City Break

Gonz and I xxx

What a great weekend!

My boyfriend Gonz, his brother Anth and Anth's gf/my friend Holly went to the city for a weekend. It's getting close to us going away so we wanted to make the most of the apartment being vacant.

We decided we would try teppanyaki for dinner as Anth and Holly had never been before. At 8pm we had a booking at Sakura, in South Melbourne.

Holly and I had some sparkling wine before and the boys had some beers before walking up Clarendon street. It was very warm inside the restaurant and the majority of customers there seemed to be finishing rather than starting up like we were. I still can't get over how quiet South Melbourne is on a weekend night. We ordered the first set which was $50 a head and included the starter salad and miso soup, followed by the prawns, teriyaki chicken, steak, bean shoots and fried rice. Our chef had lots of fun throwing food at us, and the waitress had lots of fun refilling our wines... we were wasted! She just kept filling them up! Anth and Gonz had a bottle of red and Holly and I polished off a white. I think it was a mix of the warm restaurant and the fast rate of refills that was responsible for our drunkenness. After dinner we walked to crown and had a cocktail at the 'Waiting Room', a beautiful cocktail bar in the lobby. Best espresso martini ever! I have little/no recollection of the rest of the night.

At Sakura Teppanyaki... yum!
Click here to see our menu (Yukiyama set)

Flinders street station and some glasswork in the cathedral.





I <3 Melbourne and all the alleyways.
(Pictured: Degraves Alley)





Window display at Hopetoun tearooms.
I'm dying to try this place!





Saturday was a long day... Being hungover is horrible. We aimlessly walked around the city with no clue what to do. Shopping isn't exactly appetising when you get the hot flushes and nausea that come hand in hand with being a fool the night before. Holly and I were ~good~ company. After lots of walking and deliberation we finally made a plan to check out St. Paul's cathedral. It was beautiful inside, and nice and cool which helps when you feel sick. The boys walked around and probably talked about materials and how you would build that place while Holly and I sat on a bench... We then went across to the Ian Potter Gallery in the NGV in Fed Square to see the Top Arts exhibition. Top Arts is a collection of the top art students in Victoria doing VCE. I actually really enjoyed the exhibition, free entry and definitely worth doing if you're in the area. We then met up with Gonz and Anth's sister Fleur (check out her blog) for lunch which was nice. The boys and Fleur got a lunch deal inc. gourmet sausage and VB for $10, while Holly and I shared hot chips... kind of felt better afterwards.



Anth and Holly (looking gorg) at dinner.



For dinner that night we went to Chinatown to a little restaurant down an alleyway. It was small but quite busy inside. We ordered a standard Chinese banquet for $30 each, inc. fried ice cream at the end... (naughty). Food was ok, my won ton was raw inside and when i sent it back the waiter just shrugged. Clearly the service wasn't with a smile, and they cleared our plate away while there was still food on it... but it didn't ruin our night. We were still pretty hungover and it was raining so we retired to the apartment and called it a night.









Dying to try the food at this place!





On Sunday, we decided to go to South Melbourne market. We walked around and found a Spanish place to have coffee. They were making the yummiest big pan of paella... it smelt amazing! It was $12 per serve, we didn't get any though. There is so much amazing fresh produce at the market, it's almost overwhelming. We decided to buy some antipasto things to share for lunch. I bought a big ciabatta loaf and some spinach dip, Holly bought some feta stuffed green olives and some sun dried tomatoes. Anth bough two types of cured meats, one was a Spanish ham and I have no idea what the other was and Gonz bought two cheeses. Holly and I bought some hedgehog and caramel slice to have also... it was probably my favourite meal of the whole weekend! Best idea.



It was such a lovely weekend, with GREAT company! We will definitely miss our friends and family when we leave (in five weeks).





BEFORE AND AFTER