Sunday, 5 August 2007

fringe

We stumbled upon St.Kilda for lunch yesterday, after an initial plan in Elsternwick fell through (and completely! Why is that place not opened on Saturdays, WHY and no one told me that?!) - so Sis took a detour and we ended up in St.Kilda. Sooo many cafes at the Esplanade. We were by the so hungry we could eat a cow (230PM) so when Alf suggested a place he had been to before - fringe - there were no complaints from the rest of us.

fringe without a capital F.

Inside of fringe

Through a hole through the wall.

We were seated by a VERY SUNNY window and no kidding on the VERY SUNNY (so photos were a bit weird in light). Soon we were roasting but at least not freezing (no, I don't know what is the better alternative really). Anyway, we ordered drinks to start off with - lattes for me, Alf and San and a lemon-lime bitter for Sis.

See the little heart-shape ♥ in Alf's coffee? Cool right? Someone's in love with Alf!

San's large latte, $3.30

We ordered a Pumpkin Salad ($13.00) to share.

Pumpkin among the greens!

Heart this salad!

Gotta say it was a huge hit with all of us. The salad was really nicely put together with pumpkin, an array of greens, walnuts and feta cheese. The pumpkin was gorgeous - sweet and tender and pumpkin-y to the bite. It went really well with the green veggies and the slightly bitter quality of the walnuts. Also the cheese was tops. If not I will be sad face because I really truly do love cheese like the Real and Self-Respecting Mouse I am.

Sis had the Braised Lamb ($19.000).

Lamby-kins thingie.

It was cooked with root vegetables and Sis especially liked the radish-like thing. She thought it was good, and it was cooked to the right tenderness. It was also pleasing to her that there was enough gravy to soak everything in. Sis is big on gravy, she is. At times.

Both me and San had the Morrocan Lamb Foccacia ($9.00). I want to say here that I ordered it FIRST and San was a copy-sun. Yeah.

Lamb sandwich ahoy.

I think I am thoroughly satisfied with it. The bread was really crusty and soft on the inside, and the mint yoghurt went well with the lamb. Loads of veggies (spinach leaves) as well to balance out the meat. The lamb is just a little dry in my opinion, but nothing too bad. San thought the lamb was good but there was too little of it in the foccacia. Fortunately, Sis got rid of some lamb fats and tenders and San topped up her sandwich with those and satisfaction immediately increased by 50%, haha. And I quote her, "Thank you MM for the fatty lamb!". And again, NO, she is not fat, the woman is stick-thin (life is so unfair, I know).

Alf had the Grilled Chicken Burger ($15.00).

Chicken and Chips.


It was an enormous portion and Alf didn't finish the chips. He was generally satisfied with his burger, found the chicken to be grilled to his liking and quite fragrant and flavourful but he was wrinkling his nose at the price. A little too expensive, he reckoned.

Anyway, fringe is a quite a funky sort of cafe, I think. Menu was pretty extensive - bread/foccacias, greek tapas, western-styled mains and pastas, plus bevy of salads. I think price is quite reasonable on the whole although a few items here and there are a bit pricey. Generally a good dining experience but the sun beating down on our backs and blinding poor Alf took away some of the fun. :( And it was RAINING today. Crazy Melbourne weather.

- Mouse

**EDIT: San added a few pics & for the yum-cha post as well**
------

fringe
73 Acland Street
St Kilda 3182
Phone: (03) 9663 1555

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

St Kilda has lots of restaurants and just hard to choose which one to go in as we haven't been to many n just hav to try out luck =D if anyone got any recommendation for restaurants in St Kilda, pls yell out.

n have to say the pumpkin salad is v satisfying and also dipping the biscotti into my latte is just de-li-cious!

San

New Kid on the Blog said...

yummy food and nice pics.... looking at the latte, I can imagine it tastes good. what a name, ... fridge!

Truffle said...

Your photos are absolutely brilliant! Very impressive :)

Ali-K said...

I agree with truffle, the photos are great. It might have made for uncomfortable dining but the light also gave excellent snaps.

Acland St can be a bit of a gamble can't it. Veludo and Dogs Bar have never failed me in the past.

mouse said...

San,

Yup, the pumpkin was definitely tops. And I had the most HAHAAHAHAHA.

~

Hi new kid!

Thanks for dropping by and the latte was quite good! One of the better coffees, definitely.

~

Hi truffle,

Thank you ;) We're still trying to improve on the angles though!

~

Hi ali-k,

Thanks so much! And yeah, we purposely choose a window seat for photo purposes...but the sun ended up being a little too much. x.x

Thanks for the rec on Veludo and Dogs Bar...will definitely check it out!

Anonymous said...

Me would love some latte now. IN fact, photos should look good when there is light but but but...I think the "glass" holding the latte is the culprit! :p

IronEaters said...

hi tigerfish. The latte was pretty good. and yea pics should look good when there is light but i think mayb tt day the rays are too strong when we are taking some of the pics...=P

San

Serenity Later said...

Large latte $3.30???? That's the price of a regular latte in canberra. If you want a large it will set you back >$4...i think its fair to say that melbourne rules all aspects of food incl. the most important: price of coffee

oh yes, btw very nice pix! esp. the one of the lamb sandwich, *drool* wish i had one now!

IronEaters said...

hi serenity later, yea..normally large coffee is more expensive. this is my first time to get such price for a large latte too in Melbourne =D *happy* the lamb sandwich is good and i also wish i had one now...

San