Tom Phat IV

March 21, 2026 

 

   

 

When we first arrived in Melbourne, I thought Tom Phat looked so cool. It maintains the same vibe 20 years later, and I still think it looks pretty cool. That said, we've had some really mixed experiences, both within and between meals, and it has never really earned our loyalty. We've popped in for the odd late-night espresso martini or dietary-friendly friend date since our 2016 anniversary post and not been moved to document them. But we can't resist a longitudinal analysis, so here we are, back blogging Tom Phat in 2026.

 

   

 

Tom Phat continues to cover the larger floor space it had expanded to by 2016, and it is filled pretty effectively on a Saturday night. Tom Phat used to be an all-hours venue, from brunch to late-night cocktails, but now it's strictly a dinner-and-drinks affair. The drinks are good fun! A dozen cocktails and four mocktails focus on south-east Asian flavours, with numerous tropical fruits, lemongrass, and ginger. 

 

   

 

It was harder than we expected to order dishes we'd had before; tempeh, in particular, seemed to be off the menu. The hoisin tofu baos ($14) were a fun and tasty DIY experience, with more pickley bits than we could fit into the buns. The grilled roti with satay sauce ($12) is one of the few menu fixtures and sadly one of the least inspiring, with little flakiness or toastiness.

 

   

 

The choo chee curry with rice ($24) has a tofu option for the veg*ns, and it's an enjoyable if not memorable coconut milk-based curry with a good variety of vegetables.

 

   

 

Kung pao cauliflower ($24) was another new-to-us menu item, a bit spicy and plenty sweet, with lovely roasted cashews. The cauliflower florets were thickly battered, the effect was too heavy, and we didn't make it through the whole plate.

 

I had vowed to order the banana roti pancake for dessert if it was still around, but it was blessedly absent. While the menu has technically changed, this version of Tom Phat didn't really offer us anything new. 

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 You can read about one, two, three of our past visits to Tom Phat.

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Tom Phat

184 Sydney Rd, Brunswick  

9121 3377 

menu 

https://tomphat.com/

 

Accessibility: Tom Phat has a small ramp on entry. Tables are aligned through the length of the building with a corridor through that starts off wide but gets a little more crowded towards the end. Furniture is a densely-arranged array of regular-height tables with backed chairs and bench seats. There is a disability-marked toilet out back. We ordered at our table and paid afterwards at the low-ish counter. 

Andrew's Hamburgers IV

March 14, 2026

 

We're revisiting lots of places from the first couple of years of the blog to celebrate twenty years of posting about Melbourne's food and to check back on the Cheap Eats 2006 places we got excited about when we first moved here. Andrew's Hamburgers has been going a lot longer than twenty years, churning out famous burgers with the lot and laying claim to being Australia's first dedicated burger shop. There are conflicting accounts of its history, but it seems to have been run by the same family since at least 1957.

 

Its last two decades we can account for, with the shop basically unchanged since we first visited - a narrow, busy space pumping out burgers and chips well beyond the capacity of the few tables out the front. The menu itself has expanded since we last visited, with Mexican, Hawaiian and American themed burger options alongside the classics (plus the souvlaki that turned up on the menu around 2010).

 

Most people are here for the classics though I think. The burger with the lot is the mainstay, and I suspect the veggie burger ($16) recipe hasn't been messed with since whenever it first appeared. There are no concessions to vegans here, with feta in the veggie patty (based on a family recipe). It's gooey and dotted with veggies, layered up with cheese and just soggy enough - a far cry from the Impossible patties that now dominate the veggie burger world. We added in a potato cake ($2.50) and small chips ($6.50) and had a delightful dinner in the sunshine. 

    

Veggie burger prices at Andrew's have gradually increased, from $7 in 2007 to $7.50 in 2010 to $10 in 2016 to $16 on our 2026 visit. It's not outrageous, but it's not quite the bargain that it felt like back in 2007. Still, there's something wholesome about a business that knows what it does well and just keeps doing it.

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You can read about our earlier visits to Andrew's here, here and here. Since our 2016 visit there have been a few blog posts about the meaty options - see Team Cheeseburger and Food Trip (reviewing the short-lived CBD outpost). There is a lovely obituary for Andrew Georghiou here, as well as the interesting but inconsistent articles in The Age and Broadsheet.

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Andrew's Hamburgers

114 Bridport Street, Albert Park

9690 2126

menu

https://www.andrewshamburgers.com.au/

 

Accessibiltity: The entry is flat, but the interior is quite crowded and you order and pay at a high counter. The outside tables are reasonably well spaced, with bench seating. We didn't visit the toilets.

