Tag Archives: Yarraville
Yarraville eats goss 12/8/16
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Pizza d’Asporto is coming to Yarraville.
The crew behind the cool Williamstown pizza/pasta/good vibes eatery and Kiosk by d’Asporto is opening a second store in the old post office next to the Sun Theatre.
A full-on fit-out is in progress.
This lovely old brick building has been the location of several unsuccessful businesses in recent years, most recently – in the space to be inhabited by Pizza d’Asporto – by a frozen yogurt joint.
But I reckon this new venture will rock, especially given the big, inviting raised patio area.
Cafe Fidama is no more.
After being bought by the crew from Seddon Japanese gem Ajitoya a few months back, the new owners have decided it’s time to move on.
A fit-out is under way that will see the premises become what is described on the Ajitoya FB page as “Japanese Bar Dining”.
More details as they come to hand but expect a launch in about a month with a spring/summer menu.
The Anderson Street venue that was home for many years to the boutique Marita’s is becoming Yarraville’s first dedicated kebab shop.
OK, this is at the fast-food end of the spectrum, but we reckon it’s welcome news nevertheless – rounding out the village’s eating options in the same way the arrival of two very good Vietnamese restaurants has done.
I understand those behind the new business have Greek roots.
Meanwhile, we can now officially stop speculating about what kind of cafe and/or eatery is eventually going to move into the ground-floor premises of the St George Theatre apartment complex.
That space is now home to a pilates outfit.
Yarraville Thai
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BlueStone Thai, 58 Ballarat Street, Yarraville. Phone: 9689 0110
It seems like a lifetime ago …
Pre-blog, and before taking up our now long-time residency in Yarraville.
I recall visiting the venerable bluestone building in Ballarat Street when it was still a pub and had something of a name for steak and chips.
After that it became Dig A Pony, which we never got around to before it folded a few months back.
Now it houses BlueStone Thai and we’re up for it.
Having scoped out the menu online, I have no expectations of anything too adventurous or regionally based or unusual, like we might find up the road apiece at Yim Yam.
But that’s OK – just some nice, straight-up orthodox Thai will do us fine.
That’s exactly what we get.
The dining room is all dark-wooded niceness and warmed up on a chilly night.
The service is very good.
Chicken satay ($9.90) is excellent, four sticks bearing thigh meat perfectly cooked and served with a runny peanut sauce.
Mildly spicy green curry ($14.90) is a good-sized serve stuffed with plenty of meat pieces and vegetables.
Basil chilli stir fry with pork ($14.90) is likewise mild, by our standards, and also rather good.
Two bowls of rice cost us $5 and the total bill is an excellent $44.70.
BlueStone Thai seems likely to have found a nifty niche – serving the kind of Thai food in which many punters delight and away from the frequently nutty crush and madness of the Ballarat/Anderson streets nexus.
On the way home on this Friday night, we witness Anderson Street absurdly gridlocked for blocks in both directions either side of train tracks – and with not a train in sight.
Tip-top Vietnamese in Yarraville
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Hoa Sen, 8 Anderson Street, Yarraville. Phone: 9078 5448
Well, that was certainly quick …
Consider The Sauce has become used to new eateries taking an eternity to reach fruition – stop-and-start fit-outs, the legal need for more loos, booze licence problems, proprietors doing it all themselves; there are any number of reasons.
Hoa Sen has gone about things very differently.
One day Yarraville had a Nando’s shop, the next day it didn’t; then – just a few weeks later – this second Vietnamese restaurant for our suburb had opened.
Hoa Sen is a whole different thing from Friend or Pho, its Viet cousin around the corner in Ballarat Street.
Where the latter is all about groovy cafe-style, Hoa Sen is straight-up Vietnamese eatery – sit inside and you could be sitting in Footscray, Sunshine or St Albans.
But they both have excellent food.
Hoa Sen’s front area is all about seating, including some larger tables and street-gazing seats at the window.
Past the serving/staff area, the kitchen takes up much of what is left of the premise’s space, so the rest of the customer seating is effectively in a long corridor with many tables for four.
We’re told the menu (see below) will gradually expand but in the meantime there four starter and four main dishes available.
And that’s fine by us – taking a new Vietnamese place for a spin is always going to be about trying the fundamentals, both by choice and because it’s the food blogger thing to do.
Bennie loves his com ga rang mui ($13.80, rice with salt and pepper chicken spare ribs).
The chooks bits are big, fat and delicious, with a whiff of garlic – they seem more like whole wings rather than the abbreviated version.
The trimmings are all good and the tomato rice better than that.
