Saturday, December 11, 2010

Orange

It was one of the first beautiful sunny summery Sundays, Brad and I had both woken up late again and my dear, darling, sweetheart of a dog was awaiting me with his puppy dog eyes.

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So we decided to take him out for lunch with us! For those curious, Blackie is my very silly, 12 year old cocker spaniel x labrador, or so we think. We picked him up with when he was 6 months from the RSPCA and he's been spoilt rotten since.

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So we took him for a little stroll down Chapel Street, pondering what cafes we could get lunch where we could keep Blackie with us. We eventually ended up at Orange, secured Blackie and sat down to eat, although he continued to be a little brat, unable to sit down and kept trying to wander around our table! Is this what it's like to have kids...?

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Orange's been on Chapel for ages, I had been once with a friend a year or two back but hadn't gotten around to going back (as I do with many places). I always hear mixed reviews of the place, but I thought I would go in with a fairly open mind and see how things panned out.

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It was a pretty warm day, what else are we going to have other than cider? I think Monteith's is now one of my favourites, it's light, crisp, with a nice apple flavour and most importantly, not overly sweet. It goes down so easy! I just bought their pear cider from Dan Murphy's so looking forward to trying it!

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Being the egg person I am, I decided to get the pancetta baked eggs with spinach, tomato, parmesan and basil. Whilst not too bad, I reckon I've had better baked eggs elsewhere. With the combination of ingredients that I had, it was a bit more watery and liquid-y that I expected, I suppose from the tomatoes? Otherwise it wasn't too bad, the flavours were pretty good and it was fairly tasty. So whilst I cleaned it up, I just didn't find it very memorable.

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Brad generally likes a good feed, so went for the grilled Italian bread with avocado, sundried tomato, sauteed mushrooms and goats cured. Oh and he added two poached eggs with it. Growing boy needs his protein (even if he is already 6 foot something.)? I honestly didn't find the presentation to be very impressive, even a little lazy maybe, normally there tends to be an 'Oooh' factor from me when eggs and/or breakfast related dishes, or just food in general is placed in front of me, but I found that these didn't really illicit that from me. It also seemed slightly pricey in my opinion for the serving size ($15 for the bread and vegetables, $4 extra for the poached eggs). Brad still finished everything though.

So whilst I didn't mind Orange, it's not somewhere I would really seek out to go back to. I do like it's dark, mature furnishings and the majority of the staff are quite friendly (a few taking note of how gorgeous Blackie was and providing a bowl for him to drink water from), there were one or two waiters who I found a little bit more aloof, and terrible at topping up water. I don't know, maybe I should try this place for actual lunch?

Orange
126 Chapel St
Windsor, 3181

Orange on Urbanspoon

6 comments:

  1. Hmmm, a friend of mine LOVES this place and has implored me to give it a go but I've held back due to having read not-as-positive reviews such as the one you gave. Hmm.

    Aside: Monteith's is my #1 choice for apple cider, it's the BEST!

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  2. Baked eggs should not be watery. They should be slightly crispy!

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  3. Haha, snap! I had monteith's apple cider a week ago at Hell's Kitchen, Melbourne place. :D Great drink!! And beautiful doggy. : )

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  4. How cute is Blackie? I think that yes, that IS what it would be like to have kids :) So many places do baked eggs, it is tough to have a standout I find. I am often disappointed. The cider looks delicious, so refreshing!
    Heidi xo

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  5. I prefer Orange for aferwork drinks and nibbles. I've never had breakfast there... probably because I can't go past Yellow Bird for their breakfasts and bloody marys.

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  6. Libby - Yeah, it's so tough when you get mixed reviews :/ Especially when you're on a strip like chapel street and you know there are so many other better offers you could have gone with! It would be interesting to hear from more people though, I don't think I've seen many reviews for the place recently.

    Michelle - That's what I thought! :s My eggs were like eating a sauce almost!

    Bryan - Ah, I've been Hells Kitchen once, ages ago! :) Will have to visit again, and Blackie thanks you! ;)

    Heidi - He is the biggest softie you'll ever meet, although he has a tendency to sit on anything I happen to be working with on the floor (laptop, shoes, bags etc.).

    Shu shu - Interesting, I don't think I've ever tried Orange later in the day, might consider it sometime. :) But sounds like I have to try Yellow Bird first!

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