Really great little cafe/coffee shop. Handy location for all the city workers out there.
Quick service and lovely food. Easy to drop by for a breakfast, they do great croissants that you can eat on the run, yet are filling enough to keep you going like a fill sit down breakfast.
Nice, friendly staff who get the orders right first time.
I have been a handful of times, getting breakfast, lunch and on occasion just a coffee and always been impressed.

I bought my wedding dress here, off the rack.
It was 60% off so I was really stoked, and fitted my image of what I was after perfectly. It was different from the norm and really suited my body shape.
The sales staff were really lovely and helpful, happy to let me try the dress without an appointment, unlike many other bridal shops.
The only issue i found is that I don't think there is much knowledge among them regarding alterations processes.
Because my dress was off the rack it needed some altering to fit me right and I wanted the straps going a different way - the sales member showed me how it would work and explained to me what would be required from the alterations shop and gave me an estimate on the cost. This low estimate and her assurances that it would be super easynto alter lead me to buy the dress.
I am still completely delighted with the dress and the decision to chooses it, but the alterations were anything but easy and definitely not cheap. The cut of the dress made the changes quite difficult and time consuming which all added up price wise. The woman who did the alterations told me it was very complicated and that I had been completely mislead by the store with regards to the work involved to make the changes.
Again, I still like my dress and looked amazing, but it's something to he aware of if you do get something off the rack!

This is my go to hotel whenever we have something on in the city or Southbank and don't want to have to deal with late night and expensive taxi's home.
It isn't a crazy fancy expensive hotel, so don't use it if you are after that, but if you just want a simple, straightforward hotel room with parking included, easy to get to and friendly staff, this is the place for you. The rooms are clean and have plenty of space for two people.
You can get breakfast included with some room options, and the breakfast is quite nice, your general buffet deal with hot and cold options.
The real key though, is the fantastic staff for whom nothing is too much trouble.
I was running late for a 3pm Friday afternoon wedding one day and when I rocked up to check in the staff were incredible. I have one person taking my stuff to the room to save me time, another printing out a map to the wedding venue and calling a cab for me and another fixing up my check in. They were friendly, and more than happy to help - no eye rolling or heavy sighs to indicate that they were annoyed at all, and I was so grateful when I arrived 5 minutes before the bride, all because of their help.

I have been to Oxford 152 a number of times for different reasons and generally found it quite nice. I have gone for drinks with friends, had dinner and been on a cocktail drinking date and all have gone well.
It is relatively expensive for everything, and when they are busy the staff can be quite short, but the vibe is pretty positive, and not overly pretentious. There is a restaurant area over one side and the bar with couches, booth type things and tables for patrons to use. When it is busy you have no chance at any of those so kind of have to stand around stupidly, but if you can get a seat it is a comfortable place to chill out and enjoy your drink.

Scoopon is pretty much single handedly saving my "date night" committment this year.
My husband and I struggle sometimes, as I think many people do, to get any "us time" so we decided to implement weekly date night on a Tuesday. We do the usual video night (cheap night at Blockbuster), cheap movies at cinemas and all that, but much of it gets old pretty quickly. Enter scoopon.
Sometimes there is really nothing of interest available, other times I buy 6 vouchers in a month, but either way, it is always good fun to check it out.
When I first started using the site (or app on my phone now) it was pretty much just vouchers for activities, which I really loved. Now they have products and stuff, which I actually dislike, they have lost focus a bit, but it still has useful things on it.
We have come across heaps of different things, which is the best bit. Buying random vouchers have been us try out heaps of different cafes, breakfast bars and restaurants, but also try different activities like comedy club shows, brewery tours, photography tours and canoeing on the river.
Not everything works on our Tuesday night, so sometimes we have to be flexible and transfer our days, but we are having a lot of fun, and saving heaps of money, which we desperately need to be doing at the moment.
The only thing to be aware of is that they all have expiry dates, and it can be a bit easy to miss them. There is no warming or anything like that provided by the site, so we make sure we print them out and attach them to the fridge with a post it note of the expire date so that we can make sure we book by the required date and don't waste the money.
Also - make sure you read the small print. Been tricked once not reading it properly and ended up wasting about $40 because the voucher didn't cover what we actually needed and we had to buy extra stuff to use it at all.
Worth a look at next time you are online, even if you don't end up interested.

