The re-worked former printing press has been ‘industrial-chic-ed’ to within an inch of its life, but it’s the sort of space that can carry such a work over.  We particularly loved the over-sized skittle looking perky in the corner.  The menu is pretty much bagel-land so if this isn’t your thing, try the coffee for the excitement of what animal, vegetable or mineral will turn up as coffee art in your cup, and then head to Hardware Societe for more sophisticated fare. Open for brekkie and lunch seven days.

8 Rankins Lane
Melbourne
(03) 9600 4054

 Brought to you by serviced apartment specialists and caffeine lovers, Apartment Alkira.  Where too much coffee is never enough.

Melbourne has her fair share of artisan bakeries.  You can barely venture down one of our famed ‘laneways’ without being smacked in the face by a luscious, yeasty, briny aroma. We’re not complaining, mind, just noting.

A few months ago ‘Phillippa’s’ nudged her flour-dappled nose into the CBD from her traditionally suburban shores and now Frank Cammora is going the other way.  South Yarra, you’re one lucky suburb.

For those unfamiliar with the famed foodie godfather, Frank Cammora, is the genius behind the outrageously successful Movida dynasty – Movida, Movida Next Door, Movida Aqui, Pacos Tacos (and, we understand, a Sydney venture in Surrey Hills around October this year).  So, some pretty solid credentials.  Something of a foodie ‘talent scout’, for this project, Cammora has backed Michael James who has been trotting out pastries and breads for Movida for some time now.

Highly recommended treats from Movida Bakery are the divine salted caramel donuts and the chocolate brownies, but the slow cooked lamb pies also get a gold star.  And of course don’t forget the 48 hour fermented sourdough. Yum.

The bakery is easy to get to from Melbourne’s CBD – jump on a 72 tram straight down Toorak Road.  A well rounded day out might combine lunch at Movida Bakery, with a shopaholic’s stopover tour of the boutiques of South Yarra.   You could finish off with a nosey about the quirky Chapel Street Bazaar (see our posting here) and a glass of something bubbly at Fog on the groovy Greville Street.

Movida Bakery
3 Tivoli Road, South Yarra

https://twitter.com/movidabakery

Phillippa’s City Store
15 Howey Place, Melbourne +61 3 9671 04030
Monday-Friday 7am-5:30pm
Saturday 8:30am-2:30pm

Check our previous post on Top Bakeries in Melbourne 2011.

Eating our way through Melbourne’s best and worst so you don’t have to.  Apartment Alkira offers tasty serviced apartment accommodation smack bang in the middle of the city. 

*pic pinched from https://twitter.com/movidabakery

]]> http://apartmentalkira.com.au/2012/05/melbournemovida-bakery/feed/ 0 http://apartmentalkira.com.au/2012/04/melbournes-busy-culinary-icon/ http://apartmentalkira.com.au/2012/04/melbournes-busy-culinary-icon/#comments Wed, 18 Apr 2012 20:32:20 +0000 londoner http://apartmentalkira.com.au/?p=2447 Does Andrew McConnell actually sleep?  This question has been keeping us up here at Apartment Alkira since Mr McC’s stable of fabulous and very Melbourne eateries began expanding a couple of years ago.  How does he do it?  And unlike other restauranteurs whose growth spurts have dinted quality, consistency, or both, Andrew McConnell seems to have the knack of making everything just hum.  It is for this reason that we feel he is an insomniac.  Or a robot.

Not that we’re complaining. We love every one of his offspring, from Cumulus Inc to Golden Fields to Cutler & Co. And while we haven’t sampled the fare at his re-verbed Builders Arms, (the dining room gets up and going in June), we feel a warm spot in our tummies starting to grow.  It’s bound to be fab. We hope Mr Mc can now get some shut eye.

Website here

Brought to you by your hosts with ever-rumbling tummies, at Melbourne’s stable of (one) award winning serviced apartment at Queen Street, Melbourne City, Victoria.

*pic pinched from one of our fave Melbourne resources, Broadsheet

Chin Chin - When one chin isn't enough

Chin Chin – a new asian eatery in bubbly Flinders Lane – has been getting a lot of love from the ‘blogosphere’ since it opened in late May, so we were rather relieved to find it definitely lived up to the hype.

One tinsy word of warning though – it’s not for those with hearing sensitivities. LOUD is how I would describe it.  The cavernous space has been funkified to within an inch of its life – and it is slick and sexy – but the hard lines and high ceilings are not a friend to those with noise issues.  The perfect place to take someone you’d like to lean in close to.

The food is great though.  Which is why, on a ‘school night’ we couldn’t get a spot in the 120+ eatery until after 9pm.  Worth the wait, in particular for the caramelised sticky pork and sour herb salad.  Yum.

CHIN CHIN
125 FLINDERS LANE
MELBOURNE

 This review is brought to you by Melbourne
self contained apartment  specialists – Apartment Alkira

Nahji Chu, self-deigned, Queen of the Rice Paper Roll, brings ‘The Roll’ to Melbourne.  Not that Melbourne has been without a good supply of vietnamese eateries offering the uniquely asian morsel, but as The Queen puts it, no-one can make a rice paper roll quite like her. 

Finding accommodation at the top end of the CBD in Exhibition Street, ’Miss Chu’ opened a couple of weeks ago as a ‘hole-in-the-wall’ in the style of her Sydney sister store. While the place is tinsy, it’s worth dealing with the throngs to enjoy the fabulously fresh asian tid-bits which almost bounce off the plate and into your mouth.

