Shop 1/19 Homer St, Moonee Ponds. Phone: 9372 7569

There are times when Puckle St, Moonee Ponds, and surrounds can seem like a foodie playground rich with potential.

There are others when it conveys to us something of a profound mediocrity, even during a bustling Saturday lunch hour.

The latter is the case for us in this instance, with the joint we had specifically set out to try closed and others surveyed while wandering around offering little by way of inspiration.

Always, though, the Consider The Sauce team is willing to embrace with fervour the splendid concept of the silver lining.

So it is that we finally chow down at a place we had previously passed by on numerous occasions.

If our typical Turkish kebab shop meal doesn’t quite match the lofty heights of our favourite, it does the job, the price is very right and we’ll visit again in a heartbeat if we are in the area and looking for a cheap, tasty feed.

We had already survived the folly of shopping on empty stomachs, filling up on the makings for a big pot of minestrone and the related but different ingredients for an even bigger pot of chicken stock at Fresh On Young.

Unsurprisingly, though, our appetites are humming as we head for lunch.

The fare is very basic at Moonee Ponds Kebab House – only four dips, and the pides seem pricey at $7.

We settle on the lamb-off-the-spit platter with red capsicum and the cacik/yogurt/cucumber dips, with two stuffed vine leaves on the side at 90 cents each.

The vine leaves themselves are somewhat on the chewy side, and a little bitter, too. But the rice innards are excellent and lemony.

The bread is fresh and warm, and the dips lacking character and zing, though perfectly adequate for the job at hand.

The lamb and the salad are top-notch. In fact, at $12 and of a size more than ample to feed the pair of us, the lamb platter is an outright winner, especially given that we know of other such establishments where such is going for $14 and more.

The layered lamb is fresh, not too greasy, a little on the crunchy side and has the lip-smacking, salty tang so essential to this genre of tucker.

The salad – not tabouli – is ultra-fresh and crunchy.

Meat, salad, dips, two stuffed vine leaves and a can of that Coca Cola stuff? The fee of $15.80 is a super dooper bargain, and the service is smilingly friendly.

Heading somewhat aimlessly home, we stop at Crumbs Organic Bakery in Ascot Vale for cafe latte, hot chocolate and a shared and stupendously moist chunk of chocolate brownie, along with three or four hands of Uno, at which Bennie bests his father through his usual means – cheating. (Just kidding!)

Bennie has had school holiday rugby-free Saturday, but we make another stop on the way home to watch some of the Footscray big boys run around. Thankfully, the lad is sufficiently stuffed and has a ball hooning with some of his teammates that we depart knowing the burgers and egg-and-bacon sangers can await blogging coverage on a future game day.