Solarino


7 Howey Place, Melbourne 3000
Visited: 7th and 11th Oct 2011

We visited this place twice.  The first time we came, we missed breakfast (thanks to Metro as usual - early train came early and late train came even LATER @_@) and the lunch menu had already started.

No matter.  I had a fantastic mocha - it came in a tall glass, and had a distinct, rich chocolate flavour mingling with the coffee.  Love!


I had the spaghettini with meatballs which was really yummy, had an amazing herby flavour with parmesan grated over it.  Unfortunately I forgot about taking a photo of it before digging in!


MerlinFan had the gnocchi napoli with cheese which came in a steaming shallow pan.  It was delicious, really soft and cheesy, not doughy at all.  The pasta was really filling, she couldn't actually finish it despite how good it was.  MerlinFan is still salivating just reminiscing of it...

Gnocchi napoli (photo from Solarino website) $22.90
Lunch was a bit on the pricey side, but service was good and the place had a very nice ambience.  So, a week later, here we were back again, this time to try breakfast.


I had the mocha again and was surprised this time, that it came in a regular small glass, and did not taste quite as distinctly chocolatey and rich as it had when I had it at lunch time last week.  :(  I was a bit disappointed, as I thought I had found the best mocha I'd had in a long while!  Was my amazing mocha the other day just a fluke, or were they having an off day today???


Now on the menu there is Eggs Scrambled with sour dough, as well as Scrambled Eggs with avocado & maple glazed streaky bacon.  So I ordered Scrambled eggs, thinking they were two obviously different dishes, but then my Scrambled Eggs came as Eggs Scrambled, without the avocado and bacon sides.  So I had to tell the waitress I had wanted that as well - it wasn't a big deal, it only took a couple of minutes for them to do the sides and it was brought to me later in a separate plate.


Once again I didn't take pictures - was distracted by having to make annoying phone calls to Melcorp (see Tales from the Pessimist's Crypt) and that didn't really allow me to enjoy or savour my breakfast as much as I'd like.  Anyway the scrambled eggs were good but nothing to write home to mum about; the bacon had a nice sweetness to it.


MerlinFan had the french toast, which came with a few poached pears and maple syrup.


French Toast with poached fruit and maple syrup $13.90
The french toast was pretty ordinary, and MerlinFan thought it was a shame that the toast absorbed the maple syrup really quickly.  They could also have been a bit more generous with the fruit - there were only a few meagre pieces of poached pears.


Overall, lunch trumps breakfast, hands down. 


Solarino on Urbanspoon


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