This was a long awaited visit and there was much anticipation on my part. I love Tipo 00 so I was keen to settle in and enjoy and I had two fine and charming dining companions to accompany me on this Italian adventure.

Right from the off, the service was attentive and so personal and friendly. We loved our waiter and he helped us with all those difficult food and wine choices. He even wangled it so we could keep our table a little bit longer than we should have done!

The dining room is spacious and I like that they could have squeezed in more tables but they didn't. It's a big contrast to Tipo 00 which has that squeeze your elbows in feel whereas Ilaria is about stretching out.

We started off with:

• Porcini mushroom croquettes
• Spanish mackerel tartare, wild garlic, turnips

Whilst those little croquettes weren't the biggest on the block, they were truly delicious. Small they may be, but they were just so full of mushroomy goodness, the tastebuds were crying out for more more more!

The mackerel tartare was fresh and light with a heavenly garlic scent that wasn't overpowering and there was a slight citrus tang to those delicious cubes of fish. I loved that the cubes were a good size too giving each mouthful a good bite and the flavours of the fish came through. Sometimes ceviche and tartare etc. can be sliced too small or thin and the dressings overpower but this was just so well executed and balanced.

The tastebuds continued their party:

• Baby octopus, n'duja
• Pecorino cheesecake, celeriac, pistachio pesto

Classic flavour combination of spicy salami and chargrilled octopus - definitely works well. The cheesecake was a little more divisive. To me, a bit like a souffle gone wrong and a bit too dense. Interesting to try but not something I would have to order next time unlike everything else we'd eaten thus far.

And the black truffle tortellini - sigh...I had seen so many Instagram posts, I needed my fix and it absolutely did not disappoint. So amazingly delicious along with the wine we were drinking. Can't remember what it was - our super amazing waiter helped us choose but it was just perfetto!

And the culinary adventure continued:

• Whole whiting, pippies, sea herbs
• Roast corn fed duck, hazelnuts and radicchio

The fish was delicate and tasty and the duck was hearty and robust. Both didn't quite shine as much as the previous dishes but they were still very good.

And of course we had dessert:

• Olive oil, chocolate mousse, streusel
• Mandarin, cream cheese, oat crumble

Like the course previous, we had two contrasting dishes. The chocolate was rich, decadent and silky smooth reminiscent of the Tipomisu from next door. The mandarin dish was zingy and fresh and probably my slight preference given I prefer fresh fruit based desserts over chocolate. Our lovely waiter had arranged for some extra white chocolate rocks to adorn our dessert which went down a treat!

This was a wonderful and memorable meal. Ilaria is someone I need to be best friends with and see regularly!

Pastuso is one of the Flinders Lane jewels, I have never quite got round to visiting. What I have heard about is mixed - there are some serious fans and some that still need winning over.

Steve and I joined our friends Zoe and Kirsty for a late Sunday lunch on a sunny September afternoon. We were early and our table wasn't quite ready so I enjoyed a refreshing pisco sour beforehand. 

The restaurant is large with tables well spaced out. We were quite comfortable at our little round table which aided the sharing of the dishes we ordered. We put ourselves in the capable hands of our dining companions whe had visited several times before.

We started off with a couple of ceviches and a couple of entrees:

• SALMON - Ora King salmon with a sour orange dressing and plantain chips
• TIRADITO DE CORBINA – Hiramasa kingfish with aji mirasol and miso dressing, crispy nori seaweed and flying fish roe
• ​SALCHICHA DE HUACHO – Traditional Peruvian house made sausage, caramelized onion puree, soft egg and herb panko
• CHICHARRON DE POLLO – Spicy fried chicken, lima bean and aji amarillo puree, salsa criolla and Asian celery

The kingfish ceviche and the fried chicken were my favourites. Some great flavour balances and crispy non greasy fried chicken. I found the sour orange dressing for the salmon too one sided and sharp, overpowering the fish.

The cheese and mayo dip were yummy. The texture of the chips are pretty dense and starchier than potato. They're probably no better than potato but it's fun to try new things and they're an interesting alternative.

The vanilla parfait was more of the texture I was expecting and I enjoyed the light, fresh, tropical flavours.

Pastuso is solid place for that Peruvian, South American influenced cuisine. It's interesting and there's plenty of choice to satisfy all preferences. I think it's better to dine here in a group and enjoy the large main dishes and feast family style. Personally I prefer Asian flavours but that's only a personal preference and not a reflection of the food on offer. I found our time there enjoyable and the food mostly hit the mark.