Ahh, that first, all-important slurp of pho ($12.80) broth – yes, this is very good, a little sweet and with bucketloads of lusty flavour.
Instead of brisket I get beef ball chunks; and the sliced beef is cooked through when it arrives rather the advertised rare and still cooking in the broth.
But I care not – this is excellent; a 9/10 pho.
Be warned, though: This serve is huge – no way I can eat it all.
This could pass muster as a sharing meal for two, especially if combined with one of the entrees.
Is there room for both these fine Vietnamese restaurants in Yarraville?
Yes, very much so.
It almost seems like the people behind both have intuitively chosen different yet complementary styles.
Yet the important things are common to both – terrific food and happy, smiling staff.
We’ve been quipping for years that we love living in Yarraville but dig eating everywhere else.
The arrival of these two Vietnamese joints changes that equation considerably.
They’re scratching a profound itch of which we’ve paradoxically been largely unaware.
Westie eats goss 7/4/16
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The premises that housed the now-closed Nando’s outlet on Anderson Street in Yarraville is to be a Vietnamese eatery.
The windows remain papered over but the signage is up!
Around the corner on Ballarat Street, the wonderful Friend or Pho has extended its opening hours.
It’s now open for lunch and dinner on Thursdays, with Wednesday the only non-opening day.
Over in Brooklyn, Dosa Palace is open at 28A Millers Road.
I dropped in on opening day for a very nice masala dosa – the potato stuffing was particularly memorable.
Unlike its WeFo sister restaurant, Hyderabad Inn, it’s a low-key cafe-style place but will, I’m sure, do the locals just fine.
A Vietnamese star in Yarraville
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Friend or Pho, 3 Ballarat Street, Yarraville. Phone: 9042 4431
A Vietnamese eatery for Yarraville?
A dose cynicism is warranted, I reckon.
For starters, Yarraville is a very mixed bag when it comes to Asian food – some good, some lacklustre, some already forgotten.
And then there’s the syndrome of funky Asian food moving into pretty places in trendy suburbs.
Isn’t it often the case that doing so results in higher prices, smaller portions and a diminuation of the heart – spicy soul, edgy flavours, call it what you will – that makes such food so very attractive?
What chance a really fabulous bowl of pho in downtown Yarraville?
And away from Footscray, Sunshine or St Albans – where numbers and competition ensure a very high standard?
In the case of Friend or Pho, the punny name is even based on mispronunciation.
A good sign is the gorgeous, larger-than-life, hand-written menu we have spied on the joint’s Facebook page – it’s all in Vietnamese.
But even then – banh mi is listed at $9.
Whoa!
That’s twice the going rate in Footscray.
Happily, things take a delightful turn towards dispelling our skepticism as soon as we enter and broach the price of that banh mi.
The answers we get run variously along the lines of …
“It’s just really good!”
“We make our own pickles and it’s got our own pork crackling!”
Even better, we soon learn that the sisters behind Friend or Pho – Anna (out front) and Chelsea (in the kitchen) – are lifelong, born-and-bred Yarravillians.
Indeed, about 15 years ago their parents ran a bakery on Anderson Street (corner of Buninyong Street, where the fancy cake makers now live).
Friend or Pho IS done out in very cool cafe style.
There’s seating inside, in the hallway and outside on the verandah.
The menu (see below in both English AND Vietnamese) runs through a tight line-up of mostly familiar dishes.
So how do we go on our first visit?
Oh my – it’s difficult to contain my enthusiasm.
This is simply great Vietnamese food – as good as any going around in the western suburbs and way better than most.
The wait times are appropriate for such great food and prices – banh mi aside – are in the regular ball park.
Beef pho ($12) is wonderful – and about medium size when compared to Footscray places that do the small-medium-large routine.
The broth is terrific and a bit salty (just as I like it).
And there’s a lot of beef in that bowl – sliced but cooked through and brisket.
All the accessories are fresh and top rate.
Bennie’s com tam ($13) is similarly excellent.
All the porky bits display in-house care and handiwork.
The meat loaf is peppery perfection and the pork chop is the most tender and beautifully cooked we have had with this dish.
He cleans his plate of the lot – including those gorgeous sweet pickle strands.
So fine is our Saturday lunch that we have no hesitation about returning on the Sunday to continue the joyful process of working our way through the Friend or Pho menu.
Bennie’s go ran of six fried chicken ribs costs ostensibly $9 but can be padded out with rice for $4 to make a more complete meal.
As with everything else we try at Friend or Pho, the ribs are state of the art – crisp, hot and delicious.
