I don’t get home to see my folks much as we live in different cities and life continually manages to get in the way. But when I do, it’s a pretty fantastic opportunity to hang out with the olds over food. Eating it, cooking it, looking at it, talking about it – it’s all good. Our family is a bunch of foodies and living food it what we do.
I first went down to Melbourne before my parents moved there, when I was a teenager, and my mum took me to this restaurant along Fitzroy Street in St Kilda, Topolino’s. I think it’s one of those restaurants that’s been there for the last 30 or 40 years. It’s not fancy, it’s not particularly expensive, but there’s a good reason it’s been there that long. Over Christmas I was down in Melbourne for the holiday and, having a lot of food to eat and cook in a small amount of time, what better way to re-live good memories than to hit up Topolino’s again.
We started off with a couple of drinks – a Heineken ($7.5), Coopers Sparkling ($7.5) and glass of the Merlot ($7.9) as we pondered the menu, facing the challenges of dining out: pizza or pasta? Creamy or tomato? Seafood or not? First world problems.
At an Italian restaurant, mum picks one dish and one dish only: the fettucine marinara. Topolino’s version ($19.9 for a main size, or $16.9 for a very, very generous entree size – mum wisely went for the latter) did not disappoint. As the blogger of foods, I took on the labourious task of trying everyone’s meal (if I must….). The marinara sauce tasted sufficiently seafoody and was well-seasoned and rich. The squid gets mega points for its incredible tenderness – no rubber bands here! The seafood was altogether plentiful, as you can see. In fact, we felt that the only difference between the main and entree sizes was the amount of pasta – we thought that the amount of seafood was probably the same in both.
Finding nemo
Dad followed suit, with a marinara pizza ($13.9). My initial thoughts of “a small? soft!” were batted away when a dinner plate-sized “small” pizza arrived, smoking hot out of the oven and teaming with huge prawns and mussels. This, of course, brought up the debate of the thin-crusted wood-fired pizza versus the normal commercial oven-cooked with a thicker base conundrum. My love of the sparsely-topped, super crunchy wood-fired version has officially been knocked off its podium by Topolino’s crunchy, chunky, seafood-filled, sufficiently charry explosion of deliciousness.
I like to be under the sea
I went for one of the specials of the night – fettucine with spicy sausage and peas ($16.9). I have to admit that whilst mine was rich, delicious and altogether plentiful…it just wasn’t possible for it to stack up to the two marinaras. That said, the sauce was very well flavoured. The peas provided a nice interruption of lightness to the dish and three plump, slightly spicy sausages were intertwined with the mass of well-cooked pasta.
itsa spicy sausage
We were all sufficiently stuffed by the end; I couldn’t finish my incredibly generous serving of pasta. We took a super pleasant walk around the back streets and down to the esplanade while the sun was still out. An amazing night 🙂
Topolino’s
87 Fitzroy Street
St Kilda VIC 3182
Food? 9/10…what the hell, let’s go 10/10. Great value for money, expertly cooked food and delicious as hell.
Drinks? 8/10 – not a bad drinks list at all. A good range of wines both by the glass and bottle, over a decent array of prices. Probably could have been a few more interesting beers, though
Atmosphere: 8/10 – the fun, friendly, relaxed, welcoming atmostphere of the restaurant draws a range of clientele – parties, families, a group of young lads, casual dates. Too many bratty kids…but hey, they’ve gotta eat and I’m sure I was one once.
thegirlmusteat 