Mount Dandenong

Philip got a friend from Kuching who came to Melbourne for holiday and he too, owns a d-slr camera, name Daniel Tok. We call him Ah Tok, and he invited us to a short trip to Mt Dendenong with her daughter Alysha.

Alysha is 3 years old and she’s a little bit funny. She doesn’t like to take photos and if she realized that someone is shooting her secretly, she’ll cover her face but if someone forced her to take one, she’ll make weird faces and he will have to take a few in order to get a good one like this…

Of course, being the uncle of three shouldn’t have problem handling just one and aside from that, I love kids and am really good at dealing with them.

Apart from taking her pictures, she is always happily munching her teevee snacks~

We arrived at Mount Dandenong during arvo, decided to have our lunch in this restaurant call Pie in the Sky, a pretty famous place for freshly baked pies. I’m not sure how famous or fresh their pies are, but they did win a few awards for its pie. One of the dishes that won a gold medal is the ‘pie in the sky’ where they serve the pie together in the soup.

Pie in the Sky – Beef & Guinness flavor – Chunky beef and potato cooked in Guinness beer

I picked the beef and Guinness flavor and the taste is really good, I’m not a pie person so I can’t say much about it. But I had a try on Philip’s 'Pie in the Sky' with Steak and Kidney fanor (Chunky beef, lambs kidney and carrots), the lamb kidney stinks badly and totally not my kind of food. Philip regretted ordering it, maybe it’s for extreme lamb lovers only.

These are the varieties available – somehow it’s attractive to put it this way, I feel like tasting all of them! Obviously Steak & Mushroom must be really nice compared to the rest~

From the take-away menu board - it shows the types of pie they sell and favor that won medal are tagged with the word gold or silver on the side so that customer knows which the better ones are. Surprisingly, the Steak & Kidney has silver tagged!

This is like the third time I’ve been to this restaurant, and I believe it’s always packed with crowds during public holidays or weekends. I couldn’t remember what I had last 2 times when I was here but it didn’t leave me with any bad impression so it’s all good…

Other than pies, cakes are the other options which I have never tried before and according to the menu, they baked the cakes as well!

Alysha waiting for food~

Their bread toast is so blardy delicious that I can still remember its taste even now! I know it’s just ham, cheese and bread but I just like the way it’s made – crispy outside, soft inside, a little salty taste from the cheese and a little juicy from the ham! Yummy!! A very good starter~

We gobbled up our meals pretty fast and Alysha started gulping down her cold vanilla milk shake and become a happy girl!

Oh yeah and I like their cozy interior design with lots of portraits hanging on the wall. After we were done with our meal, we went to walk around the street and I realized this place is like a kid’s paradise! This is what we found along the street…

If you get what I mean, don’t bring your kids there if you want to save money! I’m surprise Alysha didn’t even request for a single thing from her dad Tok, maybe she is still too young to go there and she is very obedient throughout the whole trip. Other than requesting for an ice cream and vanilla milk shake, she is pretty low profile!

Then just 10 minutes drive away from the town, at the highest point of Mount Dandenong – the place where one can see the whole of Melbourne City, the night view is excellent for a romantic date! But it’ll be damn boring to drive all the way up there at night, all the feel might have gone after the long drive up the mountain~

At this highest point, there’re some attractions like sculptures for tourist like me and some other interesting activities like this one…

You can find curious kids trying to squeeze the nipples of this ‘whatever it’s called’ statue.

And Alysha found her lover and pushing her rival away!



Then I managed to find a drain and turn it into a river!



Alysha took up her guts and go against the secret garden rule!



Not forgetting this, another piece of my work~ and…



This! Daniel found his new nest!

After the photo taking session, we drove another 15 minutes to this restaurant call Miss Marples.

I supposed this restaurant opens from breakfast until high tea, and it’s definitely more famous than Pie in the Sky since we waited 90 minutes to get our seats! So we went around the area for a walk and took some interesting pictures…

Spot the Buddha!





The Miniature world



Happy Friend Alysha



Cool Doggies!

After the long wait, I almost lost the mood to eat anything but I guess the crowd never lies.

The restaurant is extremely homey and comfortable with the warm orange lights and retro pictures hanging on the walls. The ambiance is perfect and so is the food!

I’ll highly recommend this, best scones ever served with Butter and Jam! I can’t explain, try it and you’ll understand what I mean~

We also had salad, apple strudel and crispy chicken fingers. Then we left with satisfaction!

Apparently, I was supposed to be on Lemon Detox that very first day so these are all the reasons I failed badly – how can anyone resist such food?

Between, another random shot I took when I was on my way home… Cool? To view all my photos on flickr, simply click on any of the photos then click on my photostream.

Damn, I’m so hungry now~