I love the Fruit Pedallers. It is a little bit like a little rabbit warren with lots of nooks and…read morecrannies to find yummy tidbits of organic produce. It can be hard to find exactly what you need if you are after something specific, as the shop is not laid out in a methodical manner, but for me this makes the shopping experience all the more enjoyable. Sometimes I think the staff at the Fruit Pedallers must think I'm a little fruity myself, when I spend hours browsing the shop only to come up to the counter with a bottle of milk and a cucumber, for example. Up until recently their fresh fruit and veg have been very very expensive. But with a recent change to their buying strategy, they have dropped prices significantly. Yay! Now we can all eat more organic food. Who knows I may even come up to the counter with a cucumber and a head of brocolli. They also have naturopaths on staff - where you can get some free advice (as long as you buy their awful tasting herbal mixtures of course) on your lingering cold etc.

The Fruit Pedallers is a ditty little health food shop on Westgarth's High Street selling all…read moremanner of organic whole foods alongside natural therapies such as naturopathy, homeopathy, massage, reflexology, aromatherapy, kinesiology, art therapy, acupuncture and more besides. In foodie slash health conscious Melbourne, where organic food stores are ostensibly a dime a dozen, The Fruit Pedallers is notable for its friendliness and excellent range of herbs and vitamins alongside fresh organic fruit and vegetables and a ruddy good selection of organic and fair trade chocolate. Its staff are helpful and extremely knowledgeable and although The Fruit Pedallers can be a little dearer than its competitors, this little Westgarth health food haunt is a local favourite, and with good reason. The Fruit Pedallers is a particularly good health food store to visit if you're in the market for vitamins or supplements and don't quite know what you're looking for. Excellent all round.

Eat here, and you will never need to eat again. There is that much food and it is that delicious…read more The incredible lady behind Moroccan Soup Bar has taken over the old nut shop in Brunswick East and transformed it in to an incredible Moroccan Deli AKA your next lunch destination. Now, it can be a little confusing for a newbie so let me help you out. Upon entry, head straight to the back and ask for a plate with the lot. The staff will ask you about your dietary requirements or if there's anything you don't like and then they work their magic. Expect a giant plate of salad, haloumi, falafel, rice, tabouli and all sorts of other deliciousness that will keep you full until next Saturday. Their food is so flavoursome that their are frequent "Oh God, this is so good" heard mumbled between mouthfuls. In the words of Molly Meldrum, do yourself a favour and get there ASAP.

Morocco is one of my favourite places in the world. From the sands of the Sahara, to the snowy…read morepeaks of the Atlas Mountains, through to the waves on the Atlantic coast, it's a mysterious, fascinating and rewarding destination. Moroccan Deli-cacy similar to its name sake has a slightly chaotic vibrancy, with relaxed friendly service. The cafe used to be an old nut shop and alongside tagines there are spices and raw ingredients for sale. There is a spoken menu and dishes are constantly changing. I ordered the second of the two options offered (the other was a tagine with cous cous), going with the mixed plate. My coffee was short, black and delicious, it even arrived with a sweet on the side. The food was amazing! Bread with zaatar, hummus, garden salad, pickled vegetables, fried haloumi, falafel. It tasted home made with love .. like you'd been lucky enough to be invited into someone's home and their Aunt and Grandma were cooking. Exotic, colourful, fresh, vibrant .. I used the chips to scoop up the cous cous. Just like a visit to Marrakech this cafe is unexpected and wonderful, it will leave you wanting to return .. a real neighbourhood gem. Newspapers - no Music - low and trance like. Space is not quiet given there's plenty of people plus lots of hard surfaces but you can still chat easily.

I feel like I am pretty spoiled for choice when it comes to great Thai food in my 'hood and now I…read morehave yet another addition to add to the list - Welcome Thai on Street. Thai on Street makes mention on the exterior of the venue that they are Thai 'fine dining' however, they really aren't - and that's probably for the better. It's a cosy, simple venue with some pretty spectacular food. The small restaurant was packed late on a Sunday night while the competitors that surround them where empty - do I bother even writing anymore? We ordered the entree 'basket', which offered one item of each of the entrees - fish cake, money bag, spring roll, curry puff and prawn spring roll. All were delicious but the money bags were a particular standout - I might just order them the next time. For mains we shared a classic Thai beef salad, which - be warned - packs a serious chilli punch! However it was balanced out by the fresh mint and tangy dressing - a really great salad. We finished with a red duck curry, which was served atop a single tealight candle - unnecessary but a gorgeous way of serving the dish! It had some incredible flavour and really hit the spot, however a dash more duck and a splash less liquid would have made it an "I'm ordering this every time" kinda dish. The perfect spot if you're after an easy after-work dinner.

