Fitzrovia Dinner & Saba's Ethopian Restaurant

Disclosure: I was invited as a guest to the following restaurants

Fitzrovia 

2/155 Fitzroy St

St Kilda 3182 

 

With longer sunny afternoons and more gin and tonic inducing weather, it’s lovely to see Fitzrovia sneak out of hibernation and extend their service out to a couple evenings a week. I’d been before with Brad and absolutely loved it, so couldn’t wait to revisit when I was invited to!

I think Fitzrovia describes the food that chef and co-owner Paul Jewsen does perfectly, luxe comfort food; big flavours with rough edges, and I love it. 

Let’s start with the hot and sour crisp salt and pepper calamari with green papaya salad, Asian herbs, rice noodles, lime and cashews with a roast chilli dressing. Wow. Absolutely packed with flavour, this dish was vibrant, with sweet, aromatic citrus, a bit of heat and a bit of crunch. Could have easily eaten a whole bowl for this as a meal by myself!

Chickpea and organic black quinoa falafel with turmeric roast cauliflower and smoked eggplant caviar, sumac spiced lane, minted pine nut dukkah and pomegranate is also deliciously done, wholesome but also quite light and clean. 

The free range chicken breast saltimbocca with crisp prosciutto, sage and taleggio, soft mascarpone polenta and crisp fried leeks was simply comforting flavours; I’m not usually a huge fan of chicken breast but Paul looks after it well here. Tender and juicy, deliciously seasoned with the prosciutto. 

Every time I go to Fitzrovia, or know of people going, I simply rave on about their signature polenta chips, made with three types of cheeses and topped with truffled parsley and parmesan. Oh my goodness. Isn’t it a feast for the eyes? Big generous jenga style chips, which are soft and fluffy, but so rich in cheese flavour simply slays me. You just need two of these to have a meal really, they’re so darn rich! 

I’m hardly in St Kilda as often as I’d like to be, but would always be more than happy to make the journey down if someone wanted to try! 

Saba's Ethiopian Restaurant

328 Brunswick Street

Fitzroy 

 

I was quite surprised when I discovered how tasty Ethiopian food was, although my only experience with it had previously been at Little Africa. So when I saw that Saba’s Ethiopian Restaurant had opened up, I was excited to have something a little closer to home for me (or at least not in the CBD). 

Saba’s is opened by 25-year-old Saba who migrated to Australia 16 years ago, and the restaurant is now a bit of a family affair, with mum working her magic out back and sister helping out with front of house. 

What’s unique about Saba’s is that it uses teff flour in it’s injera (the brown flat bread), instead of regular flour, which apparently most other restaurants use, as teff is a bit more expensive and a bit harder to acquire. Fortunately Saba has been importing the flour since 2014, which is gluten free and native to Ethiopia, meaning you’re getting Ethiopian food that’s closer to what you might actual find in Ethiopia! 

Now, Ethiopian food is not very photogenic, but it does have some other great and redeeming features. Firstly, it’s damned delicious. From the meat dishes, vegetarian and vegan stews, and even the salads. From chickpeas, to a chicken dish covered in a red sauce that reminded me very much of sambal, the flavours at Saba were vibrant and hearty. 

I was surprised how different the teff flour injera was, although we demolished many, many, many, many servings of it, by the end of the meal, I didn’t feel bloated or even overly full, despite all the eating we did. It felt really clean. 

The second redeeming feature about Ethiopian food, is how fun and interactive it is. Out come the great big woven baskets with the injera on top. The different stews and dishes are then poured in over the top…and off you go at it! Fingers and all, my favourite way to eat, especially this kind of food!

Saba’s food is definitely made with plenty of heart and I can’t wait to bring Brad back to try it together; the food is made for sharing, so make sure to bring a party! 

Little Africa

So I've recently been hanging out with people who make me realise how much I actually like food. The sort who listen to me talk about some new restaurant I went to, or a particular food I had that I liked recently, then turn to the person next to them and comment: "You can tell she's a food blogger can't you?"

Like, most people don't actually talk about food this fervently?! Oh my gosh!

Despite enjoying food as much as I do, there are still many cuisines that I'd like to get to know a lot more, or just experience at all!

So I was quite excited recently when Brad, Theo and I decided (or well, I decided) that we would pop into Little Africa for dinner before heading to the Public Bar for another comedy night. This was to be our first experience with African food. 

I hadn't realised how close to the city Little Africa was, nestled in a small shop on Victoria Road opposite the Queen Victoria Market. I had always thought it was much further out, so it never really popped up as a priority on the never-ending 'list' to visit!

Little Africa specialises in Ethiopian cuisine, with a menu filled with a healthy mix of vegetarian and meat-based stews and curries. It was a little overwhelming, as everything sounded quite sumptuous, with plenty of garlic, cardamom, turmeric, and plenty of other spieces present in the descriptions, promising all sorts of deliciousness. 

To keep things simple though, we opted for a 'Vegetarian Combination', essentially a great big share plate. For one person it's $20, two it's $35 and every additional person after that is an extra $18. There's also a combination plate available, which we can only assume is a mix of both meat and vegetarian dishes, but that will have to be consumed another day!

And so behold, the 'Vegetarian Combination' for three people. There's a serious feast there! 

The selection of dishes are served directly on top of a few pieces of Injera bread, a yeast-risen flatbread, with a soft, spongy texture. Although it is a sea of brown, with a sprinkle of greens in the middle, the plate smells absolutely amazing and we quickly tear into the bread and eagerly dunk it into everything. 

That's right folks, who needs forks and knives? Finger-licking good is where it's at! Especially when the soft, porous bread just soaks everything up and infuses itself with flavour. Yum!

Throughout our meal, the boys and I kept commenting on how easy it would be to go vegetarian if you had food like this. Each dish was a bang of flavour in the mouth, but warm and comforting as well. Despite all the dishes being quite stewy and sauce or gravy heavy, we didn't leave feeling bloated or weighed down.

We particularly liked the 'Fool', fava beans cooked until tender, mashed, then mixed with ghee butter and seasoning, topped with green chilli, onions and tomato, and the 'Tumtummo', split lentils stewed in thick but mild sauce with seasoning. 

Some of the dishes had an element of heat to them, in terms of spiciness, but nothing near what you might come across in South East Asia, but if you can't take any chilli at all...you have been warned!

On top of the delicious flavours though, the experience of, not just sharing food, but eating from the same plate was just gorgeous. Especially when you're in good company. There was a jovial and playful spirit, and plenty of laughter as we watched each other intrepidly make our initial scoops of food with our hands. And then there was the stealing of bread from Theo's side of the plate (because it looked better, or something), which made him look like the rather healthy eater by the end of it!

The drink menu is short, but not to be missed as well, with a variety of Ethiopian beers on it, Brad's Castel was quite light and refreshing, and the Chai with Kammam just warms your heart in an instance. Just quietly, I now find myself drinking much more black chai tea because of it I think! 

At the end of the meal, with full bellies and our wallets each only $23 lighter, we really couldn't have been more satisfied. I think it's been a while since I enjoyed a meal like this, and I would definitely return in a heartbeat. And as a little tip, Wednesday nights are a pretty good time to visit at the moment, since everyone else is getting crowded and overheated in the Suzuki Night Markets!

What cuisines have you wanted to try? And any other recommendations for awesome African restaurants?!

Little Africa

358 Victoria Street

North Melbourne

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