Gopal's IV

March 3, 2026 

 

   

 

We probably haven't been to Gopal's since our 2016 decade retrospective of the 2006 Cheap Eats Guide. What once suited our student budget and tastes and our newly vegetarian ways brought less excitement as the years went on. But what's boring to one can be comforting and even nostalgic to another.

 

   

 

Gopal's specialises in vegetarian and vegan food, prepared in bulk and served at affordable prices. The mainstay is the feast plate ($12 in 2006, $12.95 in 2016, $13.50 in 2026); they were out of soup on our visit so Michael dropped back to the otherwise-same vegan platter ($12.50). It's a plate piled with rice, two curries and salad, plus a dessert (apple crumble with custard) and drink (lemonade). The foods and their dietary features are well marked at the counter bain marie, but it all kinda melds on the plate.

   

 

I knew I couldn't handle the full shebang, so focused on kofta and rice, drink and dessert. It was simple, salty and filling, no more and no less than I expected. It's food that won't make new memories but might trigger old ones. It's remarkable that Gopal's have kept the prices so low for so many years, and maintained a space in the city that remains so accessible and accepting to anyone who can make it up the stairs. We might not be excited by Gopal's but we're lucky to have them.

 

    

 

On this night, we paired our meal with a Pulp show under a blood moon. Gopal's went on to rescue us from hunger between Melbourne Comedy Festival shows in April when the crepe cart was overrun and time was tight. 

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You can read about one, two, three of our previous visits to Gopal's.

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Gopal's Pure Vegetarian

139 Swanston St, Melbourne CBD 

9650 1578 

menu 

https://www.gopalspurevegetarian.com.au/ 

 

Accessibility: We entered via a narrow staircase with a handrail and did not notice an alternative access point. We ordered and paid at the counter. Tables are quite well spaced. Toilets are gendered and narrow. 

Artichoke heart cannelloni

Februrary 28, 2026 

   

 

We were in the mood for a cosy pasta project on a Saturday night, and I pulled this one out of Deb Perelman's first Smitten Kitchen Cookbook. The photo in the book has pasta shells oozing with something creamy and cheesy, edges crisped to a golden brown, and everything flecked with green parsley. My presentation is a little more coarse but it hit the mark well enough.

 

The major hitch was that I couldn't find jumbo pasta shells. I'm not confident that they're even a thing here in Australia. I pivoted to cannelloni: that meant filling them carefully while they were uncooked and brittle, compared to shells that were intended to be cooked, soft and open for filling. I kept an eye on the amount of liquid in the sauce and the baking time, wanting to make sure that the pasta cooked through in the last phase. They did pretty well with some extra milk and ricotta, though perhaps they didn't look quite as satisfyingly gooey.

 

Pasta shapes aside, we stuck to the key flavours: a filling of blended artichoke hearts brightened with white wine and lemon juice, poured over with a thick ricotta béchamel, and scattered with basil leaves. It was gorgeous, paired with a favourite simple tomato salad that I've won Michael around to.

 

 

 

Artichoke heart cannelloni

(adapted from Deb Perelman's The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook) 

 

cannelloni

4 tablespoons butter

1 onion, diced

2 x 400g cans artichoke hearts, drained and rinsed, and sliced in half

1/2 cup white wine

1 1/2 cups grated parmesan

2 egg yolks

1 tablespoon lemon juice

salt and pepper, to taste

250g box cannelloni tubes 

 

sauce

4 tablespoons butter

1/3 cup flour

3 cups milk

2 clove garlic, minced

2/3 cup ricotta

3 tablespoons lemon juice

salt and pepper, to taste

 

2 tablespoons parsley or basil leaves, chopped, to garnish

 

 

Melt the butter in a medium-large frypan over medium heat. When it's lightly brown, add the onion. Cook the onion, stirring, until softened and browning, about 10 minutes. Add the artichoke hearts and cook for 5 minutes. Add the wine and cook it all, stirring occasionally, until the liquid has evaporated. Turn off the heat and allow the mixture to cool a little.

 

When the artichoke mixture is no longer too hot for it, transfer it to a food processor. Add the parmesan, egg yolks, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Pulse the mixture until it is well chopped but still retains plenty of texture.

 

Make the sauce by melting the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in the flour. Gradually whisk in the milk, keeping it all moving to prevent lumps. Add the garlic and bring the sauce to the boil, stirring regularly. Reduce the heat and stir in the ricotta, lemon juice, salt and pepper.