For $13, a few slices of cucumber or segments of tomato would bring this dish more into line with its fellow menu items in terms of portion size and value.
Just for the sake of variety and journalism, I choose the vegetarian pho ($12).
This is unlike any dish you’ll get at Footscray’s sole dedicated Vietnamese vegetarian eatery or at the Vietnamese temple in Brabrook – there’s little by way starch here and no mock meat.
Instead, the heft and texture is delivered by tofu and a super range of mushrooms – delightfully meaty in their own way.
The broth is so flavoursome that I feel obliged to make sure it’s not made with chicken bones or some such.
Nope.
It’s made with the usual vegetables and shitake mushrooms.
Again – simply wonderful!
I reckon this will become known as one of Melbourne’s great vegetarian dishes.
Another prediction – friend or Pho is destined to be hit.
If it’s not already.
Friend or Pho is open for dinner every night of the week except Wednesday and Thursday. It is open for lunch on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
And breakfasts are coming.
The very idea of being able to imbibe a bowl of steaming hot world-class pho on a Monday night without getting in the car fills me with glee.
Check out the Friend or Pho Facebook page here.
Yarraville eats goss 11/2/16
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George from Andrew’s Choice is always smiling.
That’ll never change.
Even though he tells me that after quite a lot of to-ing and fro-ing with council officialdom, the prospects of the much-loved Saturday snag stall outside Andrew’s on Anderson Street getting a new life are … well, not good.
Not good at all.
Around the corner on Ballarat Street, the Younger Sun bookshop has moved to 26 Murray Street, almost looking straight down Ballarat towards Francis.
The former Younger Sun premises on Ballarat will, I’ve been told, be taken over by the Cornershop for expansion purposes of some kind.
Jasmine Inn, on the corner of Ballarat and Anderson, has been closed since late October.
The sign in the window says “for renovations” … but the place does not look anything like being in reno mode, with an unloved look and mail unattended.
The long-running but never wildly popular Nando’s branch on Anderson Street has closed.
Two village sources tell me that franchisee/management team was there one day and literally all gone the next.
One of my sources tells me the place has been leased with a view to opening a Vietnamese or Korean restaurant.
If the former is the case, the new tenants will certainly want to be aware that a new pho/coffee joint will soon be opening at 3 Ballarat Street, right opposite the old, brick post office.
The chook burger wins
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Manok, 351 Somerville Road, Yarraville. Phone: 9315 1440
As previously reported right here on CTS, Manok replaces the long-standing chook shop on Somerville Road on the small shopping strip at that road’s intersection with the Princes Highway.
Team CTS has visited twice now and had enjoyable meals on both occasions.
But we recommend keeping expectations in check.
Even with the new Manok crew on deck, this remains a chicken shop – albeit with a few twists – and fast food is the go.
The service is fine and we love and applaud that our in-house meals are served on enamelled plates with metal cutlery attending, though takeaway customers get styrofoam.
Our biggest hit by far is the chicken burger ($10, top photograph).
Bennie orders this and I’m envious.
He loves every mouthful.
It’s a simple thing – pulled roast chicken mixed with house-made peanut sauce and placed between the bun bookends with coleslaw.
How good does it look?
This is the sort of creation that could see Manok develop a bit of cult and end up on lists.
The chips ($3.50) that come with Bennie’s sandwich are fine, fresh and hot.
That makes them a step above those that accompanied my burger on an earlier visit – these were just OK.
The beef burger ($10, $1 extra for bacon) was pretty handy, too.
Much better than you’d routinely get in chicken shops across the city, though I did wish for a bit more charred beef flavour.
And the chicken?
There’s a choice of two – regular and lemon grass.
Both CTS pal Marnie and I go for the latter, with the above-pictured half chook and salad costing $12.90.
I find it enjoyable but a bit average.
I’d like a bit more flavour oomph from the chook – I end up wishing I’d ordered the regular and got the crusty, salty taste explosion that goes with old-school chicken shop poultry.
The Greek salad is acceptable.
But with this sort of chicken in this sort of setting, I’d much prefer to have a good coleslaw on hand.
Marnie is a long-time reader of CTS and we’ve been working towards actually meeting up for some time – sometimes these things can take a while!
She has filed the following:
“Hey Kenny, thanks for inviting me to help check out the place. It was lovely to meet you both. The chook was good but I think I needed some sort of dipping sauce to go with it. Something traditionally Filipino would be ace. Paying for nearly $3 (!) for gravy is a bit insulting IMO … I still think I prefer Pier Street charcoal chicken shop in Altona in terms of juiciness, tastiness and value for money though.“
Nice to meet you, too!
