Tag Archives: Truck driver food

Late at night with the truckies …

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Ports Diner Roadhouse, 420 Footscray Rd, West Melbourne. Phone: 9689 9975

As most Consider The Sauce visitors will know, cool late-night options are a tad thin on the ground in the western suburbs.

So when the midnight hour munchies strike, I habitually head for the relatively close and comforting charms of the Embassy Taxi Cafe in Spencer St.

However, there is a slightly closer alternative, one that promises to provide a similarly distinctive transport-related fast food fix – and the time to take it for a road test it is now.

This place doesn’t keep anything like the 24/7 opening hours of the taxi cafe, but I figure it’s worth a shot just to enjoy another unique Melbourne dining experience.

In the night-time shadows of the Citylink/Bolte Bridge, and with the ridiculous Big Wheel in the background, I pull into the vast parking lot.

There’s a lot of trucks here – and I’m pretty sure there always is.

As several come and go, I finally find a parking spot, next to another small car, where it seems there is a good chance my vehicle will not be crushed like a bug by some reversing behemouth.

Inside the prefabricated building I find your typical diner set-up, spick and span, and with press coverage of the joint on the walls and copies of Big Rigs newspaper at hand.

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There’s plastic containers of that night’s Chinese and pasta dishes in the bain marie, but I – of course – go the burger ($7 with bacon and onion) and chips route ($3).

Unfortunately, it’s all rather drab.

The burger patty is quite large, but appears to be a generic supermarket model. Certainly, it’s devoid of flavour or allure.

The rest of the burger is similarly unmemorable.

The chips are plentiful, hot and crinkle cut. They’re just OK, but are nevertheless the best of my meal.

No matter – I’ve enjoyed checking another personality-laden, one-of-a-kind Melbourne eating experience.

I’ll even consider returning – maybe for a steak sandwich or souvlaki.

After all, when the late-night munchies strike, a man’s gotta get truckin’ …

 

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Corio Bay Roadhouse

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Corio Bay Roadhouse, 383 Melbourne Rd, Corio, Geelong. Phone: 5275 120

The Corio Bay Roadhouse has the look to go with the name.

There are frequently trucks parked outside.

My waitress has a big, wide smile and tattoos on her fingers.

A month or so before my visit, the place had been burgled then torched by the same culprits, but happily this local landmark is up and running again.

Despite having driven past it twice on each working day of the past couple of years, I’ve taken my time about checking this place out.

Maybe that was to do with some of scant online information I was able to find referring to burgers stacked up like soldiers in a bain marie.

Yes, they’re here but there’s plenty of scope for fresh-cooked food, too.

Of course, this being a temple and monument to good nutrition and healthy eating, there’s a lot of frying going on.

Sarcasm aside, this place does good diner-style grub.

If I lived around here, this is where I’d come instead of hitting any of the various franchises that dot this same strip of highway.

My open burger with chip is an immense amount of food for $12.

The chips are good and the bacon really fine and crispy.

The egg is gooey and runny, but I doubt it’s free range.

Given the food genre, I’d happily do without the vegetable quotient and pay even less.

The burger itself is just OK – along the  same lines as those served up by the Embassy Taxi Cafe.

If you want to go without unmeaty trimmings, then the $15 mixed grill could be for you.

Even the magazine rack keeps the ambiance going.

I figure it’s probably a good thing this place is not open when I’m driving past on my way home after a night shift.

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