La Camera / South Yarra

La Camera is an Italian restaurant that has nothing much to do with cameras, in fact, translated to english it means “The Room.”

My friend J from Christchurch and I, are graphic designers and we were searching for a quick and cheap lunch. Despite the ugly cheap looking table talker design, the price caught or eye. (And at least it wasn’t Comic Sans.)

The restaurant had a casual Italian bistro kind of vibe, authentic Italian dishes on the menu, casual chalkboard signs, foreign staff and fresh red paint.

Outdoor seating is available, fairly quiet, standard decor throughout the restaurant.

I never really had much risotto growing up because I’m asian, but today I gave the Prawn and Calamari Risotto a try, with no regrets. I enjoyed the acidity of the tomatoes and napoli sauce balanced with the seafood broth. The portion was just right for lunch, but I wanted more. 

J got the Risotto Pollo, a simple dish with chicken, mushrooms, semi-dried tomatoes and baby spinach. A subtle creamy texture with vibrant flavors coming through. It was good, I developed a little bit of food envy.

La Camera Restaurant & Bar
03 9827 8531
South Yarra/Toorak
446 Chapel St   

6/10

Veg Out Time / South Yarra

Veg Out Time is located near the fashion precinct of Melbourne known as Chapel Street. #Fabulosity. Eating vegetarian at least once a week is not only good for your health, but also helps the environment by reducing carbon emissions. This vegetarian chain offers quick vegetarian curries and other canteen style vegetarian food. 

I accidentally ordered 2 different tofu curries. Butter tofu (Indian), and Yellow tofu (Thai). They had great flavour in the sauce. I don’t mind tofu but this was too much, tofu overload. I should have been wiser and selected a different dish that was tofu-less, or maybe it was their fault for giving me too much tofu.

Veg Out Time
03 9827 7570
366 Chapel Street
South Yarra, VIC 3141

Pink Ginger / South Yarra

Pink Ginger on Chapel Street makes cheap fast Japanese food. It’s situated right in front of Fitness First on Chapel Street, South Yarra which means a lot of their customers are gorilla juiceheads, fashionistas and gay couples with dogs. I was lucky enough to see a hybrid of all three. The ambience was very old-cheap-15-metre-lane-arcade-before-you-reach-Fitness-First-esque. The staff are lovely and Japanese food is healthy, no wonder all the gym buffs come here.

They have a few different things to choose from on the menu, all reasonably cheap. I heard good things about their sushi, but I was hungry and got a bento box instead. The salad was good, the rice was good, seaweed salad was good, but the chicken was not my cup of chicken. I felt like I was served a whole baby chicken, or its mother with large breasts. Too meaty, oversized which cock blocked the teriyaki flavoring trying to come through. Packed with protein, great for the gym bunnies, but for a scrawny little guy like me, I was filled up by 4 pieces so I couldn’t eat the rest. #firstworldproblems #imnotthatscrawny

Pink Ginger
402 Chapel Street
South Yarra 

5/10