Melbourne loves to hide its bars and restaurants away down laneways, underground and on top of building roof tops but Pearl is not easy to find. The Midcity Centre arcade on Bourke Street is not a place you would normally associate with fine dining or fine drinking, but make your way past 'Breadtop', the…
Jose Avillez is probably the most famous chef in Portugal and in 2023 he was named the best chef in Portugal in the Best Chef Top 100 Award for his incredible contribution to food and helping to make Lisbon a top global destination for fine gastronomy.
His early career was at…
Lollo is a hotel restaurant. There I have said it straight up. And as is the case with many hotel restaurants there are some good and some not so good aspects of that come from being part of a very large hospitality venue and a global hotel chain.
Lollo sits fashionably on Melbourne's Flinders Lane…
The Agora Ginza Hotel is a welcome hotel for travellers sticking to a budget but wanting a great location and a reasonable room.
Rooms have the kind of features you expect from a nice hotel in Japan, (thinking a warm toilet seat with all the functions), slippers, jinbei (japanese pajamas), bottled water,…
It doesn’t seem that long ago that finding a decent espresso in Tokyo was quite a difficult thing. There were a few Tully Coffee Shops and a few Starbucks but that was it. A wasteland for those needing a real caffeine fix.
Turret Coffee was the exception, down by the Tsukijii Tuna…
Common Well opened to provide ‘Melbourne Style’ coffee experience in Kyoto and they are doing just that (in a Japanese way) at a newly opened cafe Just down the road from the Nishiki Markets.
They serve long black, short black, flat whites, they even serve what's referred to as a "magic", …
Goodman Roaster opened in Kyoto in 2019, it is a small cafe and coffee roaster with 85 different coffees from all over the world. One of the key differences is the Taiwanese coffee, owner Ito-san travelled from Kyoto to Taiwan and was introduced to coffee from the Alishan mountain area. His…
Finding a hotel in Kyoto for a reasonable price in the middle of Sakura season is hard. Not surprisingly the selection of incredible hotels and ryokans all increase the cost to stay or are booked out early and you are left with some other choices.
One of those choices is the IMU Hotel, its…
Yes it is a chain store. American even. But yes, they do make great coffee. They just tend to be very slow and have a very limited selection of food or snacks on offer, it is all about the coffee.
So if you are in need of caffeine, this is…
Ramen. You love it, or you don’t. Hot, spicy, full of flavour. The best ramen is something of a work of art (see the quote below from the incredible 1985 movie Tampopo).
Sugari has something of a following in a classic Matcha house, hidden on a narrow lane off a side street,…
