came with an additional chappathi, yoghurt and dessert.

Thali Special ($10)

Service was friendly but slightly industrial at times with a merry-ground of staff rotating around the small space. We didn't have to wait long for the food and it was a reasonable portion for the price.

Lunch/Dinner Special ($8)

The South Indian flavours were true and consistent but lacked a bit of spicy kick to lift the dishes to the next level. The curries themselves were a nice mixture of textures with the dahl, tofu and potato sure to satisfy the need for variety but again would have been memorable with a little more spice.

Despite this, Lakshmi Villas is still a sure bet for a reliable and affordable vegetarian feed in or around Dandenong.

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At the very heart of it, Zambrero is a brilliant concept as healthy Mexican food chain dreamed up by Dr. Sam Prince that donates a meal to the hungry in a developing country or Australian community every time a meal is purchased with over 7 million meals donated to date. However, any food outlet has to deliver tasty food to survive in the fearsome CBD food scene that is Melbourne so we had to try it out.

Black Rice Powerbowl with Beef ($13.90)

A quick glance of the nutritional information from the Zambrero website says that all is pretty good if you stay away from the sauces (the sauces could send the sodium content soaring to an alarming percentage of your recommended daily intake).

The bowl itself is well balanced with well cooked rice and a variety of tried and tested Mexican flavours. The beef is flavoursome but the meat is little too minced for us and we would definitely prefer a few more substantial pieces. Further to this, the Jalapeños add a nice kick and are must to get those spice senses tingling but the portion as a whole could be on the lighter side for someone with a large appetite especially for the price.

Nevertheless, not a bad way to get a feel good Mexican fix, albeit on the slightly pricier side.

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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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