No Ink'ling - Piccolo Mondo

The stretch along Lygon Street that is Melbourne's Little Italy has always posed a bit of a conundrum for me. Just about every City guide book will list the street as a not to be missed destination for a sampling of the 'Restaurant City' that is Melbourne. And yet this busy and highly competitive length of packed eateries jostling for customers' attention each evening appears to be largely denigrated and dismissed by local foodies. Why is this? The area is certainly lively enough to spend an evening out in, and there are no lack of choices supposedly specialising in various regional Italian cuisine. Surely not every single one of them is simply after the naive tourist dollar. It's not that Italian food is currently out of vogue either, with endless accounts and reviews of contemporary meals enjoyed at fashionable back-to-basics pizzerias and inventive risotto joints right around Melbourne and its many suburbs. But rarely on Lygon Street.

Dishes served with little imagination, and if you finished that bowl of pasta nero you'll be pooing black for a week!

Our most recent venture to the area led to Piccolo Mondo, just one of the dozens of Italian restaurants lining the virtual epicentre of Lygon Street. We'd already dismissed the attention of many of the restaurant touters one encounters when walking down that street, but somehow paused to listen to what this one had to offer. Perhaps it was the pretty whitewashed Victorian terrace with cosy dining courtyard that was the venue. Perhaps it was the Italian caricature that was spouting the benefits of the experience, built like a tank with broad square-jacketed shoulders, no neck, threateningly bald, heavy baritone accent, hand like a nugget of lead resting on my shoulders. He could take out my kneecaps. Actually, we don't mind the touts in the least; it's all part of the game, a bit of fun, never threatening and the area will be infinitely less colourful if they were indeed banned like some would have it.

In the end though, the meal didn't really live up to what was promised. A heavily dressed bocconcini and tomato salad ($5) was something one could easily toss together at home, only with a more refined hand. A blackboard special of Linguine al Nero di Seppia ($24.90), what I'd anticipated as squid ink pasta, was in fact just regular linguine tossed with pieces of squid and a heavy squid ink sauce. Though it tasted quite okay at first, the thick iodine-heavy inkiness simply became too much especially with the overly huge serving. It's a rare complain when it's about a serve being too generous but seriously, that pasta bowl would not be out of place sitting atop a vanity as a bathroom basin. Our other dish of seared veal served with sauteed prawns and mushrooms, Scallopine Bosco ($34.50) was similarly overly portioned on a satellite dish of a plate. Quite palatable but again no subtlety, a heavy hand with the marsala.

So then, what is it about Lygon Street? At the risk of painting the lot with one broad brush, perhaps it has become not so much a true cultural enclave but a cartoon interpretation of a Little Italy. On reflection I have so far never been blown away by any of the continental restaurants I've tried there. Like Piccolo Mondo these appeared to be trapped in the last decade, either failing to notice that the food expectations of much of the dining public has matured or are simply refusing to innovate for fear of bastardising what they may consider as 'homely traditional' cuisine. At the other end of the spectrum, I'm also all for finding that cosy trattoria known for its spectacular spag bol 'just like nonna used to make'. Do any of these places still exist in Carlton?

Isn't there anyone out there with restaurant recommendations for the area?

Food: 13/20 - Okay food with individual serves enough to feed a small family for a week.
Service: 14/20 - Polite but not too focussed on food; apparently a recent change of Management.
Value: 12/20 - Quite cheerful but not cheap.
R-Factor: 12/20 - Not that likely.
Spot Score: 13/20 - The search continues.

Piccolo Mondo
240 Lygon Street, Carlton VIC.

Pies Ain't Pies - Joe's Garage

Weeks continue to merge at a rapid rate. It appears we're still on Brunswick Street though it's another weekend, but which one already? Today is more than grey. Windy, shiveringly cold, frozen ears, heavy drizzle and fog on breath. Weather that Melbourne used to be known for, though we haven't seen it for quite awhile. But isn't this just what we Melbournians live for, and hadn't we all missed it? Glorious...(?)


