Trunk Diner

Trunk has a few different venues on its site in the Melbourne CBD, including a cute little American Diner next to the beer garden out front of the main restaurant. The Diner serves a range of food items on its lunch and dinner menu, including hot dogs, burgers, sandwiches and salads. It also has a variety of different appetizers, which is where Belinda and I started out our dinner.

We sampled three different appetizers between us. The crumbed pepperjack cheese sticks were quite tasty on their own, and even better with the maple BBQ sauce. The buffalo wings came with either original or Franks hot sauce (depending on how spicy you wanted them to be) and a blue cheese dressing. There were also mini corn dogs on the menu with American mustard. They tasted good, but needed a thicker layer of cornmeal on them.

For my main dish I had the waygu burger with tomato, cos baby lettuce and house-made pickles on a brioche bun. Even though it was medium-rare, the outside of the burger was a bit charred, which affected the taste of the burger a bit.

Trunk Diner does have a lot of the choices you would expect to find on an American diner menu. It would be good to go back and try their hot dogs and deli sandwiches, as well as sample some desserts.

Trunk Diner
275 Exhibition Street, Melbourne
Open weekdays 7:30am - late and weekends 8:00am - late

Pistol Pete's Food N Blues

The American food trend has even made it to Geelong, and tonight while in town for a gig at The Workers Club Belinda and I tried out Pistol Pete's Food N Blues. Its focus is on Southern and New Orleans style dishes and also has live music on Thursday-Sunday nights. It is an intimate space and we were able to get a seat along the wall near the kitchen despite not having a reservation.

There are a range of options on the menu, including burgers, po'boys, southern fried chicken, gumbo and different plates of meat with your choice of sides. I decided to have the vegetarian jambalaya with okra (also available with chicken and andouille sausage). The dish was full of flavor and tasted good, and was the perfect amount of food to fill you up.

Belinda chose the pulled pork plate, which featured 200g of their low and slow roasted pulled Australian free range pork with a great barbecue sauce. For sides she had the coleslaw, Cajun fries and a salad. The coleslaw was on point, but I didn't really taste the Cajun flavor on the fries.

If you are around this part of town Pistol Pete's Food N Blues is a good solid choice for a meal, and then you can stick around for some live music.

Pistol Pete's Food N Blues
93A Little Malop Street, Geelong
Open Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday 12-9pm, Thursday 12-11:30pm, Friday and Saturday 12pm-12:30am

Po' Boy Quarter

Emanating from the success of the Gumbo Kitchen food truck is the permanent restaurant Po' Boy Quarter on Smith Street (or as we like to call it, Little America). Serving up authentic New Orleans food to the people of Melbourne, their menu features an assortment of Cajun specialties including gumbo, oysters, catfish, and po' boys.

It was a warm evening so we grabbed a table outside on the sidewalk. Of course we had to order a po' boy, and Danny got the deep fried shrimp one with tomato, lettuce, pickles, mayo and hot sauce. He thought it had a nice fiery sauce, was generous with the shrimp and tasted good. We also shared a side of shoestring fries topped with Cajun mayo, which were cooked perfectly.

Nicole had the red beans and rice, which you can add pork or andouille sausage to if you are looking for a non-vegan option. It tasted good and had a subtle bit of spice to it.

The food here is reasonably priced, and if you are after some drinks and cocktails you can hang out in the bar Huey Long's which is located out the back.

Po' Boy Quarter
295 Smith Street, Fitzroy
Open seven days a week from 11:30am - 11:00pm

Meatmaiden

Meatmaiden is a barbecue restaurant located in the basement of a building on Little Collins Street in the city. It has an industrial feel that starts with the metal stairs that lead you down into the spacious restaurant, which has both booths and tables to sit at. My friends Mary and Tash joined me for dinner tonight and we ordered a variety of mains and sides from the menu to share.

As the name suggests, they have numerous selections of different types of meat from either the grill or the smoker to choose from. We got the O'Connor pasture-fed flat iron steak, which was grilled so tender and tasted amazing.