Meal of the week No.24: Woven
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Can a shake be a meal?
A case for the affirmative can certainly be with the Green Tea Mega Shake made with pride at Woven.
It’s not on the menu at the Yarraville establishment (175b Stephen Street) so you need to ask.
One of these babies costs $15.
The ingredients?
Hello Gello vanilla ice cream
Nutella
Green tea KitKat
Kenko matcha tea
A doughnut
Milk
Double matcha cream
House matcha soil
Matcha shortbread biscuit
The verdict?
Hmmm, not bad.
I like that it’s not cloyingly sweet.
The green tea thing is definitely interesting.
Definitely an experience worth pursuing by westside foodies.
At least once.
We were tipped to this mega project by Consider The Sauce reader and friend Bazoo.
His supposed partner in crime failed to make it so he “did” the whole thing himself, bringing on a bout of self-flagellating self-loathing that almost tipped him over the edge.
The Green Tea Mega Shake?
It’s a sharing thing.
Sunday pub roasts? We have a winner.
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Railway Hotel, 35 Anderson Street, Yarraville. Phone: 9687 2034
Sunday roast lunches at pubs – $10, $15, $20, $25?
Do you get what you pay for?
As far as we know, the Spottiswoode Hotel continues to offer a grand $10 deal on Sundays.
Others we know of in the inner deliver offer $20+ offerings.
This Sunday, Bennie gives up on his desire for Vietnamese tomato rice in the face of his dad’s determination to go roast.
We first head for a certain Williamstown pub we believe now has $15 roast lunches on the menu, but on arrival we discover they will not start until the following weekend.
Plan B is return home, park the car and walk to our local, the Railway Hotel, which has been advertising $18.50 Sunday roasts – sort of a middle ground price-wise , with two kinds of meat on offer.
Will it be worth the extra dollars?
We pay, get our number and wait.
Bennie chooses the pork.
I try a mouthful.
Perhaps unsurprisingly it’s dry but – good stuff – tender enough.
But it IS full of strong, good piggy flavour.
The crackling is a tad salty but all of it is crisp and a joy to eat.
One pub manager has told me it’s simply impossible in regards to power bills to serve roast veggies at these sorts of prices.
That I don’t mind.
The spud is roasted and herbed and very good.
The beans, broccoli and carrots may be steamed but they are wonderful – cooked more than al dente and perfect.
I select the roast beef (top photograph).
It’s fabulous.
It appears to be smothered in good gravy.
But as it turns out there is just enough gravy – and only just enough – to support the meat.
I am served three slices that are just shy of half an inch thick.
The meat is tender and tastes grand.
It breaks apart in strands that I more familiar with from dining on brisket at BBQ joints.
This is new and wonderful territory for me when it comes to roast beef.
There is so much of it, I keep offering Bennie hefty chunks even as I close in on the final slice.
“I can’t eat it all, mate!”
“That’s because you aren’t manly enough …”
I am on a serious food high as we skip down the street for some sugar and spice from our fave ice-cream joint.
The Railway Hotel Sunday roasts have convinced me that sometimes, at least, you do get what you pay for.
And it’s still a bargain.
Yarraville Mexican better
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Village Cantina, 30 Ballarat Street, Yarraville. Phone: 9689 8000
It’s been six months since Consider The Sauce’s first visit to the then newly opened Village Cantina in Yarraville.
I’m happy to return, especially as Bennie has yet to do so and it fits right in with our mid-week nothing-planned-for-dinner situation.
Without intending to make such a direct comparison to that first visit, we end up ordering two items had on that occasion – and it’s something of a revelation.
First though we start with “street style chargrilled corn” with chipotle mayo, queso fresco and lime ($5).
Our single serve cut in two lasts all of about five seconds.
It’s yummy but oh-so-very small!
Bennie’s beef burito ($14) is a big step up from the same item ordered by me on that initial visit.
This is much more deftly done with none of the solid if enjoyable stodginess I experienced.
The filling has very nice shredded beef and there’s salsa, sour cream and guacamole on the side.
But the real eye-opener is the nachos ($13).
I’m not sure why I order this, as nachos can so often veer between acceptable bar/snack food for sharing and a gloopy, unappetising mess.
The new-look Village Cantina nachos has real good melted cheese, guacamole, black beans and salsa in great profusion atop a big mound of good corn chips.
But this nachos is lifted to a whole ‘nuther level by the fabulous strips of grilled chicken that have tremendous flavour and a bit of a cajun thing going on.
