Dante's Fitzroy

My friend Foges and I popped into Dante's Fitzroy on Saturday. Foges and I had driven over to explore Gertrude Street, just for something new. We were starving from the moment we parked the car and Dante's was the first place we came across. First impressions hinted at a lot of character, if only there were other customers around to support it. I checked the website before sitting to write this and felt like I was looking at a completely different restaurant. However the similarity between the speed of service and the speed at which they pull christmas promotions off their website indicated that I was indeed looking at the same place.

As I mentioned, we were starving! We sat for a few minutes and no menus arrived so Foges went and asked for some. We were told they'd bring some out, only to sit and watch a whole iced coffee being made before this happened. Once the menus arrived and we'd made our selection it took a lot of eyebrow raising at the waitress to have our order taken. Compliments to the chef as he must be able to tell a very interesting story. Eventually I walked over, interrupted and asked to order. Did I mention there was barely another customer in sight?

The food arrived and luckily it was just the thing for our hungry tummies. Foges and I decided to share a wrap of rare roast lamb, baba ghanoush and salad plus a plate of dips. The wrap and dips were pretty standard, although the lamb was quite tender for sandwich fare. The dips seemed to be lacking a little in garlic and the tzatziki had a faintly sweet lemon taste, almost as though lemon essence had been used instead of lemon juice. It was quite peculiar but faint enough for the tzatziki to still be my favourite over the hummus and baba ghanoush. The bread was particularly fresh as well as generous in serving size, a pleasant change from other bread-and-dip deals. The olives were also generously dished out, with a total of 10 fat, fleshy olives on our plate.

I'd be keen to check out Dante's when a few more customers are around to add atmosphere but I'm not sure I'd cross town for it again. Although, apparently Monday is magic night.........

Dante's Fitzroy
150-156 Gertrude Street(cnr Napier Street)

Fitzroy 3065
ph. 03 9417 2468