 

Preheat an oven to 180°C. Spread a bit of the sauce over the base of a large, high-walled baking dish (about 20 x 30 cm). Use a teaspoon to carefully spoon the artichoke filling into each cannelloni tube, then set the tubes into the baking dish on top of the sauce. When all the cannelloni and filling is used up, spoon the remaining sauce over them. Cover the dish in foil and bake for about 30 minutes, then remove the foil and bake for a further 15 minutes.

 

Serve the cannelloni sprinkled with parsley or basil.  

Good Daze Canteen

February 27, 2026 

   

Since Nyala no longer serves tafach mooz, we had room for dessert on Brunswick St and I had a back-up plan. I've been following Good Daze Canteen on instagram for a while and we were both ready to try their cheery icecream menu. It was tough to choose across their flavours of the world (peaches cream cornbread! dulce de leche chocolate alfajor! guava chilli!), and we were impressed that a third of the menu seemed to be vegan. They also keep a cheeky little bowl of Lacteeze tablets by the register.

Michael ordered a double scoop ($9.50) of the very Australian Cherry Ripe and the Viet ice coffee*leche flan. Both were excellent: look at that swoon-worthy swirl on the Cherry Ripe!  

   

 

I went for a single scoop ($7) of the miso peanut butter caramel, credited jointly to Japan and the USA, and added Nutella on top ($1.50). Perhaps not the most adventurous choice in the year 2026, but an excellent combination: nutty, with a complex saltiness, gooey and rich.

 

This capped off our meal perfectly; we agreed that we'd welcome all future excuses to come back and try more. 

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Good Daze Canteen

316 Brunswick St, Fitzroy

menu 

https://www.gooddazecanteen.com/

 

Accessibility: There is a small lip on the door and a flat corridor through the canteen. There is a regular-height communal table with backed chairs inside, and a bench on the street. We ordered and paid at a low counter. We didn't visit the toilets.

Nyala II

February 27, 2026

 

   

We're back for another Cheap Eats 2006 two decades on post, with a visit to Nyala African Restaurant in Fitzroy. We first visited Nyala in about 2004, before we even lived in Melbourne and we loved it so much that we revisited very early in our where's the beef era - October 2006. According to their website, Nyala was the first Ethiopian place in Melbourne and has been trading since 1987 - pretty impressive!

Since our 2006 visit Nyala has moved down the street, to a lovely, airy space above Masti on Brunswick Street, but otherwise things are pretty similar: Ethiopian food, friendly service and some delicious African beers. 

    

   

We started out with a dip combo plate: small serves of lentil dip, tahini dip and eggplant/turmeric dip served with mountain bread ($15). This is a great way to try all Nyala's dipping options - I think the red lentil one was my favourite, but you really can't go wrong with any of these, especially alongside a St George's Ethiopian beer.

   

We followed up with the classic Ethiopian veg combo plate with injera - beyaynetu ($28). This comes with serves of each of their four vego mains: futari (Tanzanian cabbage with veggies in coconut cream), keek woet (Ethiopian style rich brown lentils), defen meser (yellow split peas, seasoned and cooked Ethiopian style) and gomen (steamed silverbeet and spinach with garlic and ginger). They happily kept our injera supplies topped up as we messily dug our way through these excellent dishes - there's something about the sour bread and the rich earthy flavours of these stews that just works. 

 

   

 

Prices at Nyala have just about kept up with inflation - mains in 2006 cost $14, up to $28 this year, while entrees have approximately doubled as well ($7 to $15). The menu has changed a little, but the only notable shift is the absence of the banana and brown sugar dessert Cindy enjoyed in 2006.  I'm so glad Nyala has survived, although things were pretty quiet the night we visited. We had such a lovely dinner - the staff were super friendly, the space gorgeous and the food excellent - a great reminder not to wait 20 years to visit again.

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You can read about our 2006 Nyala visit (and admire our 2006 photos) here. 

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Nyala African Restaurant

Level 1, 356 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy

9419 9128

food, drinks  

https://nyalarestaurant.com.au/

Accessibility: Nyala is up a flight of stairs, we didn't notice a lift but there might be one tucked away somewhere. Tables are nicely spaced out and we paid at a high counter. We didn't visit the toilets.

Beautiful Jim Key II

February 15, 2026

 

We stopped in at Beautiful Kim Key a second time for lunch, before a Barkly Square trip, and perched up at the bright yellow communal table.  

 

 

Michael tried their vegetarian toastie, which was stuffed with finely chopped broccoli and pecorino ($18), served with a cheek of lemon and chilli flakes on the side. A pretty good hash brown ($6) rounded it up to a proper meal for him.