It’s the best nachos I’ve ever had.
There’s so much of it – and its tastes so good – I’m happy to fully share with Bennie once he’s done with his burrito.
Heck, it’d make a fine light meal for two!
A prize-winning lunch
1 CommentErika won our guest post contest with a wonderful piece of writing that touched people – read it here.
Now she’s done it again, finding that taking her family to Woven to enjoy their prize lunch evokes all sorts of fabulous family foodie memories.
She’s a star!
By Erika Jonsson
When my sisters and I were young, Mum used to let us choose the menu for our birthday dinners.
The options were endless. Would it be pasta, Sichuan-style chicken, oyster beef or tacos?
Roast pork with crackling, chicken with lemongrass or wonton soup?
My mouth still waters thinking about it.
Funnily enough, my younger sister and I always chose the same dish, albeit with different sides.
Trish picked steamed vegetables (which I still find odd) while I chose corn and twice-cooked chips.
The meat was schnitzel – usually veal – that was succulent and tender, crumbed to perfection and fried
just long enough to cook through.
It was heaven.
Year after year our menu remained unchanged.
When I was 14 and nine months old, I started working at a toyshop on Friday nights and Saturday mornings.
My family lived out of town, so my little part-time job meant spending the night at my grandparents’ place.
They had immigrated to Australia from England when my mum was a child, and
Grandma’s cooking was Britain’s finest.
Pork pie, battered fish, Yorkshire pud, roast anything.
The only herbs I remember in her kitchen cupboard were salt, pepper and season-all.
Everything she cooked was simple but so tasty.
On Fridays before I started work, Grandma would cook big fat pork schnitzels with chips and corn – my favourite meal.
While the meat was the star of the show, the chips were really my favourite.
Potato in any form was welcome on my plate – with a combination of English and Swedish heritage, that’s probably no surprise.
My love for potatoes led to disaster when I left home and headed to the big smoke to study.
I’d been led to believe a fast metabolism was the reason for my then slim figure.
Well, my metabolism and I both got lazy at uni – and I put on about a dozen kilos by eating twice-cooked chips for dinner around five nights a week.
The day my knee-high boots wouldn’t zip up properly, I swore off chips, lost most of my potato weight and gave away my deep fryer.
Since then, chips have only been an occasional indulgence – a special return to my youthful addiction.
Last week I came as close as I ever have to ordering chips as a main when my family went to Woven in Yarraville for lunch.
And that was after I had already eaten my main.
My meal was a perfectly modern re-imagining of my favourite childhood dish.
The pork tonkatsu burger was made up of a juicy pork loin crumbed in panko inside a brioche bun with house-pickled daikon, Kewpie mayo sauce and a cabbage and fennel slaw.
Right next door to the burger was a generous serve of hand-cut chips, still in their skins – just like I like them.
Those chips transported me to Friday nights at Grandma’s, to special birthday dinners and to university over-indulgence.
Normally, I share my meals with my kids but not this day.
My husband, who had the bang-up burger with chips, also found his plate was under attack – but I protected my potatoes with a ferocity I didn’t know I possessed.
“Please, Mama? Could I please share your chips?” my son Joe pleaded after he had finished with his crumpets with honey, caramelised pear and mascarpone.
I feigned deafness and kept eating with greedy abandon, using my chips to mop up tasty drips of Kewpie sauce.
There is magic in food.
Smells and tastes can evoke stronger memories than pictures – such was the case for me at Woven.
It was a magical meal – I definitely plan to go back soon, though I’ll have to watch my waist.
Thank you to Dan, Dave and their team for a great meal and a great experience.
Thanks also to Consider The Sauce for offering such a special prize – I’ve never won anything so tasty!
Big Yarraville excitement
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Little Advi, 16 Ballarat Street, Yarraville. Phone: 9689 0004
For a lot of people, particularly those who live and work in the village, their Yarraville eatery has arrived.
As you’d expect, the food line-up at Little Advi, which has slotted into the premises of a former boutique on Ballarat Street, closely resembles that of the mothership, Cafe Advieh, on Gamon Street.
Equally as expected, though, there is no diminuation in terms of quality, freshness, affordability and service.
The place looks gorgeous, with a lot of old wood, brick and tiling.
The staff area really on the ball in every way.
The menu (see below) has brekky, wraps, focaccias and a longish list of really appealing plates with fritter, falafels, skewers, dips and salads.
I go for the large dips plate.
I pay $13.50 but it’s so generous that the small at $10.50 may have been a wiser choice.