Tried this local restaurant based on the high rating on here…read more The menu is extensive and all sounded good. I went for a dish called Pad Ped Yang from the hot plate section of the menu with a coconut rice. The dish had duck (cooked beautifully) and veggies. There wasn't as much flavour to the dish as I'd hoped but was still enjoyable. Service was quick and friendly. The restaurant itself was very busy for mid week (always a good sign) and I loved the Photos of Thailand on the walls. Loved the sign in the toilet door too (see photo). It made me feel like I was in Thailand again with the poorly translated signs I'll go back to the restaurant and try a fish dish or curry next time I think.

I went to the Rooftop Party yesterday and the first I tried was this cracker paired with nitrogen…read morecheese by Cornelius Cheese. The cheese came out in a whipped cream kinda shape, it was really light and delightful. More on my blog https://thesweetsubstance.wordpress.com/2016/03/03/rooftop-party-2/

From the owner: Cornelius Cheese - We make moments in cheese.read more

The biggest of the Brunswick fruit vendors, Russel's Fruit and Veg aka the Brunswick Market is a…read moregreat one for doing a big shop. It covers fruit and vegetables that are both in and out of season, and are priced to reflect this. There're some really great deals on the seasonal output, though like anywhere, you do have to hunt through the pile to get to the good stuff. Eftpos is available for purchases over $10, and there are a host of specialty meat stores and delicatessens lining the walk in through the mini-mall. It's geared to people buying in bulk but there're also some bargains to be had for the solitary shopper. It's always a good place to find stuff the other local fruit and veg shops don't have in store.

It's a little hidden, and you must journey through a strange land of foreign music and fresh cuts…read moreof meat, but for the price vs. quality equation Brunswick Fresh Fruit Market is a must. Just off a tram stop on Sydney Rd, you can be back in the city in less than twenty minutes.

This is my local and it was fine before I became stricter about my consumption of fish sauce which…read morerelegated me to the vegan menu. Tonight I ordered the vegan pineapple fried rice with the 'special sauce'. I chose it because it had both tofu and vegetables listed in the ingredients list and my body was craving the nutrients. The special sauce appears to be a mix of vegetable oil and keens curry paste and the vegetables are bits of carrot, cabbage and tinned corn. There's nothing green in this, no broccoli or bok choi or capsicum. Instead we have a meal that's very cheap to produce retailing at $17.50 and it's a joke. I get take away food once every six weeks right now and I'm here eating this crap. It's like a meal you smash together in your uni sharehouse. I'm going to be so ill. Avoid.

Okay, while I'm not going to go as far as calling this an authentic Thai Restaurant (particularly…read moresince I have been to Thailand so I know what the restaurants there are like) this is still a pretty decent place that makes some pretty nice Thai Food. I ended up coming here on a recommendation of a friend, who has a nose for good places to eat. Mind you, have of the reason was because I suggested an Asian restaurant, and since we end up having a random number of people turn up with us, this place received the recommendation. I ended up having the curry, which was really nice, and they also have your typical Thai beers as well (which are pretty boring mind you). It's a lovely place and certainly worth a meal, though they don't split the bills, which means it does lose a point.

This is one of these 'my friend is really hungry so lets go into a random restaurant that I haven't…read morebeen to so we can get something to eat' type of places. Actually, I even wonder if it is one of those let's be experimental and grab everything we like about our recent trip to Indo-China and turn it into a restaurant type of places? Oh, it's Brunswick, so question answered. Hey, don't get me wrong, this is actually a pretty cool restaurant. They do green curry, and anybody that does a decent green curry gets points in my books.

