This review is for the outdoor cinema experience only...My partner and I checked the experience out New Year's Eve with Cameo's offering of 'Les Miserables'. Patrons sit on striped deck chairs on the lawn behind the boutique cinema complex, and with the use of head phones enjoy the night's fare. As noted on the website we arrived in plenty of time to choose our preferred spot on the lawn. You walk into the cinema, head down the long ramp, towards the back of the complex and descend onto the lawn area using rather scary stairs. Then you make your way up a side alley (and it seems that you're doubling back – surely you could have descended this way) to collect your striped deckchairs and headphones. As we were being handed our headsets we were told to come back and exchange if there were any problems. The headphones carried a lot of static, and the sound varied in quality, sometimes going soft, which you couldn't rectify as turning up the volume would give you more static. I know my partner had the same problem – as one of the first things he asked me was whether I was getting the static. The variance in the sound quality wouldn't have been a big deal if the film wasn't a musical. Sure I could have headed back to the alley and gotten another pair of headphones but chances are they wouldn't have been any different. There seemed to also be too much light coming from the back of the ‘park', causing the film to seem washed out. The train line at the back of the screen, and the passing trains weren't as bothersome, but rather ‘atmospheric'. I must say it wasn't as great an experience as Moonlight Cinema at the Botanical Gardens. I feel now as I need to see the film in a proper cinema to enjoy the music and the action.

Approximate cost: $18.50

I found Jerome extremely knowledgeable, polite and easy listening on the laneways tour. It's like having insider information. But I'm not certain that an overseas visitor would be as interested in the details (for instance that Elizabeth Street was once a creek, or that the painting Chloe inside Young and Jackson Hotel may have been the last thing an enlisting man saw before he left for war, or indeed the history of the missing mace of Parliament). It's Jerome's contention that the details make Melbourne the interesting city it is. I agree, as we don't have the ‘larger' tourist attractions. I'd encourage Melburnians to take this tour because Jerome brings a great deal of insight into the history of our laneways and their meaning for contemporaneous businesses and their everyday patrons. (His word of mouth I feel is a great marketing tool for the businesses that are incorporated in the tour.) As someone from Melbourne I know of the laneways' value, colour, and life and so I wanted to introduce these aspects to my friend who was visiting from overseas but what would incite an overseas visitor to seek out this particular tour on her own? Overall the tour is great value for money and the small tasting of macaron at Lindt's chocolate café and the lunch were also nice touches.

Approximate cost: $49

Lived in the hills for sometime and know that Miss Marples is an establishment though I had not had the chance to sample its fare until I visited with an overseas friend. Big on dairy, which I didn't realize. I ordered a soy latte but my bread and butter pudding arrived with a substantial serving of ice-cream and cream, and very little pudding. Granted I should have had the presence of mind to tell them to go easy with the dairy.But I had no idea since it was my first time. My friend also was not happy with her Vienna coffee, as she couldn't taste the coffee for all the cream. We were hurried along as there were people waiting. Pity as I think this place is about ambience rather than the menu, but one is not allowed to linger, even just a little.

Approximate cost: $18

Had lunch with a couple of friends, one from the hills area, and another from overseas. The service was slow (slower than usual) and when my order did arrive it was the wrong one. I shared my friend's lunch and then gave her my complimentary lunch, which had been made by the manager, to take home.

I was hungry and by the time the first incorrect order came, I was over it. We all felt that we had been waiting too long and it wasn't as if it was really busy. We had our day to get on with and what started as a quick bite to eat, became drawn out. We spent over an hour getting lunch, which was a pide bread with filling! Now how hard can that be. It had been my suggestion to come to the tea-rooms rather than the Kallista Deli and I was left to feel that I'd chosen wrongly.

I was rather miffed with the waitress who seemed more interested in her bad jokes (the food was 'sun-baking' and it seemed that she would have preferred to be away from the cafe sun-baking too) than in excellent customer service.

Approximate cost: $14