Making the most of eating out while travelling solo
The Feed Me (aka Chef's Selection) Experience
Eating out alone can be one of the most uncomfortable experiences whilst travelling solo. But once you get into the habit of eating out alone it will become second nature and you will want to do it far more often than staying in and ordering room service or hitting the local takeaway joint. If you feel uncomfortable or embarrassed then take a book with you, a journal to write things down or scroll through your holiday snaps and enjoy the most recent memories you’ve made. Smile at people who look your way while enjoying a sip of your beverage or a bite of your food and just remember that they’re probably more uncomfortable than you because of your ability to go out and enjoy yourself on your own.
While I don’t consider myself a foodie per se, I do love to sample the local produce of a region and indulge in some great food and wine. For me personally this will involve researching local restaurants, seeing what their menu offers, which ones use local produce and if any of them do a feed me menu. The feed me (or Chef’s selection) menu is often my favourite experience and definitely my go to if it is available as an option for a single diner. Also a great option if travelling with others and you want to get the most out of the menu, provided everyone agrees to partake. Most restaurants will still cater to dietary requests in the feed me menu. If a feed me menu is not an option I prefer to order two or three entrées rather than a main meal to get a variety of meals on the menu. On a recent occasion when dining out locally with a friend we ordered four or five entrée/light snack options to share so we could experience more of the menu than just ordering a single dish each.
So why the feed me experience?
I don’t have to make a decision.
It is usually the Chef’s selection based on what they consider their best food.
The service starts quite quickly, with dishes coming out almost immediately.
I can eat slower because there is a lot of food to get through and know I won’t be rushed out of the venue.
I can order a glass of wine or two that best matches the menu.
I get a dessert included (most of the time).
I’ve had a lot of feed me menus over the years, both with groups and solo, too many to recall all of them in any great detail except for the most recent experiences. One of my favourites locally was Wah Wah Gee, a great Asian fusion restaurant on the pier at the waterfront in Geelong. I dined there on many occasions, the most recently being in August 2024 before flying out of the country on a holiday. Their feed me menu was so damn good I’ve had it more times than I can remember. Unfortunately, they closed in December 2024 after their commercial lease ended and I can’t believe I won’t get to taste their bao buns or spicy cauliflower ever again! It will have to be a spectacular restaurant experience that eventually replaces them.
Other favourites include (in no particular order):
the 5-course degustation menu at Stefano’s in Mildura. This was a group dinner as part of a work conference tour from Adelaide to Melbourne in the 2000’s but it was well worth the effort of organising for a busload of scientists. Stefano himself also matched the wines to the menu.
Lucy Liu’s in Melbourne. I walked in off the street on a rainy day and dined alone at the kitchen bar watching and talking to the chefs while they worked. I also had a couple of great cocktails here.
Bar Merenda in Daylesford, Victoria. The website promises that no two meals will be the same as the menu regularly changes based on seasonal cycles and supplier experiences. I genuinely loved the cosy food here and would go again, I would just aim for booking in advance so that I could get a better table.
My most recent feed me experience was at Tonic & Ginger in Fremantle, Western Australia. Housed in The Old Synagogue I got a lovely upstairs window seat and settled in for the ride. I was told it was a LOT of food and they certainly didn’t lie, even supplying the leftovers in takeaway food containers. All of it was delicious.
At some places you can choose between five or seven course menus, others may only have one option. At Lucy Liu’s I chose the five plate menu and that was plenty, considering I’d already eaten previously that day, but no dessert option was included. My favourite dish here was the kingfish sashimi. Bar Merenda offered house made bread and local olives, as well as several other courses and a dessert. Tonic & Ginger served up seven individual courses that also included a dessert, my favourites being the spicy duck larb, braised beef massaman curry and the peanut and white chocolate parfait with miso caramel and meringue for dessert.
For more adventurous dining pre-pandemic, I took my mum on two moving restaurants to celebrate special occasions. The first was a champagne breakfast with a set menu on The Colonial Tramcar Restaurant in Melbourne. While I never experienced the full dinner menu before it was shutdown in 2018, this daytime option was great fun. The second was on the Q Train, a local train dining experience. We were lucky enough to get on board only a few months after it opened and booked into the first class dining experience. We had our own private dining compartment and enjoyed a five-course degustation menu with matching wines. This was hands down one of the best dining experiences of my life. It was presented beautifully, the wines were amazing—some of them not even available to purchase, and everything was locally produced. While it’s been almost seven years since I first dined on the Q train, I will be sure to do it again some day. No special occasion required!
All my experiences with feed me selections have been in Australia, as I’ve never quite found the same thing when travelling overseas. Perhaps I’ve not looked hard enough or been on too tight a budget. I definitely haven’t searched them out when I’ve been in southeast Asia where street food is a must. Apart from not having to make a decision on just one menu item, the other great thing about ordering the feed me menu is that you just never know what you might get. I have eaten things I would never normally select off the menu and loved it to bits. There’s not ever been something totally awful, although I wish they would just leave out the spring roll or a pork dumpling in an Asian fusion menu.
So if you’re travelling solo, do yourself a favour and hunt down a good feed me menu. Dress up and take yourself for an afternoon or evening out. I guarantee you won’t be disappointed and you may even have leftover food for the following day. A win-win in my opinion.
What I’m reading: Treasure and Dirt by Chris Hammer. A crime detective novel. Not my usual style but I’m enjoying this one, set in Australian opal country. Technically listening to it on Audible.
What I’m watching: Just finished Season 4 of Abbott Elementary because I just love it. It’s fun and easy to watch while cooking when not listening to the audiobook above!
