...A small cafe in Melville St next to the old Avalon or the old Danny Burkes or the old B & B electrical shop (depending on how old your memory is!!), recommended to me by Scott from Gilt.
Scott told me they're only open weekdays for lunch, so as I was in the city today for a morning meeting, I decided to pop in there and check it out.
It's run by an impressive young girl named Maya. She runs the place with precious little assistance - doing most of the cooking, and serving.
She was embarrassed today to be caught out with her display fridge having broken down and her fridge suppliers being not too cooperative regarding finding her a replacement or fixing up the old one! She apologised profusely for her chaos, but my opinion was that she handled herself magnificently when negotiating with her fridge people. I would have put it a lot more colourfully than she did, when requesting immediate service!
Her menu, although small, is obviously food that she has thought of and prepared herself, and the ideas she has gained from her recent 5 years travelling overseas.
Today I bought something she called Babbatti. She admitted spelling wasn't her forte, and you had to either take it or leave it with her spelling of menu items - so later I tried to Google everything remotely sounding and spelled like that, but no luck at all - so you'll just have to take both Maya's word and mine.
She said it was Moroccan in origin. It had that kind of flavour to it as well. It contained, amongst many other things, lamb mince, pine nuts, raisins, almonds and honey.
It came served with plain yoghurt, and really was gorgeous. If I'd eaten in-house she'd have served it up with salad. As it was, I took it back to the office.
Be warned - this is just a small place, not your flat out, mass produced, cater-for-millions type place - but I recommend anyone who enjoys their food and would like to try things that are slightly different to the norm, produced by someone with a fire in their belly about food and cooking (and untainted by the Drysdale influence), get along there & check it out.
It was priced at $5.00 - a steal at that price!
Tuesday 11 December 2007
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11 comments:
Sounds good Rita but too cheap!
I hope she has done her costings accurately?
Given that the ingredients were:
lamb mince, pine nuts, raisins, almonds, honey & youghurt, none of which are cheap, add the rent, labour & sundries & I'd say she wont be around long if this issue isn't adressed?
Sorry to sound so harsh but better to say this now thatn later.
I thought the same thing myself when I paid for it Gobbler, but I wouldn't be so bold as to tell her that!
Do you think I should have said something to her?
Its tricky isn't it? Will it be seen as meddling or well intentioned intervention?
Depends on the type of person she is i guess?
Saffron cafe has been at that spot for at least 6-8 months if I remember correctly So either her finances are better than we know or she is hanging on by the skin of her teeth.
She's only been there 4 weeks, Zelda. Obviously just started up and feeling her way.
She seems like a confident girl, but it's hard to tell. I wouldn't presume to tell someone that fresh what they should and shouldn't do! At that stage of life, I would have spat on you if you had tried to tell me what was the best thing for me to do!
ok - so what was there beforehand that made me think she has been there forever? (or has the name been there forever and its a new owner? (I'm in christmas overload having just confirmed Xmas day bookings, and NYE bookings and flights for visitors so my brain could quite cheerfully be playing massive tricks on me.)
I think it was previously also called Saffron, Zelda, so your mind isn't playing tricks on you! She's a new owner.
But - seeing as you're in massive overload - don't forget about that electric wok you told me you'd buy me for Xmas this year!
LOL! Nice try Rita - considering I flooded my bathroom last night and it leaked through the ceiling space into the kitchen, thus today has been spent waiting for insurance assessors etc your electric wok might be downgraded to some of my mums homemade fudge.
Glad to know I am not going totally insane re saffrons name. I only ever drove past there on a Monday night about 7:15 to get to choir rehersal at Wesley.
Ive eaten here many times and its one of my favs! Maya is an incredible cook and the prices are very, very cheap for the quality of food she produces! I recommend it to everyone i meet as a nice, friendly, place for lunch in the city!
My family ate here yesterday after reading reviews in the newspaper and it was very average. The Tom yum soup was lukewarm and very basic. Later that evening my sister vomited. The two girls were friendly but the shop looked like it didn't get much of a turn over. I would not recommend this place to anyone and I love Asian food.
i vomited a couple of days ago but it wasn't food poisoning. careful what you throw out there it's not really fair unless you're sure.
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