For a fast fix of Japanese food on the run, Itamae Sushi represents good value for the level of food that they offer.

I regularly visit and order the Tempura don which provides three tempura prawns and some salad on a bowl of rice. For $10.80 that's pretty good value.

They also have a wide range of sushi/sashimi at reasonable prices and if I'm there late afternoon after work I can get a few rolls for about $5 or a few dollars off a small or large sushi pack for dinner. The Gyoza is also good value with 5 for $6.

Approximate cost: $11

This restaurant is a mix of fusion east meets west but is Taiwanese owned. Even thought they claim it is Japanese, it probably is really a mix of a whole lot of Asian cuisines.

The menu is fixed with a few choices for each course. I found that the presentation was really nice, however the flavor of the food is average. I had the Sashimi for openers which was okay, but nothing exciting, the fish was fresh. The next course of seafood soup was again good but not exciting to the palate. The steak was good and it came out on a hot stone plate so that you could decide how well you wanted it cooked (or uncooked!) and had some flavor but again lacked any great amount of sauce to go with it. The dessert of Green Tea Yoghurt ice cream was interestingly presented in a pot with "dirt" well, more like chocolate and probably was the most interesting and good tasting dish of the night!

Overall, there are better places/value to have a meal, however it is interesting for what it offers.

Service was good with the waiters constantly checking for sufficient drinks but not intrusive.

Approximate cost: $58

This place is the offshoot of the original Mamak in Sydney. The place in Sydney has queues starting well before the place opens as they don't take bookings.

When Mamak opened in Melbourne my hopes were high and the place again does not take bookings. However we found the wait worth it and the food reasonably consistent with what we found in Sydney. The Roti was fluffy and crunchy, however it is frustrating because the only option is fish curry and for those not a fan of fish curry it means you need to pay around $15 to order a serve of chicken curry to go with the Roti.

Other dishes are very authentic - like the mee goreng, although sometimes the chef is chilli happy and it can be overly spicy. The rojak salad contained great amounts of flavor with the prawns, coconut fritters and peanut sauce and the nasi lemak was also authentic and allowed between a friend chicken and curry chicken option allowing some customization.

The lime drink reminded me of being back in Malaysia, Singapore or Thailand and the ice kachang provided a great ending to the meal.

Service is generally efficient with orders taken electronically by the waiters and provided the place is not overloaded you can normally get service quite quickly.

What we did not like though was the extra service charge of $3 per person on a public holiday which detracted from the experience, although we have been there several times on a non public holiday.

Approximate cost: $13

Naked for Satan.

Well the name says it all. At first when I heard the name I said to my friends you've gotta be kidding, this has to be some kind of strip joint, right?

To my surprise this ended up being one of the most pleasant places to spend a late Sunday afternoon.

The place is split over three levels with Pintxos (pronounced Pinchos) on the ground floor which are single serve bite sized snacks (Tapas style) and on the top floor a restaurant which has more substantial sized Tapas. The quality and range of food is good and unique. If you're after somewhere different then this is the place to go for an afternoon to chat with friends, enjoy a few drinks and much on some great finger, well, Tapas style foods. The range of food and menu constantly changes, although there are regulars such as eggplant chips, a steak, salad, pork crackling and more bits and pieces all designed to be shared. All are very flavorsome and for those who don't drink will find it a great way to excite the tastebuds.

The place does get full quickly so what we normally do is head up to the restaurant, have a few things to munch on and then leave room to head downstairs later and much on some of the Pintxos which include Wagyu style beef, Frittatas, Chorizo Sausages, Empanadas, Churros, Chocolate balls, and more. If you're there on a Sunday after 6pm, there is a great deal on the Pintxos - they're only $1 per serve compared to $2 at other times. A great way to experience a wide range of snacks/tapas!

As far as drinks go, there are a good range of beers and wines and the place is known for its range of infused vodkas which include Alpine Chocolate an Sugarcane, Opium and Rose, Ginger, Espresso, Salted caramel and more!

So despite the crazy name, it's a great place to spend an afternoon.

Highly recommended!

Approximate cost: $15

This restaurant is the sister restaurant of Hu Tong which specializes in northern Chinese food.

We attended this restaurant for dinner and found that the dishes were good however not of the same standard as the original restaurant - Hu Tong.

The xiao loong bao - dumplings with soup arrived and were okay, but were easily broken when lifted out of the steamer and lost the soup. The only safe way in the end was to use a spoon to lift them out. This meant that the pastry was too thin and should have been a bit thicker to properly hold in the soup.

