Fitzrovia is a restaurant in St Kilda where they do home-style (comfort food) meals that warm the heart. The dishes are tasty and well executed and inspired by provincial Italian and british cuisines. They have a focus on top quality, local ad seasonal produce and Chef Paul Jewson has recently created a new spring menu.
Fitzrovia feels like you’ve walked into somebody’s home. It’s got a warm feeling about it. The dining space is decorated with boxes of fresh produce, bookshelves, old typwriters etc. And to go with the feel of the place, the meals are served in a rustic home-style manner and cooked with lots o’ love.
The hot and sour salt and pepper calamari was delicious. It had a crisp light batter and was soft and just melted in your mouth. The calamari was sitting on a green papaya salad with vermicelli noodles, coriander, mint, lime, cashews and a roast chilli dressing. I loved that the salad was cold but the calamari was warm. It was packed with flavour. It was fresh, hot and sour and salty and spicy. Yum.
The falafels had chickpeas (naturally) and organic black quinoa, which was interesting. They were really tasty and went perfectly with the sumac spiced labne which was like an aromatic yoghurt dressing. The falafel sat on a bed of turmeric roast cauliflower, smoked eggplant caviar, minted dukah and pomegranate. Loved the pops of fresh pomegranate.
Loved the chicken saltimbocca it was delicious. It was free-range chicken breasts wrapped with crispy prosciutto, sage and tallegio (cheese). It was sitting in a soft mascarpone polenta. That polenta! It was so amazing I could totally swim in it. And it was topped with crispy fried wisps of leek which were tasty and added crunch. This was one of my faves.
The whole grain new seasons asparagus salad had a nice texture. It had lentils, black barley, pine nuts, almonds, pumpkin seeds, herbs, spanish onion, lemon and fresh pomegranate. It was served with a tahini labne. I wasn’t sure where the asparagus was but it was really tasty so I didn’t mind much.
The Fitzrovia signature polenta chips looked like a stack of jenga. Edible jenga of course. They were golden and crisp on the outside and smooth and silky in the middle. They were covered in truffled parsley & parmesan. You could smell the truffle as soon as they hit the table. Delish.
The South Gippsland milk fed veal fillets Milanese were like awesome crispy snitzels. The meat was so tender and the lemon zest, parsley & parmesan crumb was beautifully crunchy. It was paired with an anchovy mayo and a simple salad with organic truss tomato, rocket and shaved Parmesan, which was really nice.
The thyme and garlic confit free range Ovens Valley duck leg was tasty and moist. It was served with braised black lentils which were just cooked (still had a nice bite to them), brussels sprouts (who knew I liked them) and a gribiche sauce.
The chef Paul Jewson likes to describe the food as ‘what I imagine chefs would like to cook at home on their days off’ which makes sense. It’s home-style food but cleverly put together. Fitzrovia is a great place to visit for breakfast, lunner or dinner. Dinners are back hooray.
I heart Fitzrovia!
Olives x
Fitzrovia
Address: 2/155 Fitzroy St, St Kilda VIC 3182
Website: http://fitzrovia.com.au/
Phone: 03 9537 0001
Trading Hours: Mon-Tues: 7am-3pm, Wed-Fri: 7am-9pm, Sat: 8am-9pm, Sun: 8am-4pm
Note: Olive Sundays was invited as a guest to Fitzrovia.
