A Day of Food: Melbourne, Australia

On our second day in Melbourne, I thought it would be interesting to try and report on a full day of food as we wandered around the city. Of course, in my excitement, I completely managed to forget to take a photo of dinner so... oops. So, this is most of a day of food! We highly recommend everything we tried during this food day so if you're visiting Melbourne, I've linked the websites of each of the items - definitely check them out!

For breakfast, we decided to have the leftover lamb wrap from our trip to the Queen Victoria Market. Our hotel room had a little kitchen area so we were able to warm up the lamb and then pop it back in the wrap - was a slightly unconventional breakfast but very tasty! The wrap was only $2 AUD (£1 GBP) so it was also a nice and cheap start to the day.

After breakfast, we headed out to visit the Melbourne Museum and decided to pop into The League of Honest Coffee since it was one the way. I know I've said it before but I'll say it again: coffee in Australia is ridiculously good. We had been told that before our visit but I genuinely thought it was an exaggeration. Nope: totally true. We each ordered a flat white and decided to take them into the museum's gardens to enjoy. The total for the coffee came to: $9 AUD (£4.79 GBP).

After the museum, we went on a hunt for a little bao shop that I'd heard about from a youtube video: Wonderbao! It ended up being quite the adventure as the map was pretty confusing and we had to contend with several instances of roadworks. The shop is only a fifteen minute walk from the museum but we took about double that due to getting lost. Luckily, our trials and tribulations were worth it since these were delicious!

We weren't sure what to order since it all looked so tasty and ultimately decided to get a selection to share. We went with the Char Siu Bao, the Roast Pork Gua Bao, and the Fried Chicken Gua Bao. The Char Siu bao was the best I've ever had: light and fluffy with a good ratio of filling, which was sweet enough without being overpowering. The Roast Pork Gua Bao was equally tasty. The carrots and cucumber added a nice freshness to the tender pork and the hoisin sauce was a perfect accompaniment. Finally, the Fried Chicken Gua Bao featured chicken that was nice and crispy along with a coleslaw that gave great texture to every bite. Overall, we would highly recommend Wonderbao as a little stop off while wandering the city. Total spent: $13.60 AUD (£7.24 GBP).

Next, we headed down to the river front to visit the Immigration Museum and decided to continue walking along the bank after checking out the fascinating exhibits. As we walked along, we noticed a little bar sitting in the middle of the river and thought it would be a great spot to grab a drink.

Ponyfish Island serves drinks and bar snacks in arguably the best location in Melbourne. We had a lovely hour sitting in the sunshine and enjoying our drinks. Matt went with a Cricketers Pale Ale while I went with a local white wine. Looking at this picture makes me want to be back in the sunshine! Total cost: $20 AUD (£10.49 GBP).

Feeling a bit peckish after our drinks, we spotted a little food court as we headed towards the botanical gardens and decided to grab a quick bite. This was our first interaction with Roll'd, a chain found all around Australia, and it would definitely not be our last. There were so many options to choose from and everything looked so healthy and fresh!

After a lot of contemplation, we went with one Lemongrass Beef and one BBQ Chicken. These were the perfect little snack to have as we continued our wandering around the city. Total cost: $8.40 AUD (£4.47 GBP).

After spending hours walking around the city, we returned to the hotel completely exhausted and wondered what to do for dinner. We had planned to head to Stalactities, a Greek restaurant in the heart of Melbourne that had been highly recommended online but now found ourselves struggling to summon the energy to leave our cosy hotel room. So, we were delighted to discover that we could order from them via Deliveroo! We pretty much inhaled the food as soon as it arrived so unfortunately don't have any photos to share but our total for dinner came to $65.30 AUD (34.75 GBP).

All in, our day of food in Melbourne came to $118.30 AUD (62.89 GBP). We could have definitely had a cheaper dinner and brought the costs down but we thought this was actually a reasonable amount to pay while on holiday (when you're dining out for every meal). Overall, we were surprised to find the prices in Australia weren't that different to what we're used to here in London - although, the exchange rate certainly helped.