We're at Joe's Garage for lunch, a large cafe bistro marked by red and blue neon signage and very Fitzroy. The large wood dominated dining space is decorated by quirky art and Gen Y band posters. We especially like the Mamboesque works featuring the cafe's namesake. First priority was coffees which were quite passable, and reasonable ($2.90), Grinders 'European Blend'. An extra 50 cents will get you an extra tall glass's worth, enough caffeine to ensure insomnia for the next few nights. We don't often order pizza unless it was the specific purpose of the eat-out but decided to try the Joe's Special with hot salami, roasted peppers, olives, artichokes, chilli and mozzarella ($12.90). We shouldn't have strayed from our regular no-pizza habit really. The toppings were okay but Joe's pizza base was pretty terrible. Droopy and lacking of fresh oven-heat like it had been left at the pass for too long before being brought to our table. Perhaps our pizza was the reason for the series of angry "Tings!" coming from the kitchen's pass bell about 10 minutes before? The Soup of the Day of Smoked Chorizo and Capsicum ($7.90) was much better, a hearty blend of smoky and garlicky chilli flavours served with a couple of slices of toasted sourdough. Very filling.

Joe's Special in fact turned out to be rather ordinary, let down by its base

The place was buzzing with a Saturday lunchtime crowd escaping from the weather but the 'Garage's' young waitstaff were just as buzzy and up to the task, rushing quite efficiently around their tables with cheery smiles on faces. Perhaps they were happily anticipating the morning's wages spent on drinking along with one of those bands posted on the walls? We don't blame the pizza on them.

Food: 3 Spots - Go more for the crowds, buzz, and perhaps breakfast.
Service: 3.5 Spots - Designer jeans, cargos, Tee's, bandanas.
Value: 3 Spots - Typical bistro, better can be found elsewhere.
R-Factor: 3.5 Spots - For breakfast? For dinner?
Spot Score: 13/20

Joe's Garage
366 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy, VIC.

The Chronicles of Ramen - Ajisen Ramen

Following a previous post about some truly soul rejuvenating and memorable bowls of ramen we'd slurped on while on holiday in Christchurch NZ, Hungry Hamster left a comment enquiring about whether decent puveyors of ramen exist here in Melbourne. Well the short answer was that I really hadn't stumbled across that many to provide any decent recommendations. The best I could come up with was to suggest Ajisen Ramen in the city where at least there was a readily accessible range of ramen choices on offer and global franchise notwithstanding, the bowls of noodles we've had there were not bad if not particularly outstanding. The nihon-authenticity of Ajisen's ramen is probably debated, although the franchise boasts of their Kyushu (Kumamoto city) style tonkotsu (pork bones)-based stock broth. Most of the ramen dishes centre around this tasty milky coloured broth served in voluminous bakelite-like bowls accompanied by matching ladles to sup with.

We visited Ajisen Ramen again recently and had a Chashu (pork) Ramen and the Karaage (deep-fried chicken) Ramen. Ajisen's bowls of ramen offer substantial individual meals, filled generously with soup along with the meat of choice, mix of shredded vegetables, seaweed strips, and halves of hardboiled egg. The ramen noodles were quite satisfyingly to-the-bite and the broth as tasty as I recalled from our last visit, although the soup in the karaage ramen was too oily from the fried chicken pieces for complete guilt-free enjoyment. The chashu ramen went down much better and I would certainly stick to the plainer options on future visits.

Bowls of ramen here are around about the $10 mark and the very extensive laminated-card menu also offers a variety of other a la carte choices, plus donburi and bento set boxes. But of course the ramen is what most come here for. Overall a quick and handy ramen fix but I guess we're still looking for that truly memorable ramen experience here in Melbourne.

Food: 3 spots - If ramen is what you're here for.
Service: 3 spots - Depends on mood of Asian student on the day but generally quick.
Value: 3.5 spots - There are cheaper noodles around but this is good value for the grade of food and dining space.
R-Factor: 3.5 spots - Not our first visit and likely not our last.
Spot Score: 13/20

Ajisen Ramen
130 Bourke Street, Melbourne, VIC.