Photos

Chinatown in Melbourne

While staying in Melbourne, Australia, a few weeks back, our hotel was very close to Chinatown. I remember seeing it on the map before we left home and I thought it would be a good place to go out for a meal there one night.

BUT, we weren’t too impressed with Chinatown at all. It had some mighty gates at either end of its main causeway, but it was squeezed into a skinny stretch of Little Bourke Street (between Swanston and Exhibition Streets), and it gives the impression that it's seen better days.

The Little Bourke Street footpaths are narrow and make for a disagreeable walk, and the carpark was placed on prime street-level frontage and is quite an eyesore.

There were restaurants down several little laneways, but we didn’t feel too happy to go down them. We passed through this area a few times during the day, and once at night, when we did hurry by. Apparently there are supposed to be some really good restaurants, but we didn’t try them.

We had been recommended to go to the Italian area in Lygon Street, Carlton, so one night we had a great meal at Mercadante. The staff were very jovial and the meal was superb. . . There were many places to choose from there and after walking around about 12-18 places we finally chose this one.