What would Martha do?: Lunch at Ramen Ya & a Day Out in Melbourne

I feel like I've been eating a lot of Japanese food lately. For me a lot probably isn't the same as it is for you, since I barely ever eat it - I do love it but just don't get the chance to eat it that often. And now in the last month I've had Japanese 3 times in 4 weekends. I caught up with my friend Sam over this weekend and she suggested we try out Ramen Ya in GPO. It's actually in the small laneway between GPO and Myer, closer to the Little Bourke St end.

This is the view back inside the restaurant from our table outside. There's only a few seats inside and the rest are outside - we didn't mind this, as despite being a cold day we were quite protected and warm where we were.

As you can tell by the name the GPO was originally Melbourne's main Post Office. The beautiful old building has now been converted into a mini retail complex with designer stores and restaurants. There's still some reminders of the buildings past, including this sign 'beware of motor cars' which I love.

We both decided to get a ramen set which was great value for $14. We started off with a green tea in these cute little mugs.

This (horribly taken) photo shows you the rest of the meal that we had. We both decided to have the ramen with pork broth which had beautiful pieces of pork in it that literally melted in your mouth. And on the side you got three crispy and very delicious pork gyoza.

For dessert we decided to stop by a shop called Cacao in the centre of GPO that we'd both spotted earlier. We're both a big fan of macaron's so couldn't resist! I just love the bright colours and interested flavours you can get. Look at those beautiful red, white and blue ones (French Vanilla).

These are the two that I chose - I can't resist Salted Caramel and I was intrigued by the Chocolate Peanut Butter flavour. They're $2.50 each and both tasted wonderful - especially the Salted Caramel which I'm partial to.

Afterwards we went for a wander - it's amazing how far you can get when you're deep in conversation with a good friend. I love the different types of buildings you see around Melbourne.