New kid on the Queen Street block and the Asian hipster family, Homi is a smartly decked out and fun noodle bar. I'd seen some social media on it so paid a lunchtime visit with friend and work colleague. It was a cold and wet Melbourne day so soup noodles were going to be a saving grace.

I arrived first and the welcome was friendly and I took a seat up at the bar. There was one other person there so it was a pretty quiet vibe. Whilst we were there a couple of other diners came in but it's still pretty much a slow crowd. The menu was explained to us with some sparky personality and passion and we both went with the banh canh cua which are rice drop noodles in a crab broth with soft shell crab, quail egg and a prawn a $15.90. We also went with the Eggplant Balado; grilled eggplant with balado sambal, an Indonesian chilli sauce.

The food didn't take too long to arrive. The eggplant looked pretty small for the $9 or $10 charged. Three thin slices making it at least $3 a slice, I can get a sushi roll for $3! The eggplant was a bit chewy. I like it when the eggplant goes mushy and creamy whereas this was still pretty cardboardy. The coriander and chives were nice enough but not good enough to rescue this dish.

The noodles come in a deep, stone bowl that looks chic. It's deceptively deep and there are a lot more noodles in there than you first think so it's better value for money than the eggplant was.

Surprisingly the crab broth is actually that almost gelatinous, thick kind of soup like chicken and sweetcorn soup from a Chinese takeaway or restaurant made with cornflour. I don't mind that kind of soup but I know it's not for everyone and coupled with slippery thick rice drop noodles it gets kind of thick and gloopy. The flavours are pretty good though and the fried soft shell crab is tasty and manages to stay reasonably crispy. It's a pretty carb heavy dish though so it is very filling and isn't the light Vietnamese style noodle dish you might expect.

Although it wasn't quite what I had in mind, I did enjoy it enough to perhaps visit again and try something else. Maybe something less thick and heavy next time. Initial service was friendly but water glasses weren't topped up regularly and wait staff stayed behind the bar rather than working the floor. I guess perhaps it was because the restaurant was pretty empty. I think there's some fine tuning needed but all in all for somewhere new it was a decent start. Onwards and upwards Homi!

Kinfolk was the venue for a team breakfast on Friday and one of my colleagues was able to book the larger communal table for us. The team at Kinfolk were very accommodating of us arriving in dribs and drabs. There were times when it was difficult to flag down someone such as when we wanted to order and to pay but we got there in the end.

The coffee was declared good. My English Breakfast tea could have done with being hotter to draw out more flavour from the the tea leaves as well as to be at my preferred drinking temperature.

I enjoyed the Egg Special which was a 63 degree cooked egg with greens and a capsicum smear and I added the maple bacon which was deliciously thick and sweet / salty.  The bacon was an extra $5 for one slice which I thought was expensive. 

We enjoyed our breakfast but I think the general concensus was it was 10% pricier than it should be or there should be an extra egg or slice of bacon in the dishes. I understand it's a worthy social enterprise and I'm not begrudging of the money they need to make but even at 10% less or the extra food item, I suspect there would still be profit and would be more aligned to other cafes so the margin needn't be as inflated as it is.

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.

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!

Sushi trains epitomise quick satisfaction for me and when you want food quickly, there's nothing better. Sakura Kaiten was recommended to me and so my husband and I popped in peak time on Friday night. Lucky for us there were spare seats so we squeezed in. 

Where sushi trains score high on food speed satisfaction, they struggle with comfort and personal space and Sakura is no different but if it's that authentic Japanese feel you want then it wins on that score. There are the zippy little food transporters that get pushed from the kitchen to the customer. There are Japanese anime figurines all over and it just feels street style authentic. The toilet roll holding Yoda in the bathroom was a little bit of a shock when I entered but it caused a giggle.

There's a wide choice of dishes both to order and also journeying round the conveyor belt. It's possible the widest choice I've seen. Certain dishes were delicious - tuna belly, salmon belly, fried chicken...all good. Not so good was the abalone nigiri. My piece was decent but my husband's had a huge gristly piece attached that hadn't been removed. There was also a whelk looking one that was a bit fishy and sandy for my tastes. Lucky I could remove the memory of it with another delicious piece of tuna.

