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.
Station Hotel
June 21st, 2009Builders Arms Hotel
June 18th, 2009Despite 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
June 14th, 2009I’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
June 9th, 2009It’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
June 6th, 2009Despite 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
June 3rd, 2009With 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.
Muttis
May 24th, 2009Only a few tables were occupied when we visited Muttis (118-120 Elgin St, Carlton) on an unseasonably warm Saturday in May. Given that Markov Place, just around the corner, was heaving, it should have been more full. It deserves to be, because it does almost everything well.
Muttis is part bar and part restaurant, and is set up really well to serve these dual purposes. There are a few tables outside in a semi-sheltered space, which I imagine will be popular in summer. Inside, out the front, there’s a moderately sized, tastefully decorated casual dining/drinking space, housing a mix of standard restaurant tables, along with some high, bar-style tables, perfect for drinking. Out the back, there’s a much larger space, full of dining tables.
The style of food is Austrian slanted, with dishes such as goulash, schnitzel and strudel. Don’t let that turn you off, however, as the quality is certainly a cut above some other venues that concentrate on this cuisine, and there’s nary a lederhosen or stein in sight. In addition to the Austrian style dishes, the menu branches out to other parts of Europe.
We tried the goulash, which came a sort of pasta, and the twice cooked ox cheek, which was served with a rich, wine-based sauce and soft polenta. The goulash is fairly traditional, starring the key ingredient of caraway seed, which gives it its very distinctive flavour, and some hot paprika to give it a bit of kick. Likewise, I suspect, the pasta, which has an unusual texture that some may find an acquired taste. Together though, they work really well, and are very well cooked, using good ingredients, and very generously proportioned.
The ox cheek was equally good. Wilted spinach and parmesan sat atop three of four large pieces of cheek were cooked until they could be flaked apart with a fork. The meat, in turn, sat atop soft polenta, which was surrounded by a beatiful, rich red wine sauce.
Both of these very filling dishes were great value, at less than $25 each. A side of perfectly cooked beans in butter and garlic, was much bigger than you might expect for $6.50.
There are 3 or 4 well chosen German beers on tap, including a couple of pilsners and hefeweisens, along with quite a number of bottled beers, and a reasonable wine list.
With a couple of 500ml beers, the bill only added up to around $70, including a tip for the good, and friendly, service. What’s not to like.
The decline of Brunswick Street
May 23rd, 2009I remember somebody writing that Brunswick Street is the new King Street, and walking along there on a Saturday night, it’s hard to with this statement. Sure, there are still some interesting venues and business along the strip, but there are a number of venues that seem to attract a disproportionate number of annoying drunks.
I remember visiting Brunswick Street as a child in the early to mid-80s. In the early 90s, in my early 20s, I spent quite a bit of time there, and already it had changed a lot. Jump forward to 2004, and living near Brunswick Street, it bears little resemblance to the street I remember from 25 years ago.
Brunswick Street jumped the shark some years ago, but I don’t think you can put it down to a single event. Rather, it’s been a gradual slide.
Some of the notable events in the dumbing down of Brunswick Street that I can think of are:
- the opening of 7-11 on the corner of Johnston and Brunswick streets
- the closing of the Punters’ Club
- the opening of generic cafes like Joe’s Garage and Red Tongue
I’m sure there are other events. Can you think of any?
Sally’s Kitchen
May 21st, 2009Situated right on the city fringe, just near where Exhibition Street becomes Rathdown Street, Sally’s Kitchen (295 Exhibition St, Melbourne) is a welcome addition to the CBD lunch dining scene. It’s an attractive, modern looking space, full of dark wood, with a nice balcony out the front which has room for 4 or 5 tables.
The lunch menu is scrawled on blackboards, and includes everything from sandwiches and soup to risottos and fish. Based on the medium, I suspect it changes frequently. It’s supplemented by a range of tasty looking cakes sitting behind a glass display at the front counter.
On this occasion my companions both chose chicken sandwiches ($10) – what looked like poached breast meat in mayo, between rye bread trimmed of crust. From all reports it wasn’t particularly filling, but was tasty. It was a similar tale with the pea and ham risotto that I ordered. Despite arriving rather quickly, it was well made, with the rice and other ingredients having just the right texture, and lots of flavour. At $16 though, given the size it was probably a little more than I would have liked to have paid.
There’s a separate breakfast menu, also written up on a blackboard, which looks to have some interesting options.
While the serving sizes probably preclude me from making this a regular lunch option, next time I’m not feeling particularly hungry and feel like some well made food, I’ll definitely return.
Cafe Di Stasio
May 3rd, 2009It’s a rare occurrence that we venture south of the Yarra, so there has to be a good reason. The recieving of a gift voucher to Cafe Di Stasio (31A Fitzroy St, St Kilda) is one such reason.
Having never been to Di Stasio, I was a little surprised at the small size of the dining room. Despite this, and the proximity of the tables, privacy isn’t an issue on a busy night, as all the conversations of fellow diners tend to blur into one.
The atmosphere is a good balance of casual and formal, so there’s no problem going there in a pair of jeans. Likewise, the service is polished, without being fussy.
However, a restaurant doesn’t get an Age Good Food Guide score of 17 on atmosphere and service alone – the quality of the food is what really counts. For starters we had the spinach and parmesan, and the pasta special, which spaghettini with scallops in a white wine and garlic sauce. These are two very simple dishes, but they were both packed with flavour. The spaghettini may have been slightly overcooked, as it was very clingy.
For mains we had the Agnello Alla Romana and an amatriciana-style Bucantini dish. I can’t comment on the later as I didn’t try any, except to say that it looked very good. The Agnello Alla Romana was fantastic, with the rich white wine, garlic and anchovy-based sauce sticking to the lamb. I only wish the waiter had suggested a side of potatoes, as my dish could have done with some carbohydrate to complement the protein. A side of a mixed green salad was cleansing, but didn’t provide much in the way of carbs.
With a bottle of Leeuwin Estate riesling, the bill came to around $200, to the prices certainly reflect the 17/20 Good Food Guide score, and I wouldn’t exactly call it great value, despite the quality of the food. Next time I wouldn’t mind coming back during the day and trying the lunch special.