 

I was less concerned about proper meals, see-sawing right until the last moment between the heirloom tomato and focaccia special and the pain perdu. Well, I got the pain perdu ($19), and it was flawless: a single golden piece of French toast served with a blood plum in syrup, and a flourish of creme fraiche.

 

Our meal wasn't heavy but it was full of flavour, just the thing to put a spring in our step for the errands ahead. 

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You can read about our first visit to Beautiful Jim Key here. 

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Beautiful Jim Key

7 Wilson Ave, Brunswick

0400 124 414 

food, drinks

https://www.beautifuljimkey.com.au/ 

 

Accessibiltity: BJK has a flat entry and medium-spaced furniture, a mixture of bench seating along the wall, low tables with backed seats, then a high communal table with backless stools. We ordered at our table and paid at a low counter. We didn't use the toilets, but I think I spotted a reasonably spacious unisex cubicle. 

Chocolate Buddha

January 31, 2026

   

Weirdly, we're gonna commence our Cheap Eats 2006 two decades on reviews with a restaurant that we've never before blogged: Chocolate Buddha. Chocolate Buddha has never truly drawn me in on its own merits but it's very convenient for fitting dinner in around a CBD-based cultural event. It's embedded in Federation Square and turns around decent Japanese food, fast. It always seems bustling, and you can lock down a booking before your ticketed show. At the same time, their kitchen is open to a reasonable time and if you walk in as a small group there's a good chance they'll have room for you. Most recently, Michael and I tried walking up at 8:30pm after an ACMI Tony Leung Chiu-wai movie and squeezed into the bench by the window.

   

Vegetarian and vegan dishes are marked and scattered across the menu, and there's a dedicated column for gluten-free friendly items (with a contamination caveat). We grazed on some of the more shareable options: crispy-fried green gyoza with wasabi mayo ($15), a simple tofu katsu ($11; in lieu of their sold-out nasu dengaku), seasonal green veges in a garlic, ginger and sesame dressing ($12), and steamed rice ($5).

   

Agedashi tofu ($16) is a staple; this one came with lots of broth and a helpful ladle for sharing.

Prices have increased since 2006, of course: side dishes were once $4-13 and now sit around $5-20; mains were $14-20 and are now $23-30. The Cheap Eats reviewer warned that staff could be "harried and humourless" but we experienced the complete opposite in 2026: the four staff we interacted with kept pace with confidence and a smile. Chocolate Buddha might never make the where's the best? page, but it's undeniably handy to fall back on when you feel like a tourist in your own city.

   

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Back in 2006, Morsels & Musings loved the food, but like Cheap Eats they bemoaned the service at Chocolate Buddha. Since then it has received positive reviews on This and That, The Food Joy, Weekend Notes, and Mamma Knows Melbourne.

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Chocolate Buddha

Federation Square, Swanston and Flinders Sts, Melbourne CBD

9654 5688

food, drinks

https://chocolatebuddha.com.au/

Accessibility: There are both steps and a flatter entry point to Chocolate Buddha, but I'm not sure there's a way of avoiding the undulating, cobbled Federation Square. Furniture is densely packed with reasonably clear but busy walkways - mostly low tables with backless stools, some backed metal chairs outside and some backed chairs and booth seating toward the back inside. We ordered at our table and paid at a low counter. We didn't visit the toilets. 

Gochujang & tofu ragu with gnocchi & pickled cucumber

January 4, 2026

   

Cindy keeps a reasonably close eye on Meera Sodha's vego food column for The Guardian, and flagged this one as Relevant To My Interests as soon as it popped up. It really does tick all my boxes: chilli forward, carbs and protein and something you can throw together on a school night. I liked the idea of the fresh cucumber pickle as an accompaniment too, so I went all in on Meera's vision, and added some bonus broccoli. 

It's a fun dish - a kind of gnocchi ragu, with the blitzed tofu standing in for mince, but the flavours are not very Italian, driven by chilli bean sauce, gochujang and sesame oil. It works for me, and just writing this up has reminded me that I should cook it again soon.

Gochujang & tofu ragu with gnocchi & pickled cucumber

(based on this recipe from Meera Sodha)

pickled cucumber

1 decent sized cucumber

2 tablespoons rice vinegar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon sesame seeds

gnocchi

500g gnocchi

2 tablespoons olive oil

200g spring onions, sliced finely

1 head of broccoli, chopped into bite-sized pieces

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 tablespoon minced ginger

300g firm tofu, blitzed to a mince-like consistency

2 tablespoons chilli bean sauce

1 tablespoon gochujang paste

2 tablespoons tomato paste

1 tablespoon tamari

2 teaspoons sesame oil

2 teaspoons maple syrup

While your gnocchi cooking water is heating up, start making your pickle: combine the salt and cucumber slices in a bowl and then pop them in a sieve over a bowl to drain out the moisture.