The dips – eggplant, yogurt ‘n’ cucumber and eggplant – are so fresh they sing with flavour.
Even better, they are personalised in the Advieh fashion, making them delightfully original in texture and taste, especially when sprinkled with sesame seeds and chopped pistachio nuts.
With them – and olives and two very nice stuffed vine leaves – come two Lebanese pita breads, brought in, warmed and more than enough to go with the dips.
Little Advi is s breakfast-and-lunch establishment.
Meal of the week No.2: Bax Food Co
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After having already hit Gamon Street’s fab new Jamaican eatery with a largish group that pretty much ran through the entire menu, I’m excited to be taking Bennie there.
And I know just what to order to press my teenage dude’s buttons.
Mine, too.
BBQ pork ribs, jerk Piccapeppa chicken wings, BBQ corn, cassava chips.
It’s a lip-smacking feast for two moderately hungry lads.
The chicken wings, at $9, strike us as a bargain.
The superb chips provide affordable bulk.
Between the slaw with both meat choices and the corn, there’s enough veggie action going on.
Even with a couple of $3 soft drinks, we pay a very good $41.
As we amble back on to Gamon, energetically flossing our teeth, Bennie opines:
“That’s the best food I’ve had in Yarraville.”
I’m inclined to agree with him.
See earlier review here.
Jamaica in Yarraville: Review
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OK, Roderick – you’ve for sure taken care of us tonight; now we need some sugar!
Bax Food Co, 83 Gamon Street, Yarraville. Phone: 0402 751 108
How wonderful is it that a Jamaican restaurant is up running in Yarraville?
“Very” is the conclusion of our table of five after a spectacular mid-week dinner.
There’s enough of us to try – and share – just about everything on the menu.
It’s all good or better.
And much of it is very, very good indeed.
CTS has a long, pre-blog relationship with these Gamon Street premises – oft times Bennie and I used Gravy Train as a regular breakfast spot, those breakfasts being mostly made up of just toast and hot beverages.
Somehow along the way, Gravy Train seemed to get overtaken by foodie developments in Yarraville village, Seddon and several points in between.
So fronting here, to a refurbished location, to join my four dining companions has something of an air of circles turning and regeneration.
The makeover, both inside and out, is substantial but also very colourful and funky rustic.
It fits the casual, happy vibe of the place to a tee.
We found the service to be very fine and the wait times for our choices shorter, if anything, than we might have expected.
Cassava chips ($7) are plain of flavour but a crisp delight nonetheless.
Ackee, saltfish and mushroom patties with tomato love apple sauce ($10) are like delicate treats something like curry puffs with a taste like mum’s homemade fish pie.
Jerk roast corn with coconut jerk may ($6) is a wild, different and delicious contrast to plainer versions of roasted corn.
Yum factor: High.
In a meal of many highlights, perhaps the most giddy, moan-inducing reactions come with dishes that mirror and even best many of those we’ve enjoyed in recent months at various BBQ joints around town.
These smokey BBQ pork ribs ($13), for instance, are immense in every way – spicy, charred, OMG.
Likewise with the jerk Picapeppa hot wings ($9).
These are even spicier than the ribs, a little more piquant and every bit as awesome.
Goat curry ($24) has wonderfully tender, fall-off-the-bone meat and is gorgeous.
Our curry is served with roti bread (also available as a side, $4) unlike anything roti we’ve tried before.
It’s almost-crisp and spongey but does the mopping-up job expected of any kind of roti just fine.
Oxtail stew with butter bean and carrots ($25) has sweet meat easily exctracted from gnarly bones and is another winner.
With its star anise, you know what this reminds me of?
Vietnamese beef stew!
Only two of our party had any depth of experience with Jamaican food before our meal, but I had a strong intuition that the Bax fare would be somehow familiar in any case, perhaps based on my familiarity with New Orleans and South Louisiana food.
Such turns out to be very much the case.
The Bax goodies can sit comfortably alongside other westie options such as Vietnamese and African – right at home but strikingly different.
As chef Roderick points out, such is always going to be the case as creole food (using the word in it its most universal sense) the world over often draws on shared traditions.
As regards to pricing, the oxtail stew and the goat curry are substantial, bigger than they appear in the photographs, are sharing material for up to four (with other dishes alongside) and quite good value.
Rice ‘n’ peas ($6) is a Jamaican staple that is nice enough but gets a bit lost amid the richness of what surrounds it.
Sadly, the same can be said of our fried snapper with pickled condiments and salad ($28).
The fish is beautifully cooked but arrives at our table last of our mains and at a point where we’re just about full to the ears, its plainness overwhelmed by the spiciness that has preceded.
