Eat. @ Luxembourg

157 Fitzroy St, St Kilda ph (03) 9528 4488

The "Kinder Girls" let me pick a place for our next Girls' night out to celebrate my birthday and I picked Luxembourg.  This rebirth of Golden Fields into a bar & bistro offered a wonderful menu that was perfect for our dinners out, as the 4 of us love our increasingly "Melbourne" culture of sharing plates and small dishes.  

We were a little early as we were anticipating parking difficulties, but Jo somehow "magicked" a parking spot right round the corner from our destination and the lovely girls shouted me a cocktail from a pub down the road whilst we waited for our table.  I have a notoriously poor tolerance for alcohol and I giggled my way through this delicious Toffee Apple.

Once we were seated in the restaurant and ordered, we were greeted with a rustic bag of bread and some more-ish salt and butter.  Let me say my friends are now getting so good at lightly up my pictures (and not eating until the photos are done, haha), I love the lighting in this photo!

We kept some of our bread to go with the Smoky Eggplant Dip, sesame ($6) served with radishes.  It's quite a novelty to dip the wedges of radishes (including the leaves) into the dip.  We did find the dip to be less smokey and salty than we would've liked, and therefore a little underwhelming, but the crunchy radish made this a quirky dish and the dip also went really well with the bread (and some of that salt).

The Sea Bream Sashimi, horseradish, buttermilk and dill ($14) were little morsels of fresh fish with a slightly tangy dressing that was delicious, and a dish I really enjoyed.

But the Potato Skins with whipped cod roe and avruga ($11) was my favourite dish of the night.  The crunchy little potato skins with the whipped smooth filling was super tasty and more-ish, and like I said on my instagram  post, I could seriously eat my weight in these!

As it was the Melbourne Truffle festival that weekend, it was fitting for us to try the Truffle Raclette Toastie ($18).  It was undoubtedly the most expensive toastie I've had, but the truffle taste was pleasantly strong, and the cheesey truffle-y goodness was definitely worth it.

Then it's onto the Soft shell crab Sandwiches ($9 each) with tartare and iceburg lettuce.  My goodness these were Goooooood..........

Next we had the Fried broccoli, caper & raisin dressing, espelette and salted ricotta ($15), which I thought was a surprisingly tasty dish.  Who knew broccoli could be so tasty when fried?

The Globe artichoke barigoule, salt baked celeriac and duck egg ($17) was very pleasant and the fried duck egg was a highlight.

We rounded out the meal with an excellent side of hand cut chips ($8).

On to desserts :  I had wanted to try their canele ($5) since I spied them on the menu.  These were not as custardy in the centre as I liked but still very nicely caramelised on the outside and buttery inside.

The Mille-feuille, spiced quince and brown sugar cream ($14) was layers and layers of buttery pastry goodness (sourced from Tivoli Road Bakery I believe). Perfectly light, it was beautiful with the tangy quince and fluffy sweet cream.

And finally we shared the baked to order Chocolate Tart ($12) served with cultured Chantilly Cream.    Who could say no to this sweet warm tart on a cold winter night?

Look at the gooey flowing chocolatey centre!

Another wonderful meal out with my lovely friends, who so kindly treated me to this fantastic dinner at Luxembourg.  One of my favourite meals of the year, Luxembourg is definitely a destination I hightly recommend for a night out (sans kids!).  I will definitely have to come back with Hubby!