November

Happy Dazed (Ashfield)
I go to monthly chiro sessions now. Imagine my surprise when this completely random café nearby is one of the tastiest brunch spots I've been to (Syd top 3).

They choose to put the extra work in & it shows, the flavour combos are good too. Favourites are the ⭐Vegan Bowl, ⭐Grilled Salmon Fillet, ⭐Biscoff pancake, & ⭐French toast… so almost everything I've tried.

Azuki (Wolli Creek, Newtown)
I've always been in love with their ⭐Strawberry Mochi but I had the opportunity to try more of their goods recently.

The ⭐Matcha Melon Pan & ⭐Curry Pan were top notch. I loved the ⭐Mont Blanc, which upgraded since my last visit (I wrote a google review stating it was dry, I wonder if they read it hehe… 😗😶‍🌫️).

The ⭐Yuzu Chicken & Prawn ‘Pan’s were great, just limited by what they are, being a tad bready. The Sesame Donut was very greasy. gain that's not atypical, I just wish it were standard practice to pat off the excess oil lol.

The Katsu Sando had a great slaw but in general I'm not huge on how pork sando's use such a lean cut, because they are very dense & can lack moisture (clearly a wagyu sando is something to cross off my list).

The best items here are comparable to Japan which is so rare for Japanese food in Australia.

Dragon Pastry (Chatswood)
I’m always on the lookout for a good version of Meetfresh ☺ This ⭐All Toppings dessert was so yum & my favourite rendition of this dessert in Aus yet (although I've only had 3 others). I’ve bought some of the pastries before & they were underwhelming but there have been a lot of unique additions since, so I’ll have to try them out.

QV Markets (Melbourne)
On my 6th visit to Melbourne I finally made it to QV markets. I expected to see large tourist mark ups, but was super impressed by how much was on offer while being reasonably priced. It felt lively & vibrant, especially since we lucked out with the weather.

Not a hot dog person but the ⭐Bratwurst was great. The Borek was a bit of a let down. It was like a gozleme but with Turkish bread rather than flatbread. They were premade & crispy on a luck basis. It’s fine but not amazing.

The ⭐Tiramisu Cannoli was yum & having cannoli testers is an innovation I can get behind. (cont.)

Ishizuka (Melbourne)
🚩Another hatted fail 🥺🙃 My brother ultra-hyped this up for me & said that this was at least on par with my favourite restaurant (I forget he has expensive + Japanese = good syndrome).

It cost almost double with the drink pairing & I would rate 4 items out of like 20. I could've gone to my favourite restaurant twice... Legitimately hurts me so bad lol.

Melbourne hatted visits: 5/99

The famous, queue drawing 🚩Jam Donut was ordinary, & although the jam did taste very fresh I'm sure an air-fried Coles one wouldn't have been far off. Okay it wasn’t inedible but the filling was completely off centre which I hated 😞

Plern (Melbourne)
I think my salt ceiling might be slightly lower than others but occasionally SEA food hits it, & even though the flavours are good I just can't enjoy myself 🥹 I always try to be open minded but struggled to eat much of this one. Service was also a bit disorganised.

I haven’t mentioned poor service here before, if the food is good idc (e.g. Mr Stonebowl Chatswood service is so bad they act like they want you to d*e... upon reflection maybe I should have prefaced that lmao) but for anti-eats its the nail in the coffin.