Goldie Canteen

Ground Floor/399 Little Lonsdale St

Press PLAY below to hear Scorcher’s review on 3AW Breakfast

When it comes to our national cuisine, Australia is a bit of a magpie.

We’ve taken a pick-and-mix, grab-bag approach to food, collecting bits and pieces from various countries and cultures to form this kind of English-European-Asian hybrid that’s lacking its own distinct identity.

But there is one thing we do well. We’re perhaps even gold medallists at it. And that’s the toastie.

Most Aussie kids are raised on the humble toastie – typically cheese, tomato and some kind of processed meat – but everyone has their own DIY variation.

Now, Melburnians wanting to relive their childhood can do so at Goldie Canteen, a new inner-city joint that champions the celebrated after school snack, as well as other Asian bites such as fluffy boas and yum cha.

And here’s the fun part: you can wash down all that delicious, nostalgia-inducing goodness with a boozy bubble tea.

Yes, you heard right: toasties, dumplings, alcoholic teas. Basically, Goldie Canteen is the ultimate tuck shop for adults.

But don’t come to Goldie Canteen expecting your white bread, Kraft Single-style of toastie. Oh no. These bad boys have been pimped and supercharged to new heights.

The pick of the bunch, for me, is the Peking duck toasted sandwich with thin noodles and hoi sin housed in thick sourdough bread.

Also good is a sizeable char siu pork and kimchi toastie, with a nice amount of cheese that locks all the meat and veg in place.

Rounding off the concise menu is a trio of fluffy baos (Szechuan fried eggplant, crispy chicken with kewpie mayo and braised pork belly with mustard greens) and pork and prawn yum cha dumplings.

Come for breakfast and you can wrap your toastie hole around a brekkie bao of Peking duck and scrambled eggs, or and sweet and savoury crepes.

So much like Australia’s cuisine, Goldie Canteen is a hodgepodge of bold, worldly flavours that come together to form something a little special and unique.

Meet you there for after-work snacks.

Goldie Canteen, Ground Floor/399 Little Lonsdale St, Melbourne; goldiecanteen.com.au; toasted sandwiches $14; buns and yum cha $6.5-$12