Ici, Fitzroy
This morning I finally made it to Ici, 359 Napier Street, Fitzroy, Tel +61 3 9417 2274. Apart from the name, there's nothing French about this place, unless you count the "French Toast" with mixed Winter berries, roasted chesnut marscapone and syrup. But who cares? This groovier-than-thou back-street cafe is an excellent spot for a leisurely brekky. Very impressive.
The Ici menu is anything but run-of-the-mill. There's scrambled tofu with Thai mint, white bean miso paste, mushrooms and spinach; Kedgeree spiced rice with smoked cod, egg and minted yoghurt; organic apple and oat porridge; semolina pudding with toasted almonds; and an indian spiced omelette with dukah and corriander chutney.
I played it safe with scrambled eggs, sourdough toast, house-baked beans, onion marmalade and a goat sausage. Yes... that's right... a goat sausage. Tasty. The coffee was excellent, too.
Next time I think I'll go the buffalo banger instead.
17/20 "nice goat"
The Ici menu is anything but run-of-the-mill. There's scrambled tofu with Thai mint, white bean miso paste, mushrooms and spinach; Kedgeree spiced rice with smoked cod, egg and minted yoghurt; organic apple and oat porridge; semolina pudding with toasted almonds; and an indian spiced omelette with dukah and corriander chutney.
I played it safe with scrambled eggs, sourdough toast, house-baked beans, onion marmalade and a goat sausage. Yes... that's right... a goat sausage. Tasty. The coffee was excellent, too.
Next time I think I'll go the buffalo banger instead.
17/20 "nice goat"
Labels: 17, beans, cod, fitzroy, goat, ici, kedgeree, sausages, tofu
posted by Jamie Wodetzki at 12:16 pm
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7 Comments:
ici - fantastic food, but the wait staff are incerdibly rude. sadly I will not be returning, no matter how good their eggs are.
I used to live across the road from Ici. Never found the staff particularly rude, but just a bit vague and hippish - it's all part of the vibe and what makes it great. Don't go if you can't afford to relax and wait.
(excellent blog, BTW)
I've been to ICI 4 times in the last 2 weeks. I'm a fan. My breakfast of choice is bacon, fried eggs, toast and mushrooms. sunny side eggs always have nice runny yolk. It's tiny, but I've not had a problem getting in. Expect a wait if you go around brunch time. Staff are young and alternative - have never been rude to me. Good sweets too - especially the donuts - I had the lemon butter donut, it was great! Good coffee too. I love it, I'll definetly be back.
I also used to live across the road and never once found the staff rude (and I went in for coffee almost 3x/week). Unpretentious. Excellent coffee (dare I say the best in Melbourne?), tasty breakfasts, and a great place to spend a lazy saturday (before or after the breakfast crowd though).
Ici has the best baked beans ever. I regularly have them with poached eggs and avocado. And good on them for giving you decent knives to eat with.
this place is not deserving of the score. I had a dumpling soup... packet dumplings. My friend had some beetroot relish on hers, over seasoned under cooked beets. The eggs were shallow poached and therefore mis-shapen and over-cooked on the bottom. staff were pretty useless. tho I feel sorry for the kitchen staff. that box they work in is smaller than my home kitchen. Coffee was good. muffins on the counter although baked on premises were burnt. nice try.
I lived down the road from ICI and would regularly endure their painfully hipster wait staff for a delicious coffee. Blank looks, disinterest in taking orders, slow delivery - sometimes I wondered if they needed reminding that they were getting paid to bring coffees to people. I like the owner, but I would suggest they replace their snobbish hipster staff with people that don't look injured or blank when politely asked for food or coffee. Brilliant blog by the way. Taa.
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