Archive for June, 2009

Griff’s Wine Pub

Saturday, June 27th, 2009

Another week, another attempt to track down a really great cheap meal experience. We headed down to Griff’s Wine Pub (166 Johnston St, Fitzroy), which offers half priced bar meals on Wednesdays. Plenty of other people were taking advantage of the cheap meals, with most tables in the bar already taken, and the kitchen backed up and not taking orders immediately. This wasn’t ideal, but it was a good sign.

When our orders were taken, I opted for the veal schnitzel with parmesan, lemon and chips, which unfortunately had just sold out. My fallback choice was the Black Angus burger with chips and salad. Despite the wait to order, it didn’t take long for our meals to arrive.

The pattie was thick and juicy, and perfectly cooked. Instead of sauce or relish, it was served with mustard, which gave it an interesting flavour, but left the burger a little dry. The chips were cooked to the right level of crispness, and generous in quantity. At $9, it was great value. Other dishes, including some interesting sounding specials, are priced a little higher, but will still leave you with change from $15.

There are some good local beers available, and an excellent and reasonably priced wine list, including a few by the glass.

Station Hotel

Sunday, June 21st, 2009

Keen pricing, quality food, a good selection of wine and beer, and an emphasis on steak. It’s a winning and surprisingly simple formula, and one that The Station Hotel (59 Napier St, Footscray) has perfected. Mains range from $18 right up to $40, meaning there’s something for all budgets.
I tried the 300g Gippsland grass fed Black Angus sirloin ($28), served rare. It arrived more like medium rare, but that was forgiven as it was an excellent, flavoursome piece of meat, and was served with enormous mounds of chips and a green salad – both of which was excellent.
The dishes ordered by my companions were just as generous, and just as good, judging from the comments. A Farro risotto with local wild mushrooms, porcini and borlotti beans was pub sized, but from all reports, restaurant quality. The grilled Kurobuta pork cutlet with roasted spiced chorizo and kiffler potatoes also looked great.
Desserts are good, but not great. We shared a pavlova and chocolate mousse, the latter being a little heavy on the kirsh for my liking.

Builders Arms Hotel

Thursday, June 18th, 2009

Despite my disappointment with the cheap dinner at the Rochester Castle, I was fairly confident that my half price dinner at the Builders’ Arms Hotel (211 Gertrude St, Fitzroy) was going to be less of a compromise. And it was. I ordered fish and chips, and despite seemingly being downsized to reflect the $11 (normally $22) price tag, particularly the fish fillet, the quality was still there. The fish tasted fresh, and the batter was perfectly crisp.
My girlfriend ordered a beetroot and feta salad ($8), which wasn’t up to the same standard. The feta didn’t to be particularly good quality, and the flavours were not particularly interesting. You can certainly get better at Alimentari down the road for a similar price.
Another thing to watch out for, the half priced offer (Mondays only) only apply to meals priced $22 or less, which rules out some of the more interesting and substantial offerings.

Hausfrau Bakery & Cakes

Sunday, June 14th, 2009

I’ve eaten some good sausage rolls in recent weeks, including one from Babka, and an even better homemade one. So, I had high hopes for the sausage roll I ordered from Hausfrau (32A Ballarat St, Yarraville) – hopes that were dashed. Not only did the sausage roll pale in comparison to those I recently enjoyed, but even judged on its own merits it was a failure.

On initial inspection it certainly looked the part, with nice crispy pastry, but once you cut into the filling it was clear that it was going to be a disappointment. The filling was extremely dense and rubbery, thanks to a lack of vegetables, and the low quality of the meat, making it quite difficult to cut through. Biting into it, the unpleasantness of the texture was even more apparent, and was added to by rather unappealing flavours.

Luckily I had some water and a pretty good coffee to wash it down with. However, next time I think I’ll stick to what, by all accounts, Hausfrau does best, cakes.

El Mirage

Tuesday, June 9th, 2009

It’s a little suprising that El Mirage (349 Lygon St, East Brunswick) hasn’t been the subject of more online reviews. It can’t be due to lack of popularity, as it’s always busy when we visit. Nor can it be the quality of the food, because everything I’ve tried there has been superb.

One of the dishes, The Gringo, is one of my favourite breakfast dishes – not just here, but anywhere. It comprises two perfectly poached eggs, crispy bacon, and some amazing mexican beans. One of the things I like is that, unike some other cafes, they don’t skimp on things like the toast. You get two generous slices.

They also do sweet things well, with the lamingtons, covered in roasted dessicated coconut, being a highlight. Coffee is good, the decor is appealing, service is efficient and friendly, and it’s generally a very pleasant place to be.

Rochester Castle

Saturday, June 6th, 2009

Despite meals at the Rochester Castle (202 Johnston St, Fitzroy) costing just $9, or even less if you take advantage of one of the specials, they’re not particularly great value. Not bad value, just not great value. The servings are quite small, particularly the salads, and there weren’t even many chips with my fish and chips. This would be fine if the meals were of a high quality, but they’re merely ‘okay’.

Given that the Rochester also offers cheap jug deals, I suspect that none of this is really going to matter to who I assume are the Rochester’s target clientele, uni students.

Sausage roll from Babka

Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009

With my Brunswick Street lunch favourite, Alimentari, closed, I decided to head down the street to Babka to try one of their pork and veal sausage rolls. Priced at $7.25 it isn’t what you’d call cheap, but it’s fairly substantial, and like most things at Babka, very tasty. And the price includes delicious house made tomato sauce.

sausage roll from Babka