Friday night comes round and Steve and I decide to get off the tram a little bit earlier and wine and graze our way home. After a drink and some charcuterie at Marion we find ourselves outside newly opened Amarillo and decide to give it a whirl.

We are shown to a great corner table even though we initially say we just want a drink. We're then tempted by the menu and the charry smells coming from the kitchen behind. The tables are mostly full and there's a pleasant laid back kind of buzz to the place.

The small menu does tempt us so we start off with some Spanish charcuterie which comes with some bread and pickled vegetables. They meat is salty and spicy and the pickles wonderfully fresh, zingy and crunchy. We also have the anchovy on toast which is bite sized with delicious salty anchovy and capers, some zingy pickled onion and fresh parsley to clean the plate from that intense briny saltiness.

The charred broccoli and stracciatella is exactly what we need as our next dish and goes down well.

We definitely enjoyed our sojourn at Amarillo. The food was good, the service personal and warm. It should become a neighbourhood gem and we'd certainly like to see it go that way. Show me the way to Amarillo!

IWhen your birthday falls on a Friday, it means celebrations every day over the weekend right? So for Steve Saturday celebration of his 41st birthday we went to Kisume. We'd been advised to request seats at the sushi bar so I called up a couple of days ahead and they noted the request.

On the night we turned up on time for 8:15pm booking after a couple of heady cocktails imbibed en route and to our delight we took up our seats at the sushi bar.

As expected, it's far from the zen atmosphere of more traditional Japanese restaurants and it's this upbeat electric mood that makes Kisume approachable and popular for the mainstream. Although I love Minamishima, I also understand it doesn't appeal to everyone and some may even find the omokase style daunting. Here it's fun to try and voices can be loud and questions asked.

I overhear one of the sushi chef discuss salmon with one of the wait staff and he says it's white fish which I have never heard before so I take the opportunity to ask him. He explains indeed salmon is white fish, tuna is blue fish and there's also silver fish such as mackerel and sardine. It was great to learn and chat and he shared that he has only recently re-located to Melbourne for the opening of Kisume from Sydney. I love a story behind my food.

There's the sushi bar menu featuring a huge choice of sushi and sashimi as well as an omakase option. I've seen so many pictures of the deluxe feature box that I feel I really need to satisfy my tastebud curiosity. Our waitress advises that it's sufficient enough for two as a main course and perhaps order a couple of other dishes. 

Order just a few? When there's such a vast menu to choose from and I haven't yet mentioned the main menu where there are lots of other delicious sounding items like grilled mackerel, udon noodles, saikyo miso salmon.

So the box comes in two layers and there's an array of sushi and sashimi. It also comes with an aerosol canister to spray soy sauce on our sushi so we don't over season. How fancy and at the same time a bit of a novelty. It works though and it means the fish is the hero. It's not all fish though and there's a spicy raw beef atop a disc of cucumber which is delicious and possibly my favourite and some beef nigiri with truffle.

It's a delicious box of delights. The thinly sliced raw prawn with caviar is probably my least favourite but that's not to say it's bad.

By way of accompaniments to our box we go with:

• Tuna tataki - seared bluefin tuna, wasabi tofu, chilli yuzu ponzu
• Tempura kakiage - whiting, prawn, mushroom, asparagus, eggplant and corn

Our waitress helps us make the choices. She recommends the tuna and says the tempura is a goer if we have big appetites. The tuna is actually forgotten but when we flag it to her it comes out pretty quick. I'm not actually a huge fan of the tuna. I like the big cubes of fish but the wasabi tofu I find bland except for the strong wasabi flavour which I'm not a huge fan of anyway.

The tempura tower looks impressive and the different salts are a nice touch. It's not as crispy as I'd hoped and it is a little bit greasy. I think next time I'd choose two other accompanying dishes and there are plenty to choose from.

In spite of the waitress advising us that we have ordered enough, I feel I can take on more and she suggests the Wagyu truffle balls which come out looking like black truffle but they're deliciously meaty scented with truffle and a melted mozzarella filling. Yes they are delicious and yes I could have eaten more of them.

I don't really feel like asking our waitress about more savoury dishes though. But I will bear in mind for next time, that I can do more! Our waitress is pretty busy. In fact all the waitstaff seem a bit frantic. They don't come across stressed and they are all helpful and friendly but busy. As we decide to drink cocktails and beers, there are a couple of times it's the friendly sushi chef who either flags waitstaff down to bring us the drinks menu or goes and gets one for us himself! I guess it is peak time on a Saturday night though...

We loved our dinner at Kisume. The sushi bar is fun and I would say try and get seats there but it's not the end of the World if you can't and still go in spite of that. Whereas with Minamishima I would actually rather wait until I can secure sushi bar seats.

I'm really looking forward to trying more dishes at Kisume perhaps at a less busy time though as service, although far from bad, was spread a little thin. Except for the wonderfully helpful and charming sushi chef.

