Great Personal trainer who works you hard

Justin is a really friendly guy who makes you feel at ease from the moment you meet him. But... then the punishment starts. He mixes things up and the hours just flies by. The boxing is the toughest thing, it really gets your arms going.

Approximate cost: $50

Nice restaurant for group bookings

I've been here twice, once for a friends Birthday and more recently for a social get together of business associates. We had the private dining room booked which was small but nice. The restaurant is nicely fitted out and really quite big.

The meals were nice (I had the Eye Fillet) and they all came out together which is important in that type of environment. The wait staff were very friendly and overall the night was great until I got back to my car and had a parking fine waiting! Make sure you take plenty of gold coins for those pesky ticket machines that require vast numbers of coins per hour.

Approximate cost: $25

Like an emergency room for pets

We came home one day to find that our little Mini-foxy had eaten a whole packet of Claratyne (antihistamine). She was buzzing and her eyeballs were practically popping out of her head! We quickly looked up the closest 24-hour vet and found this place. We got her down there around 10pm and the staff were very friendly and quickly administered charcoal tablets to absorb the drug. Within 30 mins she was back to normal and ready to go home.

Approximate cost: $200

Reliable suburban solicitor

I needed a small document drafted and Allan was very friendly and fast and pulling this together for me. He is great for basic paperwork, I haven't tested him with anything more complex yet.

Approximate cost: $0

Good suburban Japanese food but strange business practices

We regularly picked up take-away from Kansai for a few years and on occassion when my wife didn't feel that hungry she would just ask for steamed rice with Teriyaki sauce. One day when ordering over the phone, the lady said sorry we can't do that anymore. They were obviously wanting to make more money by selling Chicken Teriyaki. She offered to pay $6 which was only $2 less than the Chicken dish but they flat out refused. I tried speaking to them and they didn't seem to care that we were no longer going to pick up our weekly order anymore.

Approximate cost: $0

Good caring vet clinic

We took our dog to this clinic for a number of years until we recently moved house. The vets are very friendly and appear to be knowledgeable. We only had one instance where we felt we were being overcharged but I think this is common, as people don't realise how much it costs.

Approximate cost: $0

The best Modern Chinese food in Melbourne

Sun Luk is a small suburban Chinese restaurant that has really raised the bar. We don't eat a lot of chinese food these days because it's too sweet and thai is generally better, but whenever we get an opportunity to go to Sun Luk we jump at it. They use high-quality ingredients includng Wagyu beef and their modern interpretation of traditional dishes such as Crispy Rainbow beef are fantastic.

Approximate cost: $15

Reasonably priced Drycleaner

I've used Hycare for everything from business suits, to dinner suits, to down sleeping bags to my car racing suit. They are very efficient and still have reasonable pricing.

Approximate cost: $0

The biggest plates you've ever seen

One of the funniest experiences is watching people visit Maxy's for the first time. They don't realise (nor do management inform them) that it's physically impossible for 1 person to finish a main course so they sit there with huge plates of food on their table trying to get through it all.

The main courses are around $28 but you can easily share that between 2. This place is great for larger groups (e.g. birthday get togethers) because you can order a couple of Mixed Grill platters and it will feed an army. The ribs are fantastic and the chicken schnitzel and calamari come in vast quantities. Ask for the mushroom sauce on your schnitzel. Not sure who Maxy is...

Approximate cost: $16

Not bad for Vegetarian food!

I'm certainly not a Vegetarian by any stretch of the imagination. I love a big rack of ribs with BBQ sauce, but I was dragged along to Soul Mama when a friend had a get together there. I was pleasantly surprised by the tastiness of the food and the variety. It is basically a buffet so you can try heaps of different dishes from curries to steamed veggies. We went there for lunch so I'm not sure if they also have an Ala-carte menu for dinner.

Approximate cost: $20