St Jude's Cellars - Fitzroy - review

Name: St Jude's Cellars
 
Address: 389-391 Brunswick St
Fitzroy 3065 VIC
(03) 9419 7411

Food: ModOz
Average price: Entrée: $8-$12.50, Mains: $8-$60, Desserts: $12.50

Complimentary: Sliced white bread.

We ordered:
Starters: Charred corn croquettes with Mahón cheese (3) - $7.50

These were ok, they could have used a touch more seasoning but otherwise they were a decent croquette.

Fried chicken wings with a sesame and yoghurt sauce (3)  -$7.50

The presentation was lacking and the chicken on its own was boring, but thankfully yhe sace was delicious and saved the dish.

Pickled carrots - $8

I didn't even remember ordering these as I don't really like pickled carrots and these were no exception.


Entrée: Calamari marinated in chilli with cucumber, basil and grapefruit salad -$17.00

Mr.M said this was OK.

Main: Gnocchi Romano with charred leeks and Sovrano cheese - $15.00

I did not enjoy this at all. The gnocchi didn't resemble gnocchi for me in both taste AND texture - it was more akin to polenta. The flavour combo also fell flat for me, there was nothing to lift it or to cut through the bitterness. It was also under seasoned.

Lamb ragout with pappardelle and chicory  - $22.00

This looked extremely watery on the plate and was exactly that, it wasn't as much as a ragout as  it was overcooked pasta with some meat thrown on top. Mr. M didn't eat much of it.

Dessert: Dark chocolate mousse, raspberry mascarpone and nectarine - $12.50

I was used to the lack of style regarding plating up by now but when this came out I was still quite shocked as it was a $12.50 dessert, so I expected something better than what my 8year old niece could dish up.
The chocolate mousse was standard, nice but nothing special, whilst the raspberry mascarpone tasted almost like icing sugar mixed with raspberry. The nectarine was just a nectarine cut in half, and all together I didn't really feel the textures or flavour meshed. I had one spoonful and that was enough for me.

Cost: $89.50 for 3 starters, 1 entrée, 2 mains and 1 dessert.

Service: Bad. We ended up having a huge wait for our mains, which the waiter informed us later was because they didn't tell them away. They also didn't put the orders through as asked - I requested to make the croquettes into an entrée size but they came out as a starter. Our water wasn't topped up very often and after being told they didn't want to take our dessert order at the beginning, we had to tell two separate waiters that we wanted to order dessert before the order was finally put through.

Atmosphere: The wine cage is in the middle of the room with fairly casual tables and chairs scattered around. For some reason the atmosphere reminded me of my school cafeteria. The noise level was quite loud and with the waiters being pretty much absent it felt almost like a self serve place.

Parking: Ok - there is a decent amount of street parking.

Website: http://www.stjudescellars.com.au/


Hours: Tue-Fri noon-10pm, Sat-Sun 8am-10pm

Would I return: No.