St Ali (South Melbourne, Melbourne)

Recently I took a last minute business trip to Melbourne but was not expecting much, if any, opportunity to check foodie places out. Well, little did I know it would turn out to be meals in 3 places I would be blogging about.

The first one is St Ali. I have heard about their coffee (of course!) but didn't realise they had a cafe in South Melbourne. This is where my rather new Melbourne office is located. When we arrived at the office, it was lunch time and DD had a flash of inspiration to check out St Ali. Out came google maps and before you know it a group of us were ensconced in this very hip warehouse like cafe.

After poring over the menu and realising the prices were not your average cafe prices, we decided on the following.

Porky Pig's Christmas Lunch - Prosciutto and Brie toastie with cranberry sauce.

The Daddy - Breakfast bun with Cumberland sausage, bacon, scrambled egg and tomato chutney.

Seoul Searching - Kimchi scrambled eggs with pan-fried scalloped, coriander, puffed rice and crispy shallots.

Smokin' Sanchez - Spicy black bean and chorizo stew with pulled pork, poached egg, aged feta and smoked jalapeños.

Parsnip soup with toast - this was one of the day's specials.

Verdict: The general feedback was the food was good. I think one of my colleagues was underwhelmed by The Daddy but stated it was delicious enough. I liked my Seoul Searching and enjoyed the cubes of scallops that were stirred through the scrambled eggs. I didn't like the amount of coriander on the top of the dish so I pushed most of it aside. :)

And obviously we ordered their coffee. I found their cappuccino was good but was it the best? Not really.

The dish names on the menu were fascinating. But I personally felt the dishes were generally over priced for the size of the servings.

But I did love the vibe, the setting and the hipster feel. It just felt like a cool place to hang out. I can see why this place is so popular.

St Ali
12-18 Yarra Place
South Melbourne
VIC 3205
Facebook: St Ali

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