Where to eat in Melbourne

This is my fourth trip to Australia and the first to Melbourne, known for its coffee culture and cool cafés. It does not matter whether you prefer to be close to nature along the Great Ocean Road, drink wine to your heart's content at the vineyards or shop 'til you drop. We need to take a break and refuel ourselves – tried and loved the ice-cream at both Dooley's Ice Cream and Yarra Valley Chocolaterie & Ice Creamery. If you are visiting Brighton Bathing Boxes and/or St Kilda Beach, drop by Claypots Seafood Bar that a travel companion found to be the best meal of our trip. Other than freshly-shucked plump oysters at Queen Victoria Market, there are also other lovely eats that I tried:

Lovely Cafés in Asia-Pacific

The café culture is here to stay, both in Singapore and overseas. It matters not whether you are a coffee and/or tea drinker (or neither) but that we slow down our pace and take time to catch up with our thoughts, family and friends. We may plan to visit a café, a particular one even, or just need a place to rest our tired feet. Sometimes, we chance upon a lovely café with a decent menu at a reasonable price. What better way then, than to sip a cuppa and watch the world go by while nibbling on small and not-so-small bites?

Perth, Australia
It was a planned trip to Padbury's Café Restaurant for breakfast. I loved its interior and exterior – one of the oldest surviving commercial and residential buildings in Guildford, built in 1869. All the dishes we ordered were beautifully plated and deliciously fresh, from the sweet to the savoury such as Big Paddy's, Magic Mushroom and Padbury's Benedict. Of course, we had to order Our Famous Meringue Munro Pancakes. No complaints about the drinks and pretty latte art too.

Seoul, South Korea

As my travel companions and I did not manage to visit Garosu-gil during our first trip to Seoul, we decided to do so during the second time. Chanced upon SkinFood Café located above its concept store and settled on the quiet space with cheerful yellow accents against wooden furniture, white bricked walls and tiles. Did not expect much of its food and drinks since this is a cosmetic and skincare brand but they tasted surprisingly decent, and were also Instagram-worthy.

Taipei, Taiwan

My travel companions and I penned down in our itinerary that we would café-hop at Yongkang Street, just like we did in Garosu-gil. We were still full from lunch at Kao Chi when we walked past Smoothie House and gave it a miss. Continued walking down the street, saw 8% Ice Bistro and chose this as the sky was threatening to rain. Lovely place to chillax with good gelato and dessert, and enjoy coffee as-is, iced or in powder form – pour from shot glass onto lemon slice and have them together.

The Daily Scoop

Having tried The Daily Scoop at Sunset Way many years ago, I was delighted to see the ice-cream parlour at Chip Bee Gardens. A few minutes' walk from Holland Village MRT Station, this is one of the more conveniently-located branches if you do not own a pair of wheels or two. It can also be found at Sembawang Cottage, and School of the Arts or SOTA. Every batch of ice cream is hand-churned, unlike commercial brands like Ben & Jerry's and Häagen Dazs. Not too different from I Scream, Island Creamery and Udders. Cartooned drawings stood out against white panelled and bricked walls in the brightly-lit café with glass frontage and lots of wood – chairs with back rests (there are a few orange metallic stools too), floor, round and square tables. Flavours here include Cha Earl Grey, Lychee Martini and Salted Mr Brown among others. I settled for Latte Chocomallow on a chocolate-coated cone. Loved the strong taste of coffee in the creamy smooth ice-cream with chocolate-covered marshmallow.

Durian Fiesta 2015

This is not the first year that Goodwood Park Hotel is offering a mouth-watering array of novel durian delights. While I have tried its signature Durian Mousse Cake before (and was not impressed), was enticed enough by the instagram-worthy Durian Rainbow Ice Cream Cake that my dining companion and I dropped by recently. We ordered that, a slice of Durian Cappuccino Cake and two pieces of its signature Durian Puffs. Durian Rainbow Ice Cream Cake was made up of durian ice-cream wrapped with a thin slice of dry rainbow cake that looked better than it tasted. I have had better durian ice-cream and rainbow cake. As much as I love both coffee and durian, could not discern the former in Durian Cappuccino Cake unless the layers are eaten separately. Am not a fan of profiteroles and these Durian Puffs were good but not enough to change my mind on that. Also had Hazelnut Coffee, which was interesting and came with chocolate almond cookie, at L'Espresso.