Tom has all the right ingredients to be a stand out establishment, but taste and clumsy moments…read moremakes for a puzzling experience. Seated promptly and greeted with a smile in a cosy and ambient setting. Perfect for Melbourne's cold winter nights. The work-tossed green beans with garlic, hoisin and sesame seeds was not as tasty as we were expecting, or have had previously in other places, slight smell that accompanied it as well. Confusing dish too, with broccoli and bok choy added to the mix (but not mentioned), was a pleasant surprise. The Szechuan chilli-salt squid with green-chilli soy was the biggest, expensive letdown of the night. The batter felt like it was dried out, with the consistency of mushy chips. Maybe it needed to be cooked more? It lacked the crunchy texture needed and the sauce, basic, in a tiny plate that you couldn't even dip the squid pieces in properly. The soft-shell crab tacos were tasty, and priced generously, however, lacked a champion flavour that could have been provided with more of the house made sauce. The main chilli caramel pork belly served with succulent scallops and a side of fresh Asian herb salad could have been so much more. The side salad was the main attraction covering almost 70% of the plate. The scallops were ridiculously tiny, only two of them, but were delicious. The pork belly, lovely cooked skin, but disappointingly dry. The dish was saved by the sauce on the salad. It was difficult to get service after the main dish was gone, we wanted dessert but took almost 30 minutes before we could order. Until one of the other waitresses came to our rescue, she was great. To our disappointment, the peanut butter parfait was sold out. However, the roti pancake and dark chocolate and Cointreau mousse more than made up for it. Well-balanced, tasty desserts that would satisfy even the most sweet-tooth amongst you. The sweet stuff doesn't let you down. While eating the dessert the waitress took one of the drinks away that still had some left, she was that quick I couldn't stop her from taking it. I still do not understand why they do this. Please stop doing this. It makes no sense, ask first. The rum cocktail and the lychee and lime soda mocktail ($6 is a great price point) were winners in my book, both nailing that sour taste, and were satisfying drinks. Tom Phat needs to do more to earn a high rating, unfortunately for us, the expectation was not met, both in food and service wise. It's a good night out, but do not expect too much here.

Help, I can't stop Yelping about Thai food! This will be my last in a while, I promise…read more Okay, so I'm gong to say it right off the bat: Absolute Thai isn't as good as Ying Thai 1 or 2. Of course. But it's a considerable distance away from both, so let's pretend those other two restaurants don't exist. I dined in at Absolute with a rowdy group of people. No, we weren't drinking Absolute, but quite a lot of wine went down both before and during the meal. The staff tolerated us with humor and an awful lot of patience - I think it took over half an hour for us to figure out what we wanted to order and then we confused the waitress by all shouting things at once. We were terrible customers. After the ordering debacle, the food started to come out fast and steady. The ginger fish, vegetarian green curry and masaman beef were stand-out dishes, each having surprisingly subtle flavours. I didn't really like the pad thai (a bit bland) or the beef salad (not enough chili) but others loved them - each to their own. The restaurant is nothing swish but it's clean and comfortable. For a Saturday night it was quiet - there were only two other tables occupied, but they seemed to be doing a roaring trade in take-away. All up, I'd happily come here again.

Solid Thai food. I can't really comment on the dine-in experience, but the quality of food when we…read moreorder take-out is great for the price point. We live in the neighborhood, and this place is now my go-to. Ingredients seem fresh and every dish ordered has been flavorful and tasty - never greasy or heavily spicy (unless ordered that way). The prices are about average for the area.

Who the hell are you people anyway? Don't you know what's good for you? What could be better than…read moreflash fried fresh meat and vegetables in subtle Thai spices? Yup, these dudes are no frills and that's where I'd guess a lot of this anti Thaila Thai sentiment is coming from. It's a bit of a divey joint, they have these crappy old poorly laminated menus and the selections are sparse. But I'll tell you, in terms of freshness and flavour, you'd be hard pressed to find healthier, more delicious take away in Melbourne. I'm speaking as a person that eats out at least three times a week, and a patron of this joint for about four years. I have never had a dud experience here, and outside of a couple of regrettable choices along the way, I will sing the praises of these lovely folk til the cows some home. A hot tip is to get a soup starter and follow it up with stir fried anything on steamed rice. They do an excellent combo of chilli and lemongrass also. Any complaint of lack of flavour here can only come from stupidity of ordering. I'm glad I chimed in when I did here, because Thaila Thai were getting a harsh wrap.

When I first went to Thaila Thai, I was absolutely blown away. Coming from a city in the UK that…read moredoes not have any Thai food whatsoever, to discover such flavor that just explodes in your mouth was a revelation. Thaila Thai was cheap and delicious and I became a bit too evangelical about this place. I've been going there for years now but since moving from Brunswick to Fitzroy the visits have been less frequent. It is still one of the cheapest Thai places to be found and the Pad Thai and the yellow fish curry (when cooked to perfection) are hard to beat. But the reality is that there are a number of places that can rival Thaila Thai closer to home. When I do get to go there, it is often a mixed bag. It is usually packed and the servers sometimes struggle to stay responsive and keep up. Nevertheless the food is more often than not incredibly flavoursome and it is BYO wine too so still a great cheap place to feast with friends. The owner and chef when he gets some down time will often come and chat to the clientele. He's a lovely bloke. I'd recommend it but I'm less evangelical as I once was.