Cook the gnocchi as per the packet instructions and drain.

Put your oil in a large fying pan over medium heat and add in most of the spring onions, the garlic and the ginger. Cook, stirring, for a few minutes, until the sting is out of the garlic. 

Add the broccoli and tofu and turn the heat up, stir-frying your mix for 8 or 10 minutes, until the tofu mince browns up a bit. Stir in all your sauces and seasonings and then add in the cooked gnocchi plus about a cup of water. Bring the mix to the boil and then kill the heat and stir through your leftover spring onions.

Take your drained cucumber and pop it in a bowl, along with the rice vinegar and sesame seeds.

Serve it all up and enjoy.

Terror Twilight

January 3, 2026

   

We had a couple low-obligation days in the new year before returning to work. Michael did a little online research and suggested we try Collingwood's Terror Twilight for lunch. Located on a corner, sunlight streams in from two sides, and there's a bit of a diner feel to the whole set-up. The menu's a little fancy: banana bread comes with burnt miso caramel butter, the ham toastie is actually mortadella, and eggs benedict is served on brioche with a green mango salad. Half of the menu columns are taken up with "build your own bowl" and "build your own broth" step-throughs. Vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free options are well-marked through the all-day breakfast, but less so in the build-your-own sections, even though it's potentially the easiest way to meet one's dietary requirements.

   

I love to see a house-made soda on a menu, too - at this time they were specialising in rhubarb, strawberry and mint ($7.50).

   

The spicy green eggs ($26.50) naturally caught Michael's attention - it's a modest round of Turkish bread stacked with folded eggs, spring onion and green chilli relish, a herb salad, grated haloumi and crispy fried shallots, and a little pool of parsley-salted yoghurt to drag it all through.

   

I was intrigued by the eggs kurosawa ($27) and ultimately loved every bite. Under a furikake-dusted rice cracker, I took my sweet time over folded eggs, brown rice, bok choy, avocado and fried tofu finished with dabs of pickled ginger, miso mayo and teriyaki sauce. 

   

Terror Twilight's staff were chipper and welcoming. The more-is-more menu seems to be executed well and there is nothing hidden about this gem, with a steady stream of customers flowing through. I'd be interested to come back to build a bowl or sample some of the sweet stuff.

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There's a positive review of Terror Twilight on Melbourne Lifestyle.

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Terror Twilight

11-13 Johnston St, Collingwood

9417 0129

food, drinks  

https://www.terrortwilight.com.au/

Accessibility: There's a ramp up to the door, a flat floor and a wide pathway through the centre of the café. Furniture is mostly densely packed regular height tables with backed chairs and benches. There are a couple of booths and a high bench with fixed, backless stools. We ordered at our table and paid at the high counter. We didn't visit the toilets. 

Coffee streusel slice

January 2, 2026

   

It would seem that, for the third year in a row, I've gotten nostalgic over my Christmas-new year break and pulled out the Australian Women's Weekly Big Book of Beautiful Biscuits. This isn't actually a recipe we ate back in the 1990s; my brother would not have accepted the walnuts and neither of us would have been interested in the coffee. My tastes have changed! A biscuity based covered in coffee caramel, walnuts and a streusel topping is right up my alley.

My adjustments were minor. Worried about spreading the biscuit base as far as I needed to, I used a smaller, square baking tray than what was recommended and ended up with a taller, chunkier slice than the one in the book's photo. I was not interested in freezing and grating the streusel, so I just lightly crumbled it with my hands. Given the accessibility of dairy-free condensed milk these days, this would be easy to veganise.

The outcome was sweet and golden, and the walnuts almost melded into it. (Maybe I'd enjoy a coarser chop for greater contrast?) The small quantity of instant coffee powder didn't make an impression and I'd gladly add a lot more. This was a pleasing interplay of what I've always loved with what I've come to appreciate over time.

Coffee streusel slice

(slightly adapted from The Australian Women's Weekly The Big Book of Beautiful Biscuits)

base

125g butter, at room temperature

1/4 cup caster sugar

1 1/4 cups plain flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

filling

400g can sweetened condensed milk

30g butter

2 tablespoons golden syrup

3 teaspoons instant coffee (or add more, to taste)

1/3 cup walnuts, chopped

topping

1 cup plain flour

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/3 cup brown sugar

125g butter, at room temperature

Preheat an oven to 180°C. Line a 20cm square baking tray with paper.

