I had a friend visiting recently from Adelaide and she was complaining that Melbourne doesn’t have a lot of great bistros. Not like Rundle Street she said. And I almost agreed with her and I was wrong.

Melbourne does have great cheap bistros. You just have to know where to find them. In Carlton or Fitzroy or St Kilda or South Melbourne or South Yarra.

I mean the Blue Room on Clarendon Street, South Melbourne, is always full. And they serve the best smoked salmon pizza in this town. No doubt.

And there are heaps of other little bistros hidden away like Barolo on Toorak Road. It’s been there for more than twenty years. I lunched there the other day and the biggest, cheapest, seafood risotto, you’d find anywhere.

There’s also Cossi, a favourite of mine which combines a bar and bistro and serious restaurant in one. You can buy a big time meal or sit at the bar and have the best roast chicken and rocket salad on a baguette you’ll find anywhere in town for seven dollars fifty.

And to answer my e-mail guerrillas who say I am a toffy-nosed wanker who only drinks expensive shiraz and only eats at places you cannot afford - let me look at a place in Toorak Road.

It’s called Tomani’s. It’s in South Yarra, not far from Chapel Street. I was drawn to it after a loquacious review in the Age over Summer. From memory the reviewer said that in January deserted husbands - with their wives and kids gone to Lorne and Portsea - ate alone every day at two places. Romeo’s in Toorak and Tamani in South Yarra.

From memory the reviewer raved about the size of the dishes at Romeo’s and the shape of the waitresses breasts. He also said nice things about Tamani’s.

Now I have eaten at Romeo’s for fifteen years and even had a smoked salmon omelette and a side order of lean bacon as recently as yesterday.

But I decided to put a different nosebag on and went to Tamani on Saturday.

Hello! Who serves food this cheap any more? Entrees for nine dollars. Main courses for ten. Who charges only a dollar more for a main course these days?

The lasagna and the tagliatelle specials were only 12 bucks for huge servings.

They have name brand white and red wine for $3.50 and $4.50 a glass. Hello.

Take the whole family there for lunch and come home with change from fifty bucks.

There’s a great anti pasto display in the front and the narrow restaurant has three intimate rooms and a court yard.

It really is a walk back into the Sixties and Seventies at Sixties and Seventies prices.

Sure there are some downers. They serve the chunky Italian bread already buttered - and nobody wants buttered bread any more.

And it is annoying when you quickly decide on the twelve dollar special and its no longer available and they haven’t wiped it off the board. But if you are into traditional big serves of Italian family cooking-then Tamani’s is the place to go.