Steve's 41st birthday dinner took place at Amaru in Armadale. It's been on our list for so long but we never got round to it. Chef Clinton McIver's recent appearance on Masterchef reminded us that it was high time we hauled ourselves to the ritzy suburb of Armadale.

I booked far enough in advance to secure seats at the Chef's Table which can accommodate around 6 people and provides a great view of all the activity in the kitchen. Lucky us had the end two seats so our entertainment for the evening was closer than the distance between TV and sofa at home! Even more importantly was that the bar seats are super comfortable and can hold the distance for the 11 course 'sensory menu'. Disclosure - sitting a the Chef's Table means going with the $155 per head sensory menu and accepting the supplementary item(s) at a cost and in our case it was Manjimup black truffle at an additional $35 per head - (I think I remember it at $35 per head.... but don't hold me to that!)

As is the trend, proceedings start with a range of snacks. We're well looked after throughout our meal as dishes are served to us by the chefs in the kitchen. Our first taste of Amaru's offerings is a prettily presented:

• Onion, garfish, sheep's milk yoghurt

The onion skin is dehydrated and made into a seemingly bland cracker but oh we're fooled. It's too pretty and delicate to pack such a flavour punch! But it does. There's salty fish, sweet fragrant onion finished with the tang of yoghurt.

These snacks are serious business. They may be small mouthfuls but the contrasting flavours and textures demonstrate creativity and so much deliciousness.

As we move into dessert territory, we served:

• Dirty potato

Given the best potato I have ever had is Attica's "potato cooked in the earth it was grown" there has got to be a connection given Clinton McIver's chef history. However this potato is a potato ice cream with a potato skin shell and liberally dusted with a chocolate type powder. The ice cream is more milky than creamy and the chocolate covering is more nutty than sugary so the whole things stays light on the tummy which is important given what we have eaten and that there is more to come.

 The next two desserts soon follow:

• Decomposed apple leaves, artichoke, ginger
• Meredith cheesecake

Reminiscent of Brae's parsnip and apple dessert this one has the same autumnal hues of colour. I actually prefer this flavour pairing but that might come from the fact that I don't like parsnips rather than any gourmet finesse!

The Meredith Cheescake is a beautiful rose gold tile of goat's soap adorned with a citrussy sorbet and I think some sort of honeycomb for crunch and sweetness.

​So amidst the ball gowns and wedding dresses that adorn High Street Armadale, Amaru manages to hold its veiled head high as the beautiful bride worthy of all the guests' attention. We were well looked after by a pleasant and charming front of house staff that combine expertise with professionalism.

A dear friend took me out for a day in the South East 'burbs of Melbourne and we started off with a fortifying brunch at Second Home.

Strangely situated in the midst of an industrial estate, Second Home is a sympathetically restored warehouse that is airy and light but far from sterile. The cosy fireplace and wooden interior brings the much needed warmth to a wintry Melbourne. We arrived at peak time on Sunday and had to park up the road rather than in the little car park they have outside the building. We had to wait around 20 minutes before a table was available but we could order coffee in takeaway cups and the wait time just whizzed by.

I had the Charred corn, Manchego cheese and jalapeno hotcake with spiced pepper relish, corn salsa, avocade and a fried egg and of course I had to add the bacon. It's a bountiful bowl of colourful goodness; generous and appetising. My friend had the Hearty Home; essentially a traditional cooked breakfast. I saw the spaghetti on toast arrive at a neighbouring table and that looked pretty impressive too.

We very much enjoyed the relaxed experience; it's busy but not too loud or manic and it's roomy so it makes for comfort and well, like a second home!

Newly opened on Little Collins Street along with a handful of other popular eateries, Sushi and Nori gets pretty busy on a lunch time.

Priced at a higher point than other sushi trains at $4.50 a plate and $8 for a premium dish, it's certainly not an every day kind of lunch. But it has to be said the quality of the fish is worth it. In my opinion, it's fresher than any of it's sushi train counterparts and I like the selection they have. The premium dishes tend to be more plates of sashimi or other ceviche type so less of the rice which is my preference. Yes I have a pricey palate!

I've been twice now, each time with a work colleague and the cosy seating has been conducive to chatter. Both times I've enjoyed the sushi and sashimi. The udon is nothing to write home about with the fried chicken getting soggy in the broth so save your $7 for sashimi! And I did have to keep asking for water refills.

Food aside; my first tip would be to avoid the seating that's not around the conveyor belt because having to get up and go to the tiny pick up area to obtain your food is a big, fat pain and I'd rather wait for a better seating space or skip it.

Value for money I'd still go Tetsujin. Authenticity and for that Japanese feel I'd go Sakura Kaiten but for freshness and deliciousness, Sushi and Nori is the one for me!

I go to Little Mule quite regularly with the work crew for a Friday morning breakfast meeting. The coffee is good as are the breakfast offerings - 5 and Dime bagels and Dr. Marty crumpets. Service is pretty effective too with orders remembered well. Food comes at a leisurely pace though so enjoy the wait.