Tuck Shop Cafe and Take Away is a bit of a hidden gem. Not many talk about it on the burger scene front. Hubby and I decided to check out top 10 burgers in Melbourne on a day where we had serious burger cravings. Tuck Shop came up and was one of the more affordable and not in the city itself. We were also needing a quick take away as we were on our way to another event. So, we thought, why not?
Street out outside Tuck Shop
The menu is simple and affordable. It offers burgers, jaffles, milkshakes and other drinks. The minor burger is delicious and has almost everything you want. Adding bacon is available, and free range egg too.
We ordered the minor burger, a minor plus bacon and egg, large bag of cuts (their hand cut skin-on potato fries) and a Nutella milkshake. Although, the Redskin milkshake looked very interesting. I’m a sucker for Nutella anything. All your food comes in take away school lunch style packaging. The burgers were juicy and were pink inside. If you are not used to eating medium rare burgers, this might not be for you. The burger is more ‘sloppy joe’ and less ‘Grill’d’ style.
Cute simple school lunch-like packaging
Nutella milkshake – not huge, but very filling.
Hubby’s minor plus egg and bacon.
The menu is written on a blackboard in chalk. The decor contains many school-like items such as blackboard, and lockers. With wooden chairs reminiscent of school chairs. Seating is quite limited with one table that seats up to six, and two bar seating areas. Maybe seating a maximum of 10 people all up. Take away is definitely the most popular option.
Demographic at lunchtime was largely students (university age) and people who work nearby. Mostly people came in for take away, but there were some dine-in customers.
All up, a delicious experience. Nutella milkshake was delicious. The burgers were juicy and filling. Definitely worth a look, especially if you’re craving a burger on the go.
Lots of natural light makes the new Eastland more inviting
Today is the day – Eastland Ringwood has it’s grand opening day. After being somewhat of a ‘meh’ shopping centre, with not much to offer and a bit of a bad rep as to be where the bogans hang (maybe due to the train station, not sure)… it was good to see firsthand the new face lift on pretty much 80% of the building. I can say that I was pretty impressed with the place.
What really made this new Eastland special, was that it has some specialised retailers that you can only get in the city – H&M, Mecca Maxima, and makes the Eastern burbs more attractive to be living in. Also, it’s new roof level alfresco restaurant area really drew my attention. The open, relaxed area filled with new restaurants that I would love to try looks very promising. Reminds me of what Harbourtown could have been… Hmmm…
Many artistic murals on the walls
Exciting things for Eastland, but on its ‘Grand Opening’ Day, you could see that they were clearly struggling to get it to a decent crowd-receiving standard. Floors were construction dirty, unpolished, many stores outside were still closed and under construction, the car parking areas were largely blocked off due to construction. I spent 20 minutes after arriving at one of the entry points on Ringwood Street, literally going from parking entry to parking entry finding that the right turns into the centre were blocked off. No right turns at all. Traffic was atrocious. Went all the way around, down Ringwood Street, along the Ringwood Bypass, and onto Warrandyte Road, no entries right up until the last parking entry point closest to Maroondah Hwy where two large construction trucks blocked half the entering traffic into the centre. Grand Opening Day traffic control was not up to standard at all. It was ridiculous. Management needs to get onto that… or was anyone thinking about that at all?
I did a quick visit of about 1.5hrs and walked majority of the centre. Here is a quick low down on some of the big players at the new Eastland SC.
H&M home section – one of my happy places
H&M ~ Excited that the suburbians now do not need to travel all the way into the city at QVB (and line up, last time I was there) to shop at H&M. They had all these bollards ready to receive the ‘crowds’ lining and were ready to be inundated with crazy excited shoppers, but pretty much didn’t use them, as there was a line of about 10 people, then none for the rest of the time. Inside the store was nice, and the expanse of the store was a bit mind boggling, by Australian standards. Only one floor, and this includes the H&M home section, which I can safely say, is one of my favourite areas. Demographic buying up big when I was in there was teenage, university females, and mothers and grandmothers. Obviously it was a working day, so probably more evenly spread in the evenings and weekends.
Mecca Maxima ~ First time in this store, ever. TBH, it is just like another version of Sephora? Correct me if I’m wrong, but it feels almost exactly the same. Anyway, quite crowded, they were handing out Mecca branded water and lollipops. Happy to see that Urban Decay, Hourglass, Too faced, Bare Minerals and Soap & Glory are finally readily available in the burbs too. Or, as some would argue, available in Melbourne in general. Exciting times.
Beautiful Ambient Lighting blushes I’ve heard so much about @ Mecca MaximaStunning unique eyeshadows – love the packaging @ Mecca MaximaMecca Maxima’s booklet and lollipop from today’s festivities
Uniqlo ~ Went in for my brother’s benefit. It’s only 1 floor as well, but dare I say, bigger than Chadstone? Nicely set out, more spacious than the one in Chadstone, and with higher ceilings. Weirdly enough, wasn’t greeted to the same extent as the Emporium and Chadstone stores. Not one staff member said ‘Welcome to Uniqlo’. Maybe that has changed? Not sure. There were some ‘opening day’ specials, but not many.
UniqloLove the colours! @ Uniqlo
Target ~ As impressive as the new one in Chadstone. Also has the T-shirt printing facility and Target Cafe. They were making free coffees, handing out balloons and had face painting today too.
Target Mascot
Oroton ~ Impressive large store. Didn’t see much else.
Harris Scarfe ~ New, more spacious and better set out store. Hope it lasts, and spells a greater future for this struggling store.
MRP ~ New clothing store that is affordable. Never seen this brand before. Bit of a mix between Temt, Supre, Cotton on and Kmart? I guess. They had a live DJ playing outside their store.
New clothing store MRP
Outdoor Alfresco area has the much anticipated Huxtaburger (which was closed and under renovations today), Hunky Dory (burgers and fish?), Robinsons bookstore – which I love!, Ang Ang (modern asian), Pacos Tacos (mexican), The Cellar Door (australian – looked interesting), Hunter & Barrel (bar – which was packed) and a new Gelati place (forgot the name…). Many others weren’t open so I didn’t check them out. But this whole area leads straight over the road from the Ringwood train station.
Outdoor Restaurants and Stores
The ‘older’ section of Eastland was definitely quieter (near Kmart area). To be honest, my impression of the previous Eastland was pretty bad. Once the floors are polished, the rest of the shops and restaurants are open, the traffic and parking is sorted, it will be a really great place to shop. But for now, unless you are desperate for H&M or Mecca Maxima, don’t bother until the place is completely done, parking is fully functional and, the floors are cleaned.