Make the base in a medium-large bowl. Use an electric beater to beat together the butter and sugar. Sift in the flour and baking powder and stir until well combined. Spread the mixture evenly across the base of the baking tray, and bake it for about 15 minutes.

While the base is baking, get a small saucepan out and set it over medium-high heat. In the saucepan, stir together the condensed milk, butter, golden syrup and coffee. Bring the mixture to the boil and let it simmer for 3 minutes, until thickened. Stir in the walnuts. When the base has baked, retrieve it from the oven and pour over the filling. Allow it all to cool for 10 minutes.

While the filling is cooling, prepare the topping in a small-medium bowl. Stir together the flour, cinnamon and sugar. Chop the butter into cubes and either rub it into the flour or (my preference) mix it in with a fork until well combined. Break the mixture up into uneven chunks and drop them all over the top of the slice. Bake the slice for 20 minutes, until lightly browned, and allow it to cool within the tray.

Cheap East 2006, 20 years later

   

We started where's the beef way back in 2006 when we moved down to Melbourne from Brisbane. That means, of course, that it's 20 years since we started exploring Melbourne veg dining options and posting low quality photos of delicious food. 

Our bible for the first few years was The Age's 2006 Cheap Eats Guide, a region-by-region guide to 473 cafes, bars and restaurants across Victoria that promised meals for less than $25 a head. We checked back in 2016, revisiting a bunch of old favourites and checking the stats. At that point, 282 (59.6%) of the places listed were still open, and getting blogged by us in 2006 or 2007 was associated with a very large benefit (around 80% of the places we had blogged stayed open compared with 56% of the unblogged places).

Another decade has passed, so it's time to update the figures! The decade since 2016 has been a tough one, with the number of places still open falling by about half - we're down to 144 out of the original 473 (30.4%). There are a range of factors that predict longevity, but the key finding: being blogged by where's the beef will boost your business' survival. 

   

Between arriving in Melbourne in late 2006 and the end of 2007, we visited and blogged 43 places from the Cheap Eats, and 21 (48.8%) are still trading two decades later, compared with just 28.6% of the places we didn't blog. Now that's influence. In a fully adjusted logistic regression model, getting a wtb review before 2007 was linked with a doubling of your odds of staying open for 20 years! Incredible stuff.

   

There's some interesting variation between venues. Pubs seem to have the most staying power. Vietnamese restaurants in particular have struggled through that second decade, with only one of the twenty places in the Cheap Eats still trading this year. 

   

This is echoed in the regional data - the Inner East (which has a strong Vietnamese history and community) experienced the most closures, but more than half of the listed places have closed in every region. It's a tough industry.

We're going to revisit a bunch of places from the early years of where's the beef this year and check in on how they've changed (or not) since the heady days of 2006. Stay tuned!

where's the best in 2025?

   

Mankoushe back in 2012

It's here - probably the last 2025 retrospective you'll see circulated! The blog has experienced lags before, though none of this length. Chalk it up to some minor health hiccups, some other interests to pursue, and - probably most of all - some very screen-heavy times during my job that put me off ever opening a laptop in my off-hours.

This lapse has enabled us to report a resurrection! Our local all-you-can-eat Sri Lankan restaurant, Maalu Maalu, closed mid-2025 and has reopened in 2026! We'll have to get back in and report any changes we've noticed. The incredible Vola Foods closed around the same time, but it's worth keeping a sharp eye on their social media for pop-ups. This Borderland gave us a generous 8 month warning of their planned closure, enabling us to enjoy one more meal. There've been the more usual briefly or unannounced closures - Milkwood, Small Axe Kitchen, Banh Mi Nights, Ge'ez Ethiopean Restaurant, Big Esso, Madame K, Girls & Boys. The one that's hit hardest is Mankoushe - in the 15 years that they operated, we blogged them 11 times and visited many more besides. 

   

Just one way to enjoy Tofu Shoten

Happily, there are plenty of new and new-to-us eateries to celebrate. For 2025, the where's the best? page welcomes Beautiful Jim Key, Beit Siti, Lunar, Short Round, Sleepys and Walrus to our inner north brunch listings. The Sporting Club Hotel is back and bougier than ever; there are also good dinners to be had at Biang! Biang!, Chanhouse, Miss Moses and My Asian Neighbour. Perhaps the best of all is Tofu Shoten, a takeaway that is an entire category unto itself.

2025 was the first time in six years that I crossed the Australian border. We had some really memorable times and meals in Japan and Taiwan (captured in one, two, three, four posts.).