Dolce Tokyo

After dinner, my dining companions and I were looking for another place to chill out when we chanced upon Dolce Tokyo. Opened by Ministry of Food, the Japanese-Italian café can be found on the 3rd floor of Bugis Junction and 313@Somerset. It was the latter that we visited, and ordered two desserts for sharing. Chocolate Brownie Grande, served in a stone bowl that reminded me of Korean bibimbap, had a scoop of smooth gelato on top of sweet and dense (but not overly so) brownie with caramelised banana cut lengthwise and sweet sliced strawberries as well as gyuuhi and marshmallows lightly-toasted so it had a nice charred aroma and melted in the mouth. We chose black sesame over vanilla, chocolate and the default-if-you-forgot-to-choose matcha for our gelato. Could not fault Abekawa Macha Zen – Hokkaido red bean paste with Japanese rice dumpling topped with Hokkaido green tea gelato and toasted mochi. Oh, and there are savoury items on the menu too.

Café Mondo

Located on the 2nd floor of Orchard Central where Seventh Heaven used to be, is Café Mondo by the same people. Opened in 2008, Seventh Heaven used to be at Raeburn Park with a kiosk at Takashimaya Food Hall (basement 2). Now, its kiosks are at Gardens by the Bay and Pasarbella @ The Grandstand. But this one, opposite Central Hong Kong Café, is a full-service café serving more than desserts and drinks. Understood it was revamped and renamed with the addition of appetisers and mains on its menu. My dining companion and I were looking for a place to sip a cuppa coffee after dinner when we decided to also have its ice-cream. So we could try more flavours, chose mini twelve putts over six packs – six normal-sized scoops of ice-cream served in a muffin tray. I loved their names and presentation. Our choice of 12 small scoops of ice-cream was served in a mini muffin tray.

TANGS Market

17-year old Suntec City Mall has completed its first phase of facelift that started last year, with phase two and three to be completed by 1st quarter and end of next year respectively. Similarly, Tangs Orchard started its first phase of renovations last year and the second phase this year. These have been completed and the third phase will begin next year, to be completed by 2015. Located at the basement is TANGS Market with two distinct sections – one is near the underpass to Orchard MRT Station and Isetan Scotts while the other is within TANGS Home. The former includes Singapore's first Krispy Kreme (five to open over the next five years with a production kitchen at Pandan Loop), Seventh Heaven's alter-ego and naughtier twin Ice Cream Junkie and The Mustard Incident selling gourmet hotdogs. And the latter has Ya Kun's family café with its own seating area as well as common standing space, tables and chairs to eat food and drinks from other stalls.

Scoops & Slices

Happened to be in the area on a hot day when I decided to drop by Scoops & Slices, instead of the familiar Baskin-Robbins and Udders also at Novena, for homemade ice-cream. Its baby blue logo, dark wooden tables and black sofas stood out against the mostly-white space that also reflected light. So the simply-furnished café is bright and spacious with an all-glass frontage, white cabinets and walls (tables and chairs too) as well as light homogenous tiled flooring.

Au Chocolat

I was hungry and looking for a place to lunch in The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands when a made-in-Singapore French-inspired bistro-cum-confiserie caught my eye. With façade reminiscent of a café on chic Parisian street and reasonably-priced items on its menu (considering how expensive food can be in the area), I decided to try its all-day breakfast since there were available seats. Looking around while waiting for my Aebleskivers to arrive, I saw trains running above me in mid-air. Details of the whimsical restaurant, themed around the adventures of a free-spirited 8-year-old and her two dogs in chocolate fantasyland, could be seen in intricate drawings on the ceiling. Loved how fun such as large blobs of molten chocolate hanging from the ceiling, was intertwined with the laid-back ambience and old-world charm (think brick walls, colourful stained glass panels, mock fireplace and mosaic tiles).

Yesterdae

After my waste of caffeine intake at Dean & Deluca (oh, and did I mention that the double macchiato came in a paper cup?) and being let down by the macchiato at &Made by Bruno Ménard, was recommended to try the coffee at Yesterdae. Tucked away in a quiet HDB estate near the PIE where traffic jams are the norm during peak hours, the café is simply furnished with bright colours (blue and green walls and chairs) against the mostly neutral palette. Together, different tables and chairs gave the place a laid-back charm with shelves of books and magazines to while away lazy afternoons. There were coasters, potted plant and tissue box on every table with outdoor seating separated by an all-glass frontage. Interesting details include the water dispenser in the form of a mini beer-barrel, a retro-looking clock and telephone reminiscent of yesterday (pun intended).