St Ali

(26/4/12)

Birthday Treat ..... off to try out St Ali in South Melbourne. Have read & heard so much about this place. Lets just say St Ali trades on its very good reputation as you may find it a little tricky to find! Very minimal signage on the outside of the cafe & its tucked down a fairly nondescript side street that runs parallel to Clarendon Street.

 Half expecting to have trouble getting a table, but surprised by the size of the cafe, lots of tables of varying sizes,

including long multi person ones & smaller ones tucked in alcoves in the entrance way. Greeted by friendly staff seated, coffees & freshly squeezed apple juice ordered, water (small glasses!)

 & funky menus supplied. 

House Blend - Cult of Done! ($4)

Fresh Apple Juice ($8)

Decision time, the menu is a bit of a mix of Breakfast/Brunch & Lunch, from Breaking Bread ... (Dench, Chimmys & Alasya sourdough/ Wood fired pide/Wholegrain/Brioche/Gluten-free/Fruit Loaf) w St Kilda roof top honey/ vegemite/ peanut butter or house made jam. To Tribute to B.Cooper (Chinchin) - Roasted pork belly salad with betle leaf, wombok, coriander, Vietnamese mint, roasted peanuts & pickled carrot! With lots in between, Magic Mushrooms, Eating with Salvatore, Meredith, Mr Girello, Happy Ending, Lola Berry one & two, & Steak Sanga to name but a few, best to google cafe and check out descriptions on their menu, it will make you hungry looking at the choices :-)

My Mexican Cousin ($18.5)

This tasted as good as it looks, secret recipe corn fritters, fresh baby spinach, haloumi and kasundi with poached or fried eggs. Poached was the choice of diner one and everything was cleared from his plate. Extremely tasty was the verdict.

Omega Love ($18.5)

This was my choice and I was not disappointed, Pastrami style smoked salmon, poached egg, crunchy kipfler potatoes and seeded mustard mayonnaise.  I added some bacon as a birthday treat. The salmon was very fresh and the combination with the kipfler potatoes worked really well. Another winner.

From Chickens with Love ($10.5) + ($4)

Eggs any way, choice was scrambled with addition of Istra Bacon on pide, other choice was sourdough. The scrambled eggs were very tasty and a decent serve, and he particularly liked them on the pide.

Seems to be a lot of fairly happy staff working here, one of which cleared our plates but didn't ask if we wanted any other drinks !!!!!! ...... but another happy female came past almost immediately and asked the question .... confidence restored :-)  St Ali roasts coffee on site & you can see the roaster in action from your table, it looked like a labour of Love!