   

Miyo sensei and Naoko guide us through vegan Japanese cooking at Idées Kamakura

Browsing through the two past years of cooking turned up recipes that have earned repetition and where's the best? status. Michael, more than me, has logged hit after hit from Hetty Lui McKinnon and Meera Sodha: charred cauliflower & crispy tofu with sweet peanut sauce, sesame noodles with charred broccoli & chilli oil, celery-cashew stir-fry with a food court omelette, caramelised garlic, zucchini & butter beans, tahini & soya mince noodles with pickled radishes, blistered beans with gnocchi Trapanese, kale dumplings with brothy butter beans, omelette roll sushi rice bowl. Dinner has been transformed! 

My kitchen wins have skewed cosy: porridge in our relatively new microwave, cheesy scone wedges to accompany soup, and vegan chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter buttercream, just for the sake of testing out my op-shopped silicon moulds. We've had a lot of fun with friends getting back into vegan potlucking, usually with a feature ingredient in mind. It's inspired me to sneak odd fruits into crumble and potato chips into biscuits, try making sesame toast at home and even buy an ice shaver off facebook marketplace. Michael and Lui McKinnon teamed up once again for some show-stopping salt'n'pepper gems.

   

Mushroom sesame toast

2026 is already a quarter done, so I've got a head-start on forecasting what's ahead for the blog. This is the year that where's the beef? will turn twenty years old. It marks the anniversary of Michael's and my move to Melbourne, when we walked down to Carlton Readings and bought a Cheap Eats 2006 guide. We've held onto that guide and we'll be returning and reviewing a bunch of stalwarts throughout the year. I hope you'll join us!

Corn & sour cream filo pie

December 25, 2025

   

My mum, brother and aunty visited our place for Christmas in 2025. They don't expect anything fancy of us but are always very appreciative when Michael and I cook. The weather was right for a picnic at the nearest park so we planned a menu that we could feasibly take down there. The centrepiece was a filo pie stuffed with charred corn kernels, spring onions, feta and sour cream.

I adjusted the recipe to suit my style. I thought, mid-summer, that fresh corn would be much more fun than canned. I sautéed the spring onions, instead of mixing them into the filling uncooked, because I prefer my onions tender. Dragging the pastry sheets through the thick filling seemed unwieldy, so I just layered up the filo and filling in turns as I'm accustomed to. And I used the whole box of filo, instead of the fraction suggested in the recipe, for convenience.

This pie was worthy of the occasion, standing tall and golden with a creamy and gently savoury centre. We didn't mind spilling pastry shards all over the blanket. The pie was well teamed with a pomegranate molasses-dressed tomato salad and roasted asparagus topped with capers and almonds. We followed up with bienenstich for dessert at home. 

Corn & sour cream pie

(slightly adapted from a recipe by Yotam Ottolenghi in The Guardian)

the kernels from 2 cobs corn

300g spring onions, finely chopped

1 tablespoon olive oil

3 eggs

300g sour cream

200g feta, crumbled into 2-3cm pieces

100ml milk

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

salt and pepper

spray oil

375g box filo pastry

1 tablespoon sesame seeds

100g baby cornichons

Place a medium frying pan over medium-hot heat and add the corn kernels. Stir them only occasionally, allowing them to char. Before they properly burn, transfer the kernels to a large bowl. Keep the heat in the pan going, and sauté the spring onions in a bit of oil until tender; when they're ready, turn off the heat and add them to the corn in the bowl. Beat the eggs and pour them onto the corn; add the sour cream, feta, milk, baking powder, salt and pepper, stirring everything together until well combined.

Preheat an oven to 200°C and line a springform cake dish with baking paper. Unpack the filo pastry and roll it up in a lightly damp tea towel. Spray oil into the cake dish and build up some filo sheets to cover the base and sides. Spoon in about half of the corn filling, then scrunch up some more pastry sheets and spray them with a bit of oil in between; repeat with the remaining corn filling and messily layer the rest of the filo sheets with some oil on top. Give the top a final oil spray and sprinkle over the sesame seeds. 

Bake the pie for about 40 minutes, until golden on top, then allow it to cool for up to an hour, before serving with the cornichons on the side.

Daphne

December 11, 2025

   

Daphne is the younger sibling of Etta, probably our favourite fancy restaurant in Melbourne - it arrived in time for a first visit on my birthday. Daphne is going for a more casual but still-special experience compared to Etta, and it was near-full and absolutely buzzing on our visit. The menu is varied and clearly demonstrates what they have to offer - a martini club, a steak night, oysters, homemade pasta with a glass of wine, a fancy hot dog with fries and tarragon mayo, a bougie little kids' menu. The emphasis is far from vegetarian but there's more than enough to cobble together a meal. 

