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.

 

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.

Red Spice Road can often be perceived as a fine dining venue but when it comes to the express lunch banquet menu priced at $29.50 for an appetiser and three main courses to be shared among your guests, we found unlikely value.

Lauded for its Pork Belly, Red Spice Road in McKillop Street has been delivering Asian Fusion food to the masses since 2007.

The express banquet menu here (it is also available for early dinner between 5 and 6 excluding Saturdays) is changed fortnightly so there is nearly always something new to try.



During our visit, two of the three dishes delivered brilliantly on flavour with the beef a particular highlight. The appetiser was a beetle leaf concoction that could be gobbled in a single bite and was nothing special but a nice touch before entering the main courses.

The porkbelly was appropriately tangy but had a nice punch as well while the chicken yellow curry worked nicely with its coconut base.

Overall, we were pleasantly surprised with the value and taste of Red Spice Road's express banquet. We'll be back soon.

True vegan options in Melbourne can be sparse outside of the traditional Indian options scattered around the CBD so when our vegan friends came to visit, it was the perfect excuse to pay a visit to vegan outlet Supercharger amidst Emporium Melbourne's ever expanding dining options.

The menu itself is fairly varied with plenty of options for breakfast, lunch and dinner as well as the, to be expected, array of organic juices and some good looking desserts.

You can opt for pre-made combinations but we decided to let our creative juices flow on the recycled paper ordering form trialling our own combination with 4 items and 2 super bases for $13.80.


Serving itself took only a few minutes and we were quickly at our tables.

While the food itself was of a decent size, our own flavour combination choices were bland at best and each component itself just seemed to lack a little punch. In general, some of the choices looked to lacked the sizzle to lift the individual parts above their dreary stalemate.

Perhaps it was a case of our ridiculous pairing, so we'll back to try our hand at one of Supercharger's own pre-configured bowls. For now, we'll reserve ultimate judgement.

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)

When it comes to bustling dining hubs in the South Eastern suburbs, Kingsway in Glen Waverely takes the cake by a country mile. The subsequent problem that eventuates in Kingsway is sifting through the raft of outlets on offer to find the true hidden gems. Precariously, we here at Hashtag decided to embark on such a daunting task.

First stop?

Straits of Malacca which specialises in Malaysian hawker street food.

The first thing that strikes you as you walk in is that this is certainly not a date night restaurant. Straits of Malacca may be a franchise but the interiors are struggling, the service is leaning on irreverent but we didn't come here for fine dining. We came here for the food.

The waiter wasn't messing around so we didn't either, going straight for the rice dishes with assorted fried goodies that were neither good for the heart nor keeping a clean set of hands.

As expected, the dishes came out both in an unceremonious manner and in a reasonable time.

The traditional wrapping and seaweed pouches for the vegetable cakes were a nice touch garnering some sort of semblance to the actual Straits of Malacca plastered grandly on the walls.

Of course, the fried stuff was good (Let's be honest, generally most things fried taste good). The accompaniments including the beans, chutney and other assorted vegetables were decent and rounded the dish off well albeit in an extremely oily one. (The rice and the pappadum were the standard fare)

Portion sizing was good and reasonable for the price but this certainly wasn't in the sub $10 'cheap eats' category.

Our 'cash-only' exit was brisk and utilitarian which funnily surmised the experience as a whole. Straits of Malacca is decent but easily lost in the sea of other eateries in the Kinsgway strip.

Shopping centres are traditionally home to exhausted consumers and an array of common place fast food outlets but Emporium Melbourne in the heart of the city's CBD attempted to turn this notion on its head. Filled with premium casual dining franchises and restaurant pop ups, Emporium quickly gained traction as just as much a destination for food as it is for shopping.

We regularly pop in to shopping centre so you'll see more of these reviews soon but first off the block is I Love Pho Express.

For us, Vietnamese is a tried and tested favorite so Rice Paper Rolls are one of our favourite snacks on the go and hence we couldn't go past the 4 Chicken Rice Paper Rolls ($9) at I Love Pho Express.


The ordering system was typical of many up-market food courts with a buzzer system in place. The wait time was reasonable which I assume meant the rolls were being made fresh for our consumption.

4 Chicken Rice Paper Rolls ($9)

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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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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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