Whether ‘The Queen’ develops a following of loyal subjects and is here for a short stay or long one, remains to be seen. For our money, this outpost of her empire is a welcome addition to Melbourne’s culturally diverse foodie scene.

Another foodie review brought to you by Apartment Alkira – Melbourne’s boutique
short stay apartment specialists.

We have no answers to either, but we have stumbled upon an antidote at Melbourne’s major international and domestic Airport – our pill comes in the form of Cafe Vue at Melbourne Airport.

Here the food tastes like it has organic origins as opposed to a string of numbers in the form of additives and preservatives.  And more surprising are the prices which are moderate and reflect fairly the good quality ingredients used.  Quite remarkable.

Cafe Vue at Melbourne Airport serves five senses coffee and a range of lovely nibbly things. They do fab brekkies and a handful of dishes throughout the day, but the highlight has got to be the divine ‘lunchboxes’ full of delicious morsels which you can smuggly pop on your dropdown table as your plane departs, making your fellow passengers and the cabin crew green with envy. I’m not sure the first class meals would be nearly as good.

More yummy places to eat in (or on your way to…er…from) Melbourne.  Brought to you by one of the city’s best boutique short stay apartments in the CBD.

Overplayed perhaps, but the owner of this North Fitzroy eatery seems to have appropriated the reputation of Sienfeld’s soup nazi. Not entirely fairly in my experience, but she does run a tight ship, so don’t be put off if she’s a tad snappy.

The Moroccan Soup bar is ledgendary on the north side of the river, having been around for years.  A stone’s throw from the CBD, this highly popular place doesn’t take bookings and is extremely difficult to secure a table anytime after 6.30pm.  The lure of snaring a table in a place of such demand, plus the serious cheapness of the food, and the slightly unpredictable character of Madame Soup Bar makes dining here highly sought after.

Whilst the name suggests the fare is restricted to soups, the eatery offers tagines and other classic Moroccan fare, including an extremely good value ‘banquet’ for the low, low price of $18 per head.  The  chickpea, almond and flatbread dish is to die for (pic above).

Don’t miss out on the mint tea or coffee and sweets – even if the Madame is clearing your plates and setting your table for the next round as you nibble.

This invitation to loin girding brought to you by
Melbourne’s Short Stay Apartment specialists – Apartment Alkira.  Enjoy.

The PM bit of the name belongs to Phillip Mouchel, the French michelin starred executive chef who initially came to Melbourne in the 90s to head up the legendary Paul Bocuse restaurant at Diamaru.  More recently he made a splash having returned from a couple of years in Japan to open The Brasserie at Crown Casino.  His cohorts, The Press Group have notched up a swag of foodie points themselves, running such establishments as The Press Club, Maha, Hellinic Republic and St Katherines.  The 24 of PM24 of course represents the street number of the eatery, being located at 24 Russell Street, Melbourne CBD.

The elegant, under-stated aesthetic of PM24 mirrors Mouchel’s sensibility in the kitchen.  His modern take on French classics has always been his strong suit and at this new establishment he pushes this particular envelope heartily.

Melbourne visitors to the Australian Open will benefit from a special 2 or 3 course set menu from January 17th.  Our suggestion? Go for the 3 – you can work it off on the courts tomorrow.

We love French food at Apartment Alkira. Of course we also love stylish, affordable and elegant short stay accommodation options.

The no-booking policy is a test for the virgos among us and a fairly restricted range of vegie options sees vegetarians far less enthusiastic about the place than their carnivorous brethren. A ‘cosy’ placement of tables requires frequent bouts of breathing-in when manouvreing around the space, maybe serving as a reminder to hold back on the sweet morsels offered at the end of the meal.

Caveats notwithstanding, Gigibaba remains as bewitching and alluring as it did when it opened to much applause a couple of years ago.  Fresh, honest, Turkish food made with zingy products and impeccable technique has seen this dark and moody eatery retain an enthusuastic local crowd.  Self-selecting visitors to Melbourne will find it a treat.

This review is brought to you from the people at Alkira Apartments, who, truth be told are on the slightly pudgier side of pudgy themselves. Melbourne’s specialists in serviced apartments.

The revolution is here.  Anyone noticed?   Quietly, sneakily, the ‘dead end’ of the CBD has morphed into something slightly cooler, slightly hipper, and is now routinely referred to as the ‘New York’ end.

Groovy wee cafe haunts rub shoulders with design shops and specialist  ’restaurant quality sandwich outlets’.  Joining the coterie of movers and shakers is the cutely named, ‘Elevenses’.

There’s a slightly off-beat vibe inside this great bluestone building where you can play a game of communal scrabble while waiting for your expertly made and ethically sourced ‘Toby’s Estate’ coffee. Slightly odd ball, but rather delish sandwiches combinations include; pan-seared kangaroo fillet with swiss, sauerkraut and pickles, braised rabbit with alfalfa, rosemary and honey and otway pork with provolone, tomato and apple sauce.  If you’re after something a bit sweeter – to go with your elevenses – treats come from Noisette.

Funny how things change.  Who knows, maybe the 2010 dead end of Melbourne – the docklands – will become the London end, (or maybe the Warsaw end?)

Enjoying great food, coffee and all the treats of Melbourne, Apartment Alkira, your serviced apartments CBD specialists.