We started with cocktails! Of the four martinis on offer, Michael tried a Daphne Dirty ($25), which featured olive oil washed Vansetter vodka and Perello Picante olives. Extending the theme, I sipped an olive oil sour ($24), which mixed Buffalo Trace bourbon with amaretto, the titular olive oil, honey and citrus.

   

We started with a medley of melon, cucumber, goats' cheese and sorrel ($16). It was novel, summery and spicy. (It was tough to choose between this and the Bloody Mary heirloom tomatoes.)

   

Asparagus soon followed ($18), showered with capers and parmesan.

   

I felt ready for the second Cobb salad of my life ($29) - all I remembered of the first was that it was huge, and involved lettuce and mock bacon. 'Huge' does seem to be the defining feature, with this one similarly piling on the lettuce, corn, avocado, cherry tomatoes, beetroot and capsicum, with a bit of boiled egg, chives and plenty of ranch dressing to go around.

   

This all had us working up to the heartiest vegetarian dish on the menu, a leek and cheddar pot pie ($28) with some compensatory mixed bitter leaves. It's hard to fault a rich pie like this in any season.

   

For dessert we shared a chocolate crémeux topped with fior di latte gelato and chocolate crackle ($14). It read a little ho-hum to me but actually I loved these contrasting textures and shades of milk and chocolate - it reminded me of my beloved frozen chocolate crunch. The staff recommended an excellent wine for Michael to pair with it too (I think it was Lichtenberger González Blaufränkisch).

This first meal at Daphne was a piecemeal but fun ride - it'll be interesting to see how this venue evolves with time.

____________

Daphne

52 Lygon St, Brunswick East

9191 9410

food, drinks

https://daphne.melbourne/

Accessibility: Daphne has three steps up on entry. Furniture is moderately spaced, a mixture of low tables with backed chairs, high benches with back stools, and booth seating. We ordered and paid at our table, and didn't visit the toilets.

Sticky apricot, rosemary & almond cake

December 10-11, 2025

   

Long time readers will be well aware that Cindy is really the baker in this household. My attempts at sweet treats are occasional and perilous, usually limited to a work morning tea or, classically, Cindy's birthday. In the months before the big day this year, one of my more talented baking pals started raving about this cake, an apricot, rosemary and polenta situation from the Kitchen Projects substack. December is stone fruit season, so it seemed like a perfect solution to my annual baking challenge.

It's entirely gluten free, but heavy on the dairy and eggs. The most surprising step in the recipe is the use of cooked polenta, which is blended up with eggs as kind of the core of the cake batter - it's a bit of a faff, but the smooth, dense texture is worth it. I could have pressed the apricots in a bit deeper and baked the whole thing for a bit longer, but this was still a delicious outcome - the sweet, sticky apricots go nicely with the rosemary. Definitely a winner for the coeliacs in your life, and probably a hit with everyone who likes sweet treats.

   

Sticky apricot, rosemary & almond cake

(from this recipe on the Kitchen Projects substack)

115g butter

110g sugar

2 eggs

40g dried polenta

140 almond meal

3g baking powder

3g salt

cooked polenta

20g polenta

100g milk

topping

4 apricots, halved

30g butter

30g sugar

a couple of teaspoons of chopped rosemary and some small little bushels

Cook your polenta first, by heating the milk up to a gentle simmer and whisking in the polenta - keep whisking until it's creamy and smooth and then kill the heat and leave to cool.

Once it has cooled down blend the cooked polenta with your 2 eggs and set aside.

Now cook your apricots. Melt the butter in a decent sized frying pan. Add the sugar and, once it's bubbling, add the finely chopped rosemary and pop the apricots in, cut side down. Sprinkle the rosemary bushels in and cook on low heat for 8-10 minutes, until they've got a little bit of colour on them.

Now pre-heat your oven to 170°C and line a round 20 cm cake tin. Time to put your cake together. Cream the butter and sugar in a big bowl and then beat through the blended polenta/egg mix. 

Combine all the dry ingredients in a separate bowl (almond meal, dried polenta, baking powder and salt) and then stir the dry mix into the main batter bowl. Pour the mix into your cake tin and then press the apricots into the batter, before pouring over the rosemary/butter/sugar mix over the top.

Bake for at least 30 minutes - I got worried at about 35 and took it out, but it could definitely have been pushed a bit further to get a really nice golden top.