Full, maybe, but still able to find room for shared desserts …
Dark Shadows ($10) is an intriguing mix of condensed milk and grapefruit – it’s tangy and smooth.
But sweet potato pudding ($12) is more our go – it’s like a very dense, rich bread and butter pudding-meets-caramel slice.
Rum and raisin ice-cream ($5) is brought-in but nevertheless very good – it has, as several of my companions note, an unusually high level of “rumminess”.
In her review on Fill Up On Bread – see here – Mairead comments that perhaps Bax has gone a little overboard with the bax (box) concept in the form of too much cardboard, especially given the prices.
To tell you the truth, we have been so busy eating and enjoying we didn’t notice.
Bax Food Co, it seems clear to me, is sure to be a successful ornament to the local eats scene.
Very highly recommended!
Jamaica in Yarraville: Update
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Bax Food Co, 83 Gamon Street, Yarraville. Phone: 0402 751 108
SEE REVIEW HERE.
Since our initial story reporting the exciting news that a Jamaican restaurant is soon to open in Yarraville, Consider The Sauce has made contact with two of the three partners involved, and enjoyed some cordial conversations with Dalton and Roderick about their plans.
Unfortunately, efforts to synchronise all three partners and myself to be in the same place at the same time for a photograph were bettered by busy schedules all round.
Oh well – it’s time for an update anyway, especially as opening night is almost upon us!
Here’s the details …
The restaurant will be known as Bax Food Co and will operate out of the former home Gravy Train at 83 Gamon Street.
Opening night will be this coming Friday, February 20, on which night there will be 6pm and 8pm sittings.
Bookings can be made via roderick@bossmanfood.com.au 0402 751 108.
The “bax” part of their name comes from a casual style of eating in Jamaica whereby instead of sit-down meals, customers get a “bax” (box) full of goodies.
Bax Food Co will, of course, serve their food this way, too, though Roderick assures me some of the sides will be presented regular style on regular plates!
At the time of going to press, the menu was still being completed … but Roderick did number off several dishes that will be available:
Jerk chicken.
Oxtail stew.
Goat curry.
Salted cod.
Rice ‘n’ peas.
BBQ ribs.
Casava chips.
Spicy jerk roast corn with coconut jerk mayo.
Fish will be in the form of whole snapper, which will be the top-priced item at about $30.
Yarraville eats goss: Jamaican eatery
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Inspired by this mind-blowingly interesting job advert, Consider The Sauce has tried phone, email and Facebook message in a bid to nail the details – so far to no avail.
Here’s what we know thus far …
A Jamaican restaurant will soon be opening in Yarraville.
It will be housed in the Gamon Street premises that for many, many years hosted Gravy Train and which are currently undergoing renovations.
The people behind the restaurant are those who run Boss Man Food – see website here and Facebook page here.
With that sort of pedigree, I reckon we’re all fully entitled to hope for something amazing.
How about that for something to look forward to?
Another Gamon Street gem, the good ship Advieh, is staying right where it is.
But in about a month those fine folks will be bringing their wonderful Middle East-inspired food to Yarraville village.
Little Advieh will operate out of a prime spot on Ballarat Street and not too far from the now-permanent park.
Wonderful news, we reckon!
Meanwhile, plans to fill the ground floor space of the old St George’s Theatre with a hospitality industry business appear to be taking time to come to fruition.
Finally trying the local F&C
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Under The Sea Fish & Chips, 49 Anderson Street, Yarraville. Phone: 9687 6912
Consider The Sauce has long held a preference for fish and chip joints that offer more than paper-wrapped bundles.
We like our F&C and accoutrements fresh-as and eaten at restaurant-provided seating – even if it is of the most rudimentary kind.
We like it, too, when proper cutlery and crockery are part of the deal.
So we’ve never gotten around to trying our very popular local fish and chippery.
But with Bennie being a happy fish eater these days, he’s several times recent in months declared his preparedness to troop around the corner and bring our dinner home.
So off he goes … and back he comes with a meal I find OK in some regards but disappointing in others.
Low expectations met?
Yes.
The chips are hot but on the dull side for me.
Ordering instructions had been for a small so naturally the medium Bennie gets is excess to our requirements.
The calamari rings are of the reconstituted surimi variety, so are automatically graded “OK”.
Fish of the day is blue grenadier and it’s real good.
What’s more, we receive three generously sized pieces instead of two, so we eat really well.
But the batter of one of them is stuck to the paper and is only messily removed.
It’s been good fare, especially as the whole lot cost something under $20.
