276 Brunswick St, Fitzroy 3065
Date visited: 4th October 2014
I had intended to revisit Stagger Lee's to try their French toast - only I hadn't foreseen it being this soon. We had wanted to return to Hammer & Thong to try some new items on their menu (changed since we first visited) however when we got there before noon, there was already a hoard outside and we planned to catch a movie in the arvo so were not keen for a long wait. Anyway, we backtracked and walked down to Stagger Lee's instead.
It wasn't completely full and we got seats straight away. Unfortunately, after our waitress brought us water, we were left unattended for probably 10-15 minutes without even menus to look at whilst the staff chatted, socialised, I'm sure you get the picture.
Sigh. Usually I'm more tolerant but was already pretty impatient as like I said, we had intended to catch a movie, so I had to ask the waitress for menus. I think she then remembered we were there and took our drink orders too. Bizarre, how she returned a few minutes later with a coffee asking me something incoherent over the blaring music. Turns out she was confused over coffee orders - anyway it wasn't mine and she went asking my neighbours if it was their order. @_@
MerlinFan had The Regulate, which was strawberry, apple and coconut juice. She's into juices these days, was pretty refreshing.
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| The Regulate |
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| Magic |
MerlinFan had the Frank 'N' Beans.
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| Frank 'N' Beans |
Look at the yolk ooze. A perfectly poached egg and buttered toast sat upon a mound of saffron baked beans, smoked tender ham hock, chorizo sprinkled with herb and garlic crumb. The bold flavours worked wonderfully together, however the tang and saltiness got a bit overwhelming for MerlinFan toward the end and she had to wave the white flag. Being a salt freak, I was happy to steal some off MerlinFan's plate, but it would have been nice to have two eggs instead of two chorizos to neutralise some of that intense saltiness.
Surprise, surprise, I had the French toast with coco pops and salted caramel.
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| French toast |
This sure takes the cake for one of the prettiest French toasts I've laid my eyes on in a while. It tasted every bit (if not, more!) as good as it looked. A slab of thick, fluffy, buttery brioche amongst smears of coco pop cream pat and drizzles of salted caramel. The toast was still eggy in the middle, and the bits which had soaked up that amazing salted caramel were both caramelly and salty - just heavenly! Throw in chunks of honeycomb, coco pops and tangy raspberry crumble, a few purple flowers to add to that vibrancy and you've got yourself a piece of edible art. The vanilla ice cream was the only thing vanilla about this dish, but was perfect to cut through the explosion of flavours on the plate. The delicate portion size was perfect as well, not too rich or sweet to the point that you feel a bit queasy.
The food and coffee at Stagger Lee's are definitely worth the trip, and there are believe it or not, still other dishes I really want to try here. Service, could still be improved - was a bit slow too, even the other day when it was less busy. Would still return for the awesome food and coffees, but perhaps on a less busy period because hey, let's be honest, no one likes being left waiting.
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