A decidely easy lunch venue offering French desserts served with an American heart.
Our experience
Chapel Street is Melbourne’s Rodeo Drive — home to frenetic shopping, orange tanned bodies, boozy nights, big brands, big hair and bigger cars. Just off the Prahran end of Chapel Street lies the quieter, somewhat eccentric, Greville Street. Opposite a small peaceful neighbourhood park, an abundance of natural light cascades through FOG’s brillantly large windows. Featuring a split-level dining area and a long galley bar that makes fabulous concoctions of sweet alcoholism at night, FOG is furnished in a contemporary manner of dark woods, highlighted by modernistic lighting sculptures of ruby red twigs twisted into spheres.
MoMo & Coco visited for a neo-classical American/Tex-Mex-accented 2-course prix fixe lunch menu ($35pp), which we stretched to a very leisurely 4 hours luncheon. Special thanks to the restaurant’s staff for their exact attentiveness throughout and for not expressly nor impliedy kicking us out at any point. For mains, our party selected braised veal ragout; multiple half-moons of mexican chicken quesadillas; and an enormous bowl of steamed mussels floating in a chili broth. To finish off these exceedingly generous, almost American-sized, but still very flavoursome main servings, we lingered over our wines a little longer with two irresistible selections to share between three persons. We again warn that the irresistibles were so delightfully generous in proportion that our three-person party struggled to finish.
From a five-item dessert menu, we sampled two desserts (excluding therefore, a tarte tartin, cheesecake and banoffe pie). The first irresistible sampled was the truly unforgettable “Mexique Chocolate Molten Cake.” Similar to a French-style fondant, it was served warm, and oozed with a river of chocolate from inside. It was topped with candied caramel, ginger and orange, and accompanied by an enormous dollop of caramel-y, treacle nut brittle icecream and twin halves of spiced poached pears …hmmmmm…irresistible…
The second irresistible sampled was the “Vanilla Creme Brulee.” Its surface was scattered with fresh strawberries, dusted with icing sugar, and one light tap with a spoon broke the perfectly thin, lightly flamed top layer to reveal an inside of creamy loveliness, yielding a very true and intense vanilla flavour.
Our verdict
Probably because it is located near Chapel Street, FOG may have a certain reputation at night. Nonetheless, it is a decidely easy lunch place — flavoursome and wholesome sized food, good value, flawless service. MoMo & Coco certainly have it on our list to come back for the molten chocolate cake, and the other irresistibles on the extensive and irresistible dessert menu!
Dessert adventure checklist
- ☑ Dessert destination: FOG Bar and Restaurant, 142 Greville Street, Prahran, Vic 3181.
- ☑ Budget: $$-$$$.
- ☑ Sweet irresistibles: Restaurant dessert. Modern European with Latino accent.
- ☑ Must-eat: The “Mexique Chocolate Molten Cake.”
- ☑ The short and sweet story: A decidedly easy lunch venue offering French desserts served with an American heart.
Dessert Correspondents 