But I won’t be in a hurry to return.
And with dinner?
Bickford’s, of course.
We go through at least a bottle of this stuff a week – lemon or lemon barley now that the bitter lemon variety seems permanently unavailable.
But tonight at the IGA we spied a new flavour – apple and cinnamon.
I detect only the faintest of spice undertones but Bennie reckons it’s the best of the lot.
Yup! Another new Yarraville joint
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b Eatery 21 Anderson St, Yarraville. Phone: 362 080
So Yarraville’s long-time burger place has gone.
No surprise, really.
Perhaps it was nudged out of the picture by the arrival of a Grill’d outlet just up the street.
Or perhaps it had simply done its dash.
Whatever the case, a new business is in residence – one we believe has proprietorial links with the previous establishment.
The place has been done out a treat – the ambience speaks of laid-back cool without trying too hard.
The upstairs area remains, but we hunker down in a nice back room.
We suspect, appraising the menu and generally taking in the operation, that while the success of this business is no doubt the paramount aim, such success may lead to other eateries of the same ilk opening up elsewhere.
The staff, we find, do a fine, on-the-ball job for us.
The two-sided menu (see below) covers the breakfast-and-more territory, including some very unusual items.
Sesame-seared ahi tuna nachos, prawn and crab “bang bang” cakes or Italian soda fountain drinks, anyone?
In the interests of blog diversity, Bennie has been banned from ordering the burger.
So he does the next best thing by nominating the steak sandwich (pictured at top).
It does good for him, with the nice slab of meat, good rocket and garlic-lemon aioli dressing all disappearing very quickly.
The chips are unlisted but we’re glad to observe their presence, as it makes the $15.50 steak sanger price tag a good one.
The chips are good though could be hotter.
We share one of the smaller items – a duck rice paper roll ($5).
It’s OK but the quack quotient is on the tardy side, meaning the roll’s filling is mostly vermicelli.
Presentation has trumped eating practicality – the hoisin sauce is prettily drizzled on the roll, the eating of which is thus a very messy business indeed.
For the second time in a week, I go the healthy route with my chicken salad ($16).
It’s a nice thing, beautifully presented and super fresh, especially the finely grated apple, which mixes well with grapes of both kinds, celery and chicken.
It’s like a waldorf salad with bells on – but without the waldorfs.
Ha!
The chook is a bit tasteless and I generally think of my lunch as being on the bland side.
I resist the temptation of requesting salt and/or pepper dispensing implements, but wonder if the rest of the menu evinces such rampant moderation in the seasoning department.
Given the spread of the menu, b Eatery we feel is likely to be a hit with families.
It appears to have been set up with some ingenuity, finding a niche in jam-packed Yarraville by doing what many others are without mirroring the competition in any precise way.
Gooey in the centre
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Toasta. Phone: 0407 331 889
When Bennie and I take one of our regular drives around the inner western “coast” – along the Strand and right through to Altona, or the other way around – we have a tradition that when we sight the bay from anywhere near Williamstown Beach we count out loud the number of ships we see “parked” out there.
We’ve developed the same routine when cruising past the food trucks at Yarraville Gardens, counting off and naming the truck as we pass.
But we don’t stop to eat so often these days – the food trucks are just one of the many options open to us all.
But I am keen to check out the Toasta crew and their sangers.
I admire their ingenuity in finding a niche in a tight truck marketplace.
I wonder if they create great toasted sandwiches within the demanding truck framework.
The answer is: Yes!
They key is really good ingredients.
They use Zeally Bay sourdough, which has just the right structural integrity without being too gnarly.
It toasts splendidly.
I go for the Barry, with cheddar, brisket, dill pickle and smokey BBQ sauce for $12.
While my sandwich appears of only modest proportions, I know after one bite it’ll be eating bigger than it appears.
After four bites, I realise it’s a bargain and wonder if I’ll be able to finish it.
I do, but there’s no room for anything else, so I dig the purity of the Toasta menu that excludes fries and other sides.
The dominant flavour is of very good cheddar with brisket undertones, with quite a lot of dill pickle providing zingy punctuation.
Wonderful!
I like, too, how Toasta dispenses with the usual soft drinks, be they the commercial riff raff or fizz of the more boutique variety.
My lemonade house-mixed soda ($4) is real nice.
Just don’t go thinking a Toasta sandwich is in any way more healthy than the burgers, fries, grills or stuff-on-sticks being served up by their food truck compatriots!
Check out the Toasta website here. And, of course, “like” their FB page to know where they’re at.
consider the sauce 