The other dumplings were good but nothing exciting to the taste buds. We also ordered a few dishes including stir fried eggplant in Szechuan Chilli sauce and a Tofu and veggie hot pot. The eggplant was good and the chefs were also able to temper the heat of the chilli so that it was enjoyable. The tofu and veggies however lacked any special flavor and was quite plain. Service was a little lacklustre as the waitress really could only speak Mandarin and had problems understanding English so we normally tried to flag down another waiter but they kept walking past too fast!

Overall the place is okay, however with a bit more attention from the waiters/waitresses and a bit more flavor added to the food the place could have scored better.

Approximate cost: $22

This place is another restaurant in the chain of China Bar restaurants. It is intended to be more upmarket and provide a higher quality of service and food than China Bar.

We visited for both lunch - yum cha and dinner.

I found the Yum Cha to be very satisfactory. There were a few dishes that did not meet standard - such as Taro Puffs (Woo Kok in Chinese) but apart from that other dim sum dishes presented and tasted good.

Service at lunch time was good and trolleys came around quickly and there was someone to refill the water for the teapot quite regularly.

We also went for dinner and found that the food was good but lacked any "zing" in the taste that made you want to eat more. We selected a few dishes that should have provided flavor such as Golden Egg Yolk prawns, a plate of mixed vegetables, fish fillets and lemon chicken. All dishes were satisfactory but not something you would write home about. The flavors were there, but did not stand out making things taste between bland to satisfactory. For example, the Golden Egg Yolk prawns did not have enough egg yolk coverage so you could not really taste the egg yolk flavor, but the prawns were large and the batter crunchy.

Overall, for lunch the place is quite good, but for dinner,there are probably better places to enjoy a meal.

Approximate cost: $20

I joined a get fit to ski session held by this group in the hope of being a fitter person and avoid injury during the ski season as I had booked trips overseas and purchased an annual ski pass for the 2013 year. I thought that this would be a good way to reduce the risk of injury.

The trainer was very proficient and friendly. However some of the exercises set out proved later to be quite dangerous and not fit for the level (beginner) set.

The exercises involved basic stretching and flexibility. However the last exercise was to prove fatal. The trainer did advise that I perhaps should not attempt the last two exercises however I wanted to experience the full course, otherwise what was the use of attending the course and have about 25% of the course not deemed suitable?

The basic stretching exercises were fine and really good for a beginner class. However the last two exercises - a run of approximately 1.3km and high impact exercise jumping from left to right diagonally across the room were not a beginner level exercise and given the time of day exposed all participants to danger.

The second last exercise of a 1.3km run around the block was held when it was quite dark - about 6:45pm and we were running around the block which was only lit by street lighting. As we all had various health/stamina levels that meant some went well ahead and others went well behind. Given the darkness this meant that we could have easily hit a hole in the ground or a bump and if one of us fell then it would have easily caused injury landing on asphalt. Also it is generally not recommended running on asphalt/footpaths due to the risk of a car backing out, the surface easily causing damage to knees, running into other people and other issues. There is also the issue of the trainer not inspecting our gear (in this case shoes) which she advised at the end of the session that the shoes I were using were unsuitable for the exercises. (They were deemed to not be supportive, but that was too late). As professionals, they should have checked everyone's shoes before starting training.

The last exercise was jumping with both feet held together in a left to right motion diagonally up a path to theoretically simulate skiing. The trainer suggested that I sit this exercise out however after watching the others do it, it appeared that I should be okay to proceed. When the person before me returned, the trainer commented that the person before me was landing too hard and the idea was to land softly. When I did this exercise on the last lot of jumps back down the path to the starting point I ended up completely tearing my achillies tendon. This has since required surgery to stitch back and I am now unable to enjoy the ski season until next year and will need between 6-12 months to completely heal. Whilst I was advised that I should probably not do these exercises, the issue is that the damage from such a high impact exercise actually exposed the entire group at risk of incurring the same injury. The trainer was just lucky that no one else incurred the same injury - especially as she picked up on the person before me landing too hard which also exposed her to the risk of the same injury. It was just luck that the person before me did not end up with the same injury. If she was going to demonstrate this properly then she should have shown us how to lift our feet off the floor to jump from one side to the other. All that happened was that the trainer jumped quickly and made the exercise look easy. There was no warning that this has the ability to cause severe damage. Had that probably been explained I probably would not have done it, however that is now hindsight.

I have since consulted with two other experts in fitness exercises and both advised that for a beginner class, or for any class that the last two exercises were actually quite unsafe. Especially the jumping from side to side as that does not really simulate skiing as the trainer suggested because when you ski, one leg initiates movement by sliding out whilst the other leg holds the position and then they swap - similar to roller blading - in skiing the legs do not stay together. Holding two legs together does not accurately simulate skiing and opens participants to risk of injury as happened to me. The safest option would have been to have a mat on the floor with blocks at each end sewn into the mat so that you can practice sliding left and right which is a more accurate representation of skiing movement.

