Le Traiteur

Le Traiteur

552 Lonsdale St, Melbourne

(Ph) 9670 0039

☆☆☆

Lunch with P again! I'm yet again going through the Cheap Eats Guide and finding lunch venues - this place was given ☆☆☆ for takeaway and breakfast - it never mentions lunch so I figured good takeaway means good all day food =)

We got here at 1pm - was pretty empty, only 1/3 of the cafe was seated! We chose a window seat =) Though 20mins later the whole cafe was filled - we came at a good time for once!

The menu had big meals (dinner-like meals) as well as baguettes - $11 dine in or $10 takeaway. P and I both wanted baguettes =D

The list sounded soo good! We got it down to 4 -
Pork, sage & orange terrine, cherry tomatoes & grain mustard
Marinated salmon, avocado & egg salad
Roast duck, baked pear & caramelised onion
Spicy beef sausage, chilli jam & chedder cheese

In the end P decided to get the pork terrine and I got the marinated salmon =)

Pork Terrine

Wow the baguette is overflowing with stuff! Restaurants' are never this generous =P We weren't sure if we should pick it up and eat it or cut it with knife and fork. So we looked at the table next to us (who had ordered 2 baguetttes too) and they were chomping into it with their hands so we followed suit - except my ingredients kept falling off as I bit into it ><

P's baguette was a little hard but the pork, sage & orange terrine was really tasty =) I'm a fan of this anyway - it tastes like the steamed egg and pork cake you get in Vietnamese broken rice (see Vietnam Noodle House) But for some reason P was expecting like some roast pork so he was slightly disappointed it wasn't, even though he thought it was tasty anyway =P We weren't a fan of the cherry tomatoes though -they had preserved/dried it and tasted kinda bitter =/

My Marinated salmon, avocado & egg salad was yum =D

Marinated salmon

They did not even TRY to put all the stuff inside the baguette, it was just fully overflowing =P The salmon was really tasty - it was kinda like smoked salmon but not really, just - marinated yeah =) There were potatoes in the egg salad which I was disappointed to find - I don't like potato salad =( what's with cafe's putting potatoes with salmon?! Do they really go together? See Earl Canteen. Their homemade mayo sauce was delicious with the salmon and avocado though =) Plus my baguette was softer than P's which made it slightly nicer =P

I think they overtoasted the pork baguettes. The table next to us had ordered the exact same 2 baguettes, except only ate half of their pork baguette - they took all the pork and left the bread. I'm assuming it's 'cause they thought it was too hard/burnt too =P

P also ordered a plate of Shoestring fries $4.50

Shoestring fries

That's pretty cheap for such a big plate of chips! Though it's guaranteed they buy the fries cooked and frozen so they just have to deep fry it once and it stays crunchy, unlike when I try to make it at home and I don't let it freeze for long enough so it doesn't stay as crunchy =( Too bad they oversalted it! I hate oversalted fries (like the McDonald's shake fries) =(

Food~

Pork, sage & orange terrine, cherry tomatoes & grain mustard - 7/10 - was pretty good, if only the bread wasn't overbaked!

Marinated salmon, avocado & egg salad - 7.5/10 - I really liked mine =) would have been better if they don't have potatoes in it =P


Service~
4/5 - great service, waitress came and told us what the specials for the day were, and were very prompt when we asked for tomato sauce (and again! =P)

Atmosphere~
4/5 - was so nice sitting by the window on this beautiful sunny day =)

Will definitely want to come back and try the other baguettes!

C.
xo