This is an online business that sells beautiful evening gowns for really good prices.
I came across it via Facebook, they put lots of pictures of their gowns up so you can check out all the new stock that way, if you are a Facebook user.
They have sizing charts so you can work out what size will be most appropriate for you, and from my experience they are pretty accurate.
We used them to sort out bridesmaids dresses - having bridesmaids in different places with different preferences, this worked really well. They checked out the available options online, discussed via email what they liked and didn't and managed to find a dress that suited both body types, both budgets and most importantly that they thought they could use again because it wasn't too tizzy or specifically 'bridesmaid'.
They have a great variety of different types of dresses, really good stuff for almost any occasion you could want.

Had our taxes done here this year for the first time. Having just moved to the area this year we didn't really know who to go to and had called another company based on someone's recommendation but they never got back to us after two phone calls so we panicked and just called the first people we came across, which was Abacus.
Turns out it was a really good panic decision.
We dealt with Vicki who was really professional, gave us great suggestions and recommendations of what we can do in the future to best benefit us and got both our taxes done in under and hour. Better still - a bigger refund for a smaller fee than last year.
There were no issues at all with this appointment - we got a booking within a week of our call, there was no waiting when we arrived, we just filled in some paperwork and went straight in and received emails the next day with some extra paperwork so we could do something that had been recommended in the appointment.

This is quite possibly the happiest place on the planet... Definitely in Brisbane though!
One of my friends introduced me to this delightful candy warehouse about 3 years ago, and since then it has become a place we visit probably every 6 months to stock up, buy treats for various events and just absorb the happy beautiful atmosphere. It has also joined Mt Cootha as a "must see" on our tourist drives when friends and family visit.
Most recently, I dropped in to stock up for Christmas - teaching high school means I have 100 delightful students to buy presents for which gets super expensive at your day to day supermarkets and stuff. Happily, even without their discount section it is pretty easy to stock up on bulk products to cover all the people you may need to buy for. I managed to get mini candy canes, gummy santas and mini pudding chocolates enough to cover all my classes for about $80, big win!!!
I normally say "if you are in the area check it out" but for this - go to the area to check it out. It is about a 30-40 minute drive for us and worth every second in the car.
Just a tip though, when you are driving down the road it is on, look out for the big sign, and often truck with signage on it, turn into the driveway, down the drive, turn right and you will see the entry. It doesn't have a street facing entrance, and I know friends of mine have been so confused and lost trying to find it before.

So, for anyone who has read my reviews before you probably know I am not a men, so clearly I don't have exactly "first-hand" personal experience, but I do pay for the service they provide, and think they are awesome, so I figure a review is ok and definitely in order.
My husband has been getting his hair cut at this barber since we moved to the Springwood area about a year ago. They have really lovely and friendly staff, reasonable price (about $24 for his cut each time) and it is easy to get an appointment or be served.
It is not exactly the classiest place in the world, but definitely warm and inviting.
The staff are really nice to chat with and good at their job - I have not yet been upset or distressed with anything they have done to his hair. When he went in the week of our wedding, the hairdresser told him to get me to make sure that I was happy with what he was having done before she started. Hilarious! I really enjoyed rubbing this in for weeks after, but also did appreciate that clearly she has dealt with less than delighted brides after their grooms had made some rash decisions.
They have been there for a pretty long time to my knowledge, and always seem to be pretty busy whenever I walk by, which to me is an extra positive review that they are doing something right.

Approximate cost: $24

This is a cute little boutique with clothes and accessories in the Arndale complex.
The clothing really is not suitable for hip, young people. I have never purchased a single item of clothing in this store before, but my mum has and she loves everything she has from them. They can be pretty expensive, but do have some decent sales. My mum bought her "mother of the bride" outfit there earlier this year and looked absolutely stunning.
What I use this store for is accessories. They have some really funky items, and things that are different to other places, which I really value. I hate going into normal accessory stores only to find the exact same items, or variants of the same thing, in each and every store. It drives me crazy. Rumors is good for the more unique item you might be after, which is cool. They have a good range of jewellery and bags and stuff like that they are well worth checking out.
Whilst the spelling of the business drives me mental every time I see it (Rumors vs Rumours), it is still worth the walk through the door for a browse of their merchandise.