Simple, sensational, $6.50

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Parotta Station, 28A Millers Road, Brooklyn. Phone: 9314 9934

At Parotta Station, you’ll be served south Indian food.

So anyone even passingly familiar with the west’s many dosa joints – or even its Sri Lankan places – will feel right at home.

There’s string hoppers, a simple dosa offering, the chopped bread dish that is kothu – along with things of broader Indian outlook such as lamb and chicken kormas, biryanis and a small range of Indo-Chinese dishes.

But the proprietor has some twists going on here very much down to his home state of Tamil Nadu.

Most emphatically, they come in the form of the eponymous parotta, a version of the eternal flatbread.

In this case, the bread is lovingly moulded into a scroll before being fried, the result being a marvellous, magical and flaky experience.

Parotta Station serves them in a variety of ways, including egg-stuffed ($3.50), two of which we take away for Bennie’s next-day school lunch.

 

 

But the big hit for us is the combo named “parotta with saalna” ($6.50).

Two standard, fresh and sublime parotta.

A salted fried egg.

And a generous tub of coconut/tomato curry gravy. We’re told this is meat-based to the extent it uses a mutton stock as part of the base. I’m sure it’d be no problem to have it substituted by  the potato or mixed vegetable dishes on offer.

How good is this?

Right up there.

We’d rate this as good a cheap eat as can be found and rank it right alongside the very best to be had at banh mi or dosa establishments anywhere.

 

 

These look like plump ginger cookies.

They’re not.

Shamiyan ($11.50) are patties made of lentils and lamb mince that taste and feel of neither.

They have a very mild spice kick and are very dry; we happily dip them in the curry gravy served with our parotta.

They’re an interesting experience, but not one that completely bowls us over.

 

 

Aatu kaal paya ($12.50) is a stew of lamb trotters.

Forget any ideas of similarity to pork hocks or even lamb shanks.

The most precise comparison here is with chicken feet – there’s no meat whatsoever, just various shards and lumps of random glutinous material.

So not everyone’s cup of tea – obviously!

But if you are hip to Chinese-style chicken feet, go right ahead.

But at Parotta Station, parotta are the main go.

We reckon we’ll be inhaling that “parotta with saalna” combo many times in the coming year.

Parotta Station is on Uber for those in appropriate postcodes and is closed on Tuesdays.

 

61 thoughts on “Simple, sensational, $6.50”

      • not fan of their pasta,though new somali kitchen makes good one now,but I’m keep coming back for their rice meat.had takeaway camel milk from house of mandi,weird delicious tasty!

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      • Oh ok.the staff are gorgeous africans,the food is similar to little african on subway corner. We had the whole chicken there Friday.really tasty

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      • Tried many Arabian mandi rice.that flemington place is somali,or taste more somali, its unique flavor.my husband who is expert on this food with his travels recon that flemington one is one of the best mandi. the people serve us r all african & husband says they are somali

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      • I think they platted a little different to its traditional somali neighbors,they probably platted yemeni.husband says its somali.but these countries may have crossover

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  9. Ms matt i am somali,the food is somali house of mandi but some are yemeni but not many.i agree their presentation is yemeni so your husband is correct

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  10. Had home delivery from somali dish @ the quiet man Irish pub ,delicious. But think they do only surrounding suburbs of flemington like north melbourne footscray ascot vale

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    • Very good review! Ahmed qahira a good man.i hope you enjoyed the plate. That plate looks smaller in photo, its big dish.very good review!

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    • Their food is getting better&better. More soul dishes available chicken /shanks if like it.very good review & impressive,man who knows soul!

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      • I did search engine of his blog, he did many afro reviews in flemington area,they look good but not many large-space cafes but the somali community in uk is much older ,much smaller than uk somali cafes.is he Australia the guy running this blog?great style his reviews

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      • On his blog Click menu then click “about considerthesauce ” his story is there,its kind born out from lack reviews on west side of melbourne.he is also been to America,he could be dual American,he kinda went “me against the world” American version with his son in wild wild side to fight for Westside melbourne representation in highlighted mode.movie itself

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  17. Watch out when he puts hat on table, food better be good haha.very cute father &son. He is right west is best.very good energy when run to our unmarked somsli plce.

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