Fabulous buffets with all kinds of food: Asian, American, vegetarian, fish, meat, fruit, pastries. You can take brunch in the very best hotels and restaurants even if you are staying elsewhere. Service is friendly and easy-going and you can enjoy a little touch of luxury.

Halewa Joe's, Haiku Gardens; Turtle Bay Resort; Plumeria Beach House, Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Kakala.

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Vineyard Cafe is a courtyard restaurant and bar located near Yong He Gong (The Lama Temple). They offer a delicious selection of home-style European cooking including pizzas, salads, sandwiches, quiche, baked potatoes, moussaka and seafood. They also have an extensive beer, wine and cocktail selection, fresh coffee and a well stocked bar. Home delivery and takeaway available. Check out their blog here: www.vineyardcafe.cn

31 wu dao ying hutong, dong cheng district
+86 10 6402 7961
www.vineyardcafe.cn/map

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Another nice little find in my local neighbourhood... Sarands presents a Mediterranean-based menu of seafood or meat dishes. The restaurant itself is light and airy (with an upstairs private dining area for functions), service is pleasant, the wine list small but well chosen and the (mains) servings huge. The prices are reasonable too. Coffee is excellent.

532 Hampton St, Hampton
3188 Vic (200m south of South Rd)
Ph 9598 8944

www.greateats.com.au/restaurants/au/Melbourne_Inner_South/Hampton/14489/Sarands_Mediterranean

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Dining at Mirka is a tasty visual experience. Surrounded by murals by Mirka Mora, you dine on food from the kitchen of Melbourne's famed Guy Grossi. Based widely on a mediterranean style (Grossi is Italian), the menu here is about making one feel cosseted and at home.

The wine list is superb with wines from France and South America as well as the best of Australia. Superb service along the art of the dining room makes 'Mirka' one of Melbourne's best culinary experiences. We will be going back.

42 Fitzroy St
ST Kilda
03 9525 3088
100m from St Kilda Light Rail station

www.mirkatolarno.com/

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Specifically, I recommend the mussels at KB: I saw them hand-delivered the morning of the day I dined there. KB serves a heaping plateful for less than $10. These are the best mussels I've eaten in my life, and I take my food (too) seriously.

Trip report, photos: shallowmusings.typepad.com/travel_musings/

Here's the website with the address:

www.gastronaut.hr/restoran.asp?id=5076

If you're walking from the town center to Hotel Liburna: it's halfway, on your right.

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Ruby is Copenhagen's newest cocktail bar offering sublime cocktails in a beautiful old luxurious apartment. Really hard to find but well worth the effort.

You won't find a better place to enjoy a perfectly made Manhattan. Top service from professional, passionate bartenders. Homely atmosphere, like visiting friends.

Ruby
Nybrogade 10, st.
1203 Kbh K.
T: +45 3393 1203
www.rby.dk

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World class Sichuan cuisine by
Chef Liao He Yi & his team in the five-star German-run Kempinski Hotel.

No visit to Chengdu and Sichuan would be complete without a visit to Shuxiangge. Try some of the very famous local dishes: Mapo Toufu, Lai Dumpling, and Han Steamed Bun.

Kempinski Hotel Chengdu
42 Ren Min Nan Lu, 4th Section,
Chengdu 610041 Sichuan Province
People's Republic of China

Phone: 86 + 28 + 85269999

www.kempinski-chengdu.com

Contact details:
Bernhard Kern 86+13350056464
(speaks fluent English & German)
Email:bernhard.kern@kempinski.com

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Peter's has quickly become a favourite haunt of not only Chengdu's expat community, but also the locals looking for some home cooking Texas-style.

Open every day: 7.30am – 11.00pm

Stop in to get a few (covered in frosting) home baked cinnamon rolls wrapped up for a few days' supply at only 6RMB each (0.60 Euro).

Two locations:

No. 117 Ke Hua Bei Lu,
Chengdu. Sichuan China
(Nearby Sichuan University west gate)
Phone: 86 + 28 + 85227965

No. 12 Tong Zi Lin Dong Lu,
Chengdu. Sichuan China
(Near South Section 3, 2nd Ring Road)
Phone: 86 + 28 + 85180903

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At the start of the famous Yarra Valley is the township of Yarra Glen and dominating the town is the famous old hotel... the Grand. Built in the late 1880s, the Grand is one of the most significant landmarks of the Yarra Valley.

Classified by the National Trust, and registered with Heritage Commission, the Grand has been restored to reflect the grace and elegance of the turn of the century while catering to the demands of the modern world with premium accommodation and fine dining. It includes a first class restaurant, Farrells, a cafe a bistro and a bar. It's an excellent place to start visting everything the Yarra Valley has to offer.

www.yarraglengrand.com.au/

19 Bell Street Yarra Glenn, 3775 VIC, Australia
Telephone: 61 3 9730 1230
Facsimile: 61 3 9730 1124

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Our local Italian... and we are proud of it. It is somewhere we can walk on a Saturday night... with a bottle of red and enjoy a meal. (It's fully licensed or you can bring your own). Families love it because kids are well catered for here.

It is noisy and buzzy but down the back away from the large Pizza oven it is quieter. The waiting staff are very much at home dealing with us locals (even their guest Canadian waiter is no longer homesick)... Great southern Italian cooking here !

And popular?
Sometimes it pays to book beforehand...

462 Hampton St HAMPTON 3188
ph: 9598 9396
www.fazios.com.au/

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Dining in Grossi Florentino's Tuscan mural room shows that special-occasion dining in Melbourne is alive and well. The dining room has high, decorated plaster ceilings, chandeliers, dark wood panelling and the murals. Service is a delight from the black dressed waiters with their long white aprons.

Guy Grossi's menu whatever the season is magnificient... and in our case we walked away with a copy of the book on the restaurant... autographed by Guy Grossi himself.
All in all, a memorable dining experience.

And a final note - all this from an establishment that has been there since the early 1900s, which makes it even more amazing!

Address: 80 Bourke St, City 3000
Phone: 9662 1811

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Vlados is simply Australia's best 'meat' dining experience and has been for the past 20+ years. Nowhere else in Australia is the emphasis on meat, meat and not much else. Starters are meat with a mixed grill entree followed by a main course of meat... the steak you choose yourself from the many on display. It's cooked the way you want it and comes with chips (if you want them).

Dessert? Strawberries and icecream or pancakes. The whole thing is aimed at getting the discerning diner simply the best meat meal.

61 Bridge rd
Richmond Vic
Tel: 94285833

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Melbourne sits on a great bay and having a meal as the sun descends in the west across the water is a great dining experience. There are many places especially on the eastern side, from the bistros, pubs and restaurants of the peninsula towns of Portsea and Sorrento or Mornington to the elegant dining of Donovans at St Kilda, Sails on the Bay at Elwood, the restored Brighton Baths or Windows by the Bay at Mordialloc.

Closer to town at Port Melbourne, the London or Graham are not to be missed. Eat out at the St Kilda Pier or sit in the Espy and have a beer. The view from Number 1 Fitzroy St is worth cost of the dining experience.

South-east of the CBD... along the shoreline of Port Philip Bay

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