It was another beautiful Melbourne morning. We got up at around 7:30ish and decided to head out for coffee first. We walked down the road to Industry Beans – Speciality coffee roasters and made our orders. Another delicious drip. Melbourne is really well known for their coffee culture and is seen as one of the best coffee cities in the world and you can really see why. Aimee decided to change it up today and bought an iced coffee with pearls which she really enjoyed.

After we finished our coffees we jumped on the tram and headed to where we were eating breakfast today – Schmuck’s Bagels. Ever since we were in America and first enjoyed bagels for breakfast we have always appreciated them as a good breakfast option. It is underrated and Australia hasn’t really embraced the Bagel brekky. We are massive fans of the classic bagel with cream cheese, but as we were at a proper bagel place we decided to go for more involved options. We ordered two bagels, the Oy Vey bagel which has slow-braised pulled pork, harissa slaw, tonkatsu, crackling salt on seedy grain and the Seb which was sausage & egg, kewpie mayo and iceberg on sesame.

We ordered a coke to go with them too which was nice. Overall the bagels were quite good. The pulled pork one was tastier as the iceberg lettuce on the sausage and egg was a bit weird. But otherwise pretty delicious. Bagel is a very underrated type of bread. We jumped back on the same tram line and headed back into the Crown casino for our first activity today. We strolled through the casino and went to Holey Moley. Most people by now probably know what this is but for those who don’t it is a themed indoor mini-golf/bar. You can play 18 holes whilst sipping cocktails. Its really trendy and cool. We ordered a cocktail each at the bar (10am isn’t too early for cocktails is it?) to take around and got into our first 9 holes.

The holes at holey moley are really well themed. They are mostly based off of movies and tv shows, some games as well. Ronnie won, by a lot of course. We found this to be a really enjoyable way to spend the morning. If you’ve ever been to Holey Moley before you’ll know that overcrowding is a bit of an issue due to how insanely popular it is. It opened at 10 and our reservation was at 10 so we were the first there which made our experience much, much better.

We left Holey Moley and the casino for the last time and then took the tram back into the CBD. By this time we were hungry for some lunch. We walked across the road from the Airbnb into the complex in search of our lunch spot – Saint Dreux. For starters this place looks so sleek. Its simple, but elegant. This is also located inside a food court, but what they serve is far from the usual food court delicacies.

This place certainly brought the good. There is a very small but refined menu. They sell Japanese sandos and cakes. We ordered the Katsu Sando which is a panko-crumbed fried wagyu steak on white bread with kewpie mayonnaise and tonkatsu sauce, an original Castella, an iced matcha latte and an iced hojicha latte.

You’re not going to believe this but this single sandwich was $28 by itself. The reason is because they use Wagyu beef with a high marbling score. We were hesitant, as you would be for $28 for a small sandwich, but let me tell you, it was amazing. An absolute 10/10 and worth every cent. It was melt in your mouth delicious. The best sandwich we have ever eaten hands down. It was simple but complex and soft but crunchy. The flavours were perfect. 10/10 – excellent. The drinks were pretty standard and the Castella was quite nice and soft, but the sando was a tough act to follow.

Following this delicious lunch we went back to our Airbnb to get changed for the theatre. We took the tram up to the theatre and were a bit early so we spent a bit of time sitting in the park. At this time we noticed there was an extremely large crowd of people over near the parliament house waving flags. It turns out this was a rally in support of Ukraine. There were thousands of people and it shut down the whole tram line so lucky we caught the tram up when we did.

Today at the Princess Theatre we were seeing Harry Potter and The Cursed Child which is a sequel to Harry Potter written by JK Rowling that follows the children of Harry, Ron, Hermione & Draco as they begin their journey through Hogwarts.

The show is split into two parts which are both full length theatrical productions. It is recommended to see them within the same day/week. We were seeing them both today. We purchased VIP tickets and really splurged on this. This got us premium seats for both shows, a program, a block of Koko Black chocolate each for each show, an ice cream each for each show and a cocktail each for each show. Also a dedicated bar area which made ordering stuff much, much faster and easier. Expensive, but we figured we should do it properly. We were seated in row 7 right in the middle next to the aisle. Perfect. We also grabbed our cocktail before taking our seat.

We sat for the entire 2.5 hours while we ate our chocolate and our ice cream and drank our cocktails and it was superb. We were a bit hesitant as we usually go to the theatre to see musicals and this was a play, but it completely exceeded our expectations. We were enthralled and absolutely loved it. We couldn’t wait to return tonight for part 2.

In between the shows we had about 3 hours. We made a reservation at a very popular and trendy Vietnamese fusion restaurant around the corner from the theatre called Hochi Mama. They had really cool decor, good music and a good atmosphere inside. The servers also used iPads and we always find it professional when restaurants take orders this way. They have a deal where you get two entrees, two mains and a side which we ordered. For our entrees we ordered Rice Duck Crisps (pictured) and Steamed Pork & Prawn dumplings.

The duck crisps were delicious. It was roast duck, herbs, fried shallots and special sauce on a fried wonton. The wonton was crunchy and the flavour all worked. It was a really great entree. The dumplings were as advertised, just dumpling which are always awesome. Looking back it was a pretty safe choice and we probably should have been a bit more bold but it did the job. For the mains we ordered Hochi Fried Chicken and Chinese Broccoli Stir Fry which came out with our side of Roti with peanut satay dipping sauce.

The chicken was crispy with a lot of spice on it which added to the deliciousness. The sauce was Vietnamese style spicy sauce which was also delicious a really good, but again very safe choice. The Chinese broccoli stir fry was a good solid choice. Again, nice food but pretty basic choice. The food was all well made and good quality and we couldn’t fault the restaurant but if we were to return we would definitely be a bit more adventurous and order differently. It was still a nice experience and a good feed to prepare us for the second part of the show tonight.

We returned for the second half of the show just as it was getting dark. The second half of the show was fantastic again. We enjoyed our ice cream, chocolate and cocktails while we took in the magic of the performance. The script and story are a bit strange but the acting, the choreography, the special effects, the sets and the whole vibe and magic of the Harry Potter universe just really hit the right way. We’re not gonna lie, sitting in the theatre for 5-5.5 hours was tough. By the end of it our butts were really sore and as masks were still mandatory they were getting a bit uncomfortable. We would rate the show a solid 10/10 and consider it to be a must-see.

After the show we took the short tram ride back to our Airbnb and crashed pretty hard for our last night in Melbourne.

Much love

Ronnie & Aimee