I found the quality of the produce better than Hotaru. The sushi skills are unrefined though as some of the cuts weren't as precise as they could be; the abalone being an example and the jalapeno in the kingfish dish was all different thicknesses and sizes some bordering on chunks than slices. Our bill came to just over $100 for the two of us including a beer and a soft drink but still within reason.

We took our table in the buzzy French bistro style dining room upstairs and settled in for the evening. It was busy and we were seated in between two other dating couples. The menu is very French with a wide selection of lighter entry course and the main courses stick to the staples of steaks, roast chicken and the like.

We started off with:

• Spanner crab, avocado, brioche and salmon pearls
• Local mushrooms en papillote with shaved black truffle, confit garlic and hazelnuts (unpictured)

The mushroom dish was a special and delicious it was - perfect for the wet and Autumnal evening outside. The spanner crab was the complete opposite but still delicious; light, bright and crunchy. We found the brioche a little dry and sawdust like but the crab, avocado and salmon roe was delightful.

We shared the:

• 700g Dry Aged Cote de Boeuf

It came with some Dijon mustard and grated horseradish so we added the fries. Surprisingly the fries came with a little ramekin of malt vinegar that took me right back to the chips in the UK - such a happy place.

The steak was cooked well; classic fare really.

My workplace is just round the corner from Massi so I walk by during the day very often as I travel between our different CBD locations. I've always dismissed it as a businessmen luncheon kind of place and I think it's because of the lettering on the window, the coat rack in the doorway and the dark wood seating. But in spite of that I've also been intrigued so when a Monday night catch up with a girlfriend needed a venue I put Massi forward.

We made plans to meet for a drink at Bar Vue across the road and as I made my way there I noticed that it looked like Massi had set up one big long table down the centre of the dining room for a big booking and there didn't seem to be many tables left so I poked my head round the door to see if I could get a table for an hour or so later. We didn't think to book given it was a Monday night. The Restaurant Manager was super friendly and assured me all would be well...

When we arrived we were shown to a table in the corner that is cosy but also roomy and we can spread out our bags and stuff we tend to carry round with us. 

As we browse the menu we put an order through for the mozzarella, charred peppers, ricotta snow and balsamic and that goes to the kitchen straight away as we deliberate on everything else.

The mozzarella arrives quickly and it's plump and delicious with the charred peppers and balsamic adding that acidic tang to offset the cold creaminess of the cheese.It's classic and it's good.

We follow up with the dusted and fried calamari, Sicilian life guard style, salmoriglio (unpictured) not knowing what Sicilian lifeguard means or salmoriglio but it's doesn't matter we don't know our Sicilians because it tastes good.

My friend goes for the special pasta of the day which is a bucatinie with a Wagyu ragu and radicchio. I order the ​ricotta gnocchi with braised beef osso buco and tomato ragu.

We both enjoy our dishes - hearty, comforting and familiar. Our summary of the dishes are that they are pleasing and heartwarming. We don't think they're quite at the Tipo 00 level but the small shortfall is made up by the comfy surroundings and relaxed atmosphere. I find Tipo 00 a bit frantic to relax in sometimes and it's hard to get a table.

Higher Ground - a place of worship? Well I did drop in two days in a row for breakfast so almost a regular church goer! Undeniably a beautiful fit out, sympathetically done and with a calm zen about it; almost holy perhaps? It's great for solo diners who can share communal benches or tables but also good to for those that like to dine with a friend or two.

My first breakfast was the much lauded kale and cauliflower salad, miso, almond hummus, avocado, poached egg, puffed rice and I added the cured kingfish. I wasn't completely sold on fish for breakfast but I guess the Japanese do it so why not me...There's a lot of green on the plate with a splash of violet form the purple cauliflower. The textures of the veggies are crisp and the flavours clean, intense and fresh with the almond hummus adding creaminess and nuttiness. It's a good dish; simple but packed full of flavour and light on the tummy. It puts a spring in the step. And my cuppa tea was a good one too.

So after a successful breakfast, I found myself in the same place the next day and gave the Eggs Benedict a whirl. No photo I'm afraid. It was delicious. Served more like a toastie on sourdough rather than an English muffin and the vinegar powder adding a delicious piquant tang. This was clever and inspired and delicious.

I was impressed by the saintly offerings of Higher Ground although when I first read the menu I wasn't too taken as it's not the traditional fare that is on offer. Minced lamb fry up isn't the first thing on my list for breakfast but now that I've been there twice I'd happily give it a go a third.