Melbourne had a travel expo on this past weekend so Husband and I dropped the kids off for a sleepover with grandparents then had a quiet sneaky visit to Mister Nice Guy’s Bake Shop to check out the cupcake flavours they made for Chinese New Year. I couldn’t resist the cute little pumpkin donut and a cinnamon bun ALL TO MYSELF:
After the Bake Shop we caught a tram in to the city and walked through the crowds enjoying Chinese New Year festivities:
After loading up with brochures and more free cloth bags (those things seem to breed in my house) we went off in search of food. I’d read some reviews on Chin Chin and suggested we go there and go there we did:
I asked for vegan options and a friendly waitress was able to highlight them for me. I went for the ‘dry curry Pad Ped with stir fried vegetables, spice crusted organic tofu, kaffir lime leaf and Thai basil’ for $19. A bowl of rice was served on the side. This meal was delicious although I’m a bit of a dork when it comes to eating big chunks of tofu with chopsticks because I drop it everywhere and generally look uncouth. The rice was barely warm which was a bit disappointing but the meal more than made up for it as the flavours were great:
Hot sauce on the tables:
Husband enjoyed his meal, which I won’t talk about because it wasn’t vegan and this is a vegan blog, after all! My one negative comment about Chin Chin is the noise level– the music was just way too loud. If I can barely hear my dining companion sitting opposite me and if I have to ask a waiter to repeat themselves, then it’s too loud. It was loud when we walked in and I asked Husband if he wanted to go somewhere else (he doesn’t like loud music in restaurants either) but we’d walked a fair bit and wanted to try Chin Chin. The loud music combined with the noise of people talking loudly to be heard (the couple next to us also commented on the music volume) plus clattering cutlery from the staff station next to us was a bit much. However I will admit I have extra sensitive hearing so this probably bothers me more than it does others. Still, our meals were great and we left there feeling absolutely stuffed.
To work off our meal, we walked (fast pace!) around the city. Also included are some pictures around Fitzroy and Melbourne University.
Melbourne CBD (aka “the city”):
Around Brunswick Street, Fitzroy. We stopped at Lord of the Fries for lunch:
Around Melbourne University: 
Chin Chin is located at 125 Flinders Lane, Melbourne. http://www.chinchinrestaurant.com.au/
I didn’t know the Chinese New Year was celebrated in Melbourne! Lovely pictures.
Thank you! We could hear firecrackers going off near our house at night and there were lots of decorations and people out celebrating throughout Melbourne 🙂
I think Chinese new year is celebrated just about anywhere there are chinese people (and people who just like an excuse to party LOL! A friend took me to chin chin for my birthday and the food was amazing…but as an old nana I found it took loud and too….. “trendy” I had to ask my companion a few times to repeat herself as I couldn’t hear anything. I just assumed it was loud for the Friday night crowd.
I’m with you there in my nana mode, thinking music is too loud 😛 Then again I love granny chic so it’s all good!
Looks like a good time! And what a lovely city. Great photos. 🙂
heh thanks! I only fell in love with my hometown after I spent years away from it!
Damn those cakes look good. Hooray for vegan cake porn!
That dish looks absolutely BEAUTIFUL. But totally feel you on the noise – drives me bloody crazy when it’s that noisy. It’s just distracting.
Thanks! Awesome tasting dish but yeah, way too loud in there!
Great post! Isn’t our city just beautiful? I’ll have to look into Ingress – hadn’t heard of it until reading about it here. I love the food at Chin Chin but like you, I don’t love the noise. Loud music is great in the car but not at a restaurant. Hey all the best with your revani experiments! I’m really looking forward to seeing the final result!
heh thanks! Yep Melbourne is just so ace isn’t it?!
I love all your photos – somehow I usually take more when not kidwrangling but I don’t manage to cover so much ground! looks like a fun day out
I’ve been thinking about doing an Ingress blog post and tying it in with vegan food… guess that means I’ll have to spend a day in the city and eat a lot! 😛