Groupon - All-day Breakfast or Lunch for Two @ Le Cirque Fine Foods

I bought this voucher from Groupon a long time ago but only got around to using it now because I'd bought a lot of other coupons that I had to use first because their earlier expiry dates. This voucher includes breakfast or lunch, a juice and a coffee each for two people at $25. I used up a coupon code for buying this voucher so I actually bought it for around $22, therefore $11 for each person.

I went with a friend to eat brunch/lunch there before watching Spy, the movie. There are two Le Cirque Fine Foods and this voucher was for the one at Spencer Street, inside the outlet shopping centre. I made a booking for 11am but we were about fifteen minutes late. Most of the tables were empty then, although they fill up while we were eating.

I forgot to take a photo or note of the menu so I can't remember the exact names of the dishes, but I ordered the big breakfast (the one where you choose your own sides), mocha and pineapple juice; my friend ordered pork ribs, hot chocolate and pineapple juice.

All our food. I only remembered to take photos after we'd already begun eating...

Sourdough, scrambled eggs, minute steak, tomatoes and hash browns. This was the first time ever eating one of these breakfast dishes so I didn't really know how I was supposed to go about eating them - eat them like a sandwich or all separately? I ended up just eating everything separately. Since I don't usually eat this kind of thing I don't really know how it compares to other places, but the serving was very large (especially the egg, just too much!). The scrambled eggs weren't very scrambled, they were in very large chunks. The steak was too tough. I liked the tomatoes and hash browns, but not exactly anything special.

The pork ribs. My friend seemed to like the pork but she said that there was too much flavour to everything and therefore not very balanced.

Mocha

Hot chocolate

I've been to Le Cirque Fine Foods before, also using vouchers and back then it was a group of six people. I'd ordered the burger then and it was quite nice but hard to eat because it was so big. A friend who ordered something with avocado said that the avocado tasted sour for some reason. Two people ordered mango juices but received something which tasted exactly like orange juice but the waitress claimed was mango juice.

Would I go back to this place? Probably only if I had another voucher.

Spy, on the other hand, was really funny and I enjoyed it.

Groupon - Burger Edge Combo

I bought this voucher from Groupon - $99 for a burger combo every month for a year with 300ml drink and chips at Burger Edge. I bought it with a discount coupon so ended up being $84.15, which amounts to $7 for each burger combo if you actually manage to use up the voucher each month.

I checked the menu online to choose what I wanted before I went to the Melbourne Central Burger Edge. I decided to get the mushroom one but it wasn't on the physical menu at MC, so instead opted for Feel the Cheese without pickles. Since it's a combo I also got a bottle of Pepsi Max and specifically asked for unsalted chips.

I stood to one side to wait for my food and it felt like it took ages, even though going by my watch it wasn't really (maybe about seven minutes). I noticed that everyone else had a receipt with a number on it and when their food was ready the number was called out. Because I ordered using a voucher I wasn't given a receipt. So of course when my "number" was called out by the counter lady there, I didn't know it was me and we kind of stared at each other for a while before she said, "It's you." Awkward. She could've just given it to me straight away, since I was standing right in front of her!

I quickly took my plate, found an empty table and sat down.

The 300ml bottle of Pepsi Max, Feel the Cheese burger and chips.

Closer up. The burger was nice enough but not exceptionally good, nothing extraordinary. Would I buy the burger at full price? Even at full price this particular burger cheaper than some other burgers at other places, but maybe those other places taste better. I don't think I'd buy at full price unless I had some kind of special reason and there's also a Grill'd at Melbourne Central too if I feel like eating more premium burgers.

The biggest fail was the chips. I mentioned that I ordered unsalted chips yet the chips were salted, a lot! I was in a hurry and couldn't be bothered to complain about it so I just ate them, though I didn't finish them. My lips were tingling for ages afterward. Other than the saltiness the chips were actually really good. 

So my verdict? For what I'm actually paying for this ($7) it's very good value. My experience this time wasn't exactly the best but I'll be eating at Burger Edge at least eleven more times so I'll see how things change in the future.