wwwash

Word Wide Wash

I love kicking back in this cafe and tucking into some delish crepes. wwwash serve both sweet and savoury crepes - all good. The best part about this place is the relaxed atmosphere. Nice and peaceful - a great place to park with a book, either at the tables or on the sofas in the corner.

wwwash is also an internet cafe - the terminals are towards the back, past the tables and sofas.

361 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy
03 9419 8214

Cafe Lalibela

With no lip-smackin mains over $12, Lalibela is an absolute treasure! Drinks are very reasonably priced at $3-4 for beers, $2 for soft drinks and juices, BYO - $2 corkage.

Be prepared to share your food as Lalibela serves their goodies in a big free-for-all pan (slow eaters be warned, you would be well advised to build a fort around your portion lest you miss out). The pan is lined with injera (traditional sourish - in a good way - pancake bread), and your dishes are poured onto the injera. Peel off a little injera, wrap the piece around the goodies on offer and off you go.

The first lamb dish on the menu, dry-fried lamb with onion, chili and spices - unfortunately, I can't recall the name - is a toe-tingling offering of crunchy goodness. The tasty pieces of lamb explode with flavour and the dish is well accompanied by the vegie dish on the menu with potatoes and carrots (with a generous amount of garlic worked into it).

The second lamb dish on the menu offers more succulent pieces of lamb cooked with onions, chilis herbs and spices. Each little piece is a burst of everything that is good that could come from a lamb.

There is lots on offer: beef, chicken and the vegoes are well looked after too.

(Ethiopian cuisine) 91 Irving Street Footscray (03) 9687 0300 (Between Nicholson St and Dynon Road - if you're on Dynon and traveling from the city, turn left at Franco Cozzo)

Sumo Salad

Great salad nook for a healthy alternative at lunchtime. I sampled the spicy BBQ prawn and it received an immediate Whooo Hoooo! from my tastebuds. (Description from Sumo Salad below)

"With succulent BBQ prawns, marinated in fresh lemon juice and coated with sweetened chilli and tomatoes, this salad is a true-blue classic. Rich red tomatoes, fresh basil and the sun-dried warmth of roasted capsicums keep the accent Aussie and the taste dinky di."

The roasted capsicums were perfection and the occasional bit of fresh basil really did the trick.

There are plenty of options to choose from... see selection. Or, you can design your own salad.

I'm a sucker for packaging and was quite taken by the solid non-soggy-after-a-while (important for slow eaters like me) 'pails' ala American sitcom Chinese takeout cartons.

Small sizes are really for snackers only... Regular-size packs a little more oomph although, a salad is always a salad, and unless you go for an option with meat added, the tummy will be growling within an hour or two.

Handy tip: If you're good with chopsticks, I reckon they're a better option than the little plastic forks on offer (both avail at the counter). I prodded at my regular-sized pail salad with the fork and found it to be a touch too short resulting in sticky fingers.

Sumo Salad also provides you with a loyalty card so, after you've munched on 10 salads, you get one free.

All in all, a touch on the pricey end of the foodie market for a bunch of leaves and perhaps a couple of prawns and slices of meat but, at least it's a damn fine bunch of leaves.

Locations