So you are in Melbourne and the number of restaurants to eat at are endless. Melbourne is famous for its diverse cuisines and many, many restaurants. It can be overwhelming even for locals to pick a place to eat at, unless they have favourites. If you are thinking about going out for a lunch in the city, here are several tips that will help you decide a place to choose without going over budget:
Do an Online Search First
If you are searching for places to lunch at, obviously you have a plan. Start by doing a quick online search for restaurants in Melbourne. Google mobile search results would give out the full list. There are also many local blogs that list available restaurants by cuisine. You can look around and pick a cuisine or a restaurant you like. Once you have narrowed down the search results somewhat, you can use the 5-3-1 method of elimination to make your final decision. Choose just 5 of the restaurants from the list. Ask the person or people you are lunching with to pick out three from the list. Then eliminate another two. Now you have settled the debate about where to lunch.
Check the Menu and Rates
When you do your online research, make sure to check the menu and prices for the restaurant as well. If you are on a budget, you might want to know about the rates before you go. If you are going in solely for the dishes, check out the menu to see if the restaurant is offering anything new you can’t wait to try out. Keep in mind to check the lunch menu and not the typically more extensive dinner menu.
Don’t Overlook Lunch Perks
Do you want to bring your own wine bottle or side dish to lunch? There are great restaurants like David’s that do allow diners BYOs on certain days of the week. There could be other perks that can make some restaurants more appealing. Know to check about these before you go.
Read Online Reviews
You would definitely want to read customer reviews before you venture into a restaurant. Check out sites like Yelp, Zomato, or GrubHub to learn about what other recent customers have to say about the restaurant. You might discover some nasty surprises there. If the customer reviews are generally favourable, then it would be a good place to lunch at.
Be Careful about Judging Lunch Based on Dinner Offerings
Some restaurants are great for lunching, some for dinner. But be careful not to miss the two. Restaurants typically offer two different menus for lunch and dinner. Sometimes the dinner is great, and sometimes the lunch. If the restaurant gets great ratings for dinner, don’t assume the lunch would be similarly good. Check out reviews for lunch exclusively to find out if the place is truly wonderful for lunching.
Use the above suggestions to finally end the argument about “where should we eat next”. Research your choices as mentioned above if you want to be very careful about your budget. If you miss something special once, you can always come back for more later. Go ahead now and enjoy your lunch date in one of Australia’s most amazing cities.
No Comments