We also ordered the BBQ eggplant and roast tomato main, which was our favorite dish of the night as the roast tomato was so flavorful and added a lot to the taste of the overall dish.

For sides we got the shaved fennel and pomegranate salad, which was so refreshing and light with its citrus dressing, as well as the mac & cheese, which had a fantastic breadcrumb topping and was really creamy. If you are feeling more extravagant you can order the lobster mac & cheese dish.

Of course we couldn't leave without having dessert, and we ordered two dishes to sample. The Bourbon creme brulee was lovely and smooth, but the real winner was the lemon meringue pie that they served deconstructed in a glass with lemon sorbet on top. It was one of the best desserts we have ever tasted.

Meatmaiden
Basement, 195 Little Collins Street, Melbourne
Open Monday-Saturday 12:00-3:00 pm and 5:00 pm-late

Welcome To Thornbury- Digging For Fire BBQ Kitchen and Gumbo Kitchen

As the popularity of food trucks grows in Melbourne, there are now permanent food truck parks popping up around town with a rotating group of trucks on any given day. Last month Welcome To Thornbury opened on the site of an old car manufacturing factory on High Street in Northcote. With up to six trucks at any given time, an indoor bar and outside seating, the venue is licensed to hold over 700 people.

Belinda and I went to check it out tonight, and even on a chilly evening the place was packed with people. Another bonus is that each truck gives you a buzzer when you order, so you can go grab drinks and a table while you wait for your food to be prepared.

I decided to try Digging For Fire BBQ Kitchen, which offers a variety of barbecue meats that you can have either on a roll or in a bowl with your choice of salad. I ordered a bowl of the slow cooked lamb shoulder with tahini and lemon dressing, pickles and pomegranate on an Israeli cous cous, sunflower seeds and spinach salad. The lamb was quite tender and tasted good with the other elements of the dish.

Belinda ordered from Gumbo Kitchen and got The Dom, which contains 12 hour braised beef shredded with Cajun gravy, served on fries with Cajun mayo and pickles. The beef was quite tender and for a bit of a decadent dish she thought it was great. We also got the Cheesy Mac Croquettes, which were very yummy. Having previously eaten at Gumbo Kitchen, I can also strongly recommend the mesquite smoked pulled pork po'boy with Louisiana BBQ sauce, Cajun slaw and pickles.

Welcome To Thornbury is a great venue and will be the perfect spot to grab a food truck meal as the weather warms up heading into summer.

Welcome To Thornbury
520 High Street, Northcote
Open Monday - Thursday from 5:00 pm; Friday - Sunday from 12:00 pm

Ike's Rack Shack at The Beaufort Hotel

Walk into the Beaufort Hotel and you're transported to an dive bar in the Deep South. You can't escape the feeling you're sitting out on the porch on the Bayou. The nautical themed bar is known for its world class cocktails and Ike's Rack Shack has the food to pair with it.

Ike's has pork, beef, lamb, and even vegan ribs, but on this occasion we went with the pork ribs. The maple syrup and bourbon rib sauce had all the sticky goodness you could ask for.

We moved on to the 'Prince's Biscuit', a burger with fried chicken, bacon, cheddar cheese, and BBQ sauce in a bun made of a buttermilk biscuit. The chicken hit the spot, but the biscuit was a little dry. The fries were well seasoned and were gone quick.

The sides were intriguing. We tried the truffled mac and cheese, which was a little fancy with gruyere cheese, and they added a Twistie crumble crust that brought back that childhood memory of the cheese powder from a Kraft mac and cheese box.

The other was the cornbread doughnut with a bacon and maple glaze. The cornbread was moist and soft with a little crunch from the bacon - it's listed as a side, but it felt like a sweet/savoury dessert.

Dinner is a nice way to start an off an evening - then you can stay at the bar, order an Old Fashioned, and sing old sea shanties with the locals.

Ike's Rack Shack (The Beaufort Hotel)
421 Rathdowne St, Carlton
Open for lunch from 1pm Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and dinner from 5pm 7 nights a week