When I returned a few days later to return the ice pack that they had kindly lent me there was another person there. I advised her that the last two exercises prescribed were actually quite dangerous and all she could do was to become defensive and said to me who advised that the exercises were dangerous. When I advised her that the people were trainers at my local swimming center she then asked what qualifications do they have. I let her know that I don't know what qualifications they have but they do have each more than 40 years experience and one used to train Olympic swimming teams and the other was a soccer coach for a UK club. I find the response totally insulting because it is not the qualifications that you have which is basically theory. It is a blend of both qualifications and experience. In any case she basically was not open to suggestion that anything that they could have done was wrong and wanted to hide behind the fact that they have qualifications. However given what happened I don't think they have sufficient experience to really guide people given that the program contained elements that are considered high impact and therefore high risk exercises.

Whilst I understand that they provided one warning to me for each exercise - that perhaps I should not do it, I don't think that this is sufficient and the exercises never should have been incorporated into the training in the first place as this was the very first session and to introduce such high impact exercises for a beginner session in the first lesson is irresponsible. The fact that the exercise exposes the entire group to risk of injury is irresponsible given that they are supposed to be professionals.

I consider their response extremely poor towards what has happened and given the injury sustained I would have expected a more professional and responsible approach. As a result, I do not recommend this business as when something goes wrong, they become defensive and do not accept any responsibility for the risks of injury that they could cause to you.

Approximate cost: $15

This is another of the pub style eateries in the revamped Crown Casino. The food here is a mix of pub and other styles including tex mex. We ordered quesadillas, calamari, chicken parma, and some salads. All of the servings are good sizes with more than enough for one person, or if you want to share it's just right so that you can share in a group of say four where everyone gets to try something. Prices are reasonable for the area and food quality, whilst good is nothing to write home about.

Service was okay, although somewhat lacklustre at times with the our waitress having to be flagged down by a few of us at the table and on occasion calling some other waitress to bring another napkin or more water etc. If the wait staff were a little more attentive of the tables they were assigned to, we could have increased the score.

Approximate cost: $18

We used to be regulars at this place many moons ago. We returned from the "wilderness" after a few years wondering what to expect when some friends decided to shout us lunch at this gourmet bastion of Chinese Cantonese Cuisine.

The lunch menu is based on seasonal availability of ingredients and allows you to select any two, three or four items from its entree, mains, and desserts. You can, if you want select three mains and are not limited to how you mix and match.

Whilst having such great variety seemed like a great idea, we felt that with many dishes we could find similar quality elsewhere. For example, the Peking duck pancakes were filled quite sparingly with duck meat and skin, although I'd say more duck meat instead of skin. This means that the pancake itself will lack the crispy texture of the duck skin flowing through and the softness of the bread takes over with the meat. Other dishes included steaks, crispy chicken, and some vegetarian offerings.

Whilst the ingredients showcased how "fresh is best", it still lacked the panache and excitement of the Flower Drum of old. Yes the food is good, very good, but when you're in the top echelons of gourmet/luxury foods, you expect Flower Drum to go just that bit higher and take your taste buds and expectations of gourmet to another level. The fixed lunch also came with a bowl of fried rice. Again, the rice contained large pieces of prawn fried eggs, some spring onion and that was about it! I did not expect fried rice to be so plain in such an establishment.

Approximate cost: $75

For five star seafood with very high quality service, this place offers it! The seafood here is extremely fresh and carefully cooked to ensure that the natural freshness and flavor of each dish is revealed to its full extent.

Everything here from the seafood to the chips, salads and other items all showcase the freshness and flavor. The salmon and tun sashimi style dish were as a fishmonger would say - no smell and more like mineral water than fishy - clean, clear and crisp. The flavor of the prawns left you knowing that they weren't defrosted from some long cold slumber and you could taste prawns as prawns with a crisp, springy texture.

Service is non invasive - the waiters/waitresses are there when you need them, otherwise you're just left to enjoy your time there and there's no pressure if you wanted to spend the afternoon there!

The letdown of the place is the price of some dishes - ranging from around $30 to several hundred depending on what you're after, we sometimes felt that there could be slightly better value at other places, but overall this does not detract from the experience.

Note, you come to this place for seafood, you don't come here for anything else. Whilst there are non seafood offerings, that is not what the place is about, it's all about the seafood!

Highly recommended.

Approximate cost: $50-100+