Charcoal Lane: dessert
About a billion years ago – or a few months, depending on how much you like hyberbole – we had dinner on Smith Street with Maria and Daz.
Dinner was okay, but wasn’t quite satisfying enough for us to want to eat dessert there. So when Maria suggested we head to Charcoal Lane for dessert, we packed up and headed down.
When there, the boys selected individual desserts (priced at $16-$17) while Maria and I decided to share the dessert platter for two ($34)
Let me tell you – if you’re ordering dessert and there’s two of you – order the dessert platter. Because we basically received three full sized desserts in all AND we got to try all the sweet desserts (there was also a cheese option that wasn’t on the platter). Win win!
We had:
Baked lemon aspen tart, with yoghurt ice cream, maple syrup snap. It turns out that lemon aspen is fruit from a tree that grows in the rainforests of Queensland. You can see one of the aspen fruits in the photo. It was very tart with a flavour that’s a blend of grapefruit and lime, as well as being a little medicinal with a hint of eucalypt.
Flourless orange pudding with vanilla bean ice cream and orange crisps. This was the full size orange pudding, though I wouldn’t have called it a pudding myself, as it looked like a flourless cake. Nonetheless, “that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet”, and it was enjoyable – the most important thing!
Poached pear frangipane pudding and butterscotch ice cream. This was also the full sized pudding (and again, not what I would call a pudding! But is that just me?). All the ice creams were really good quality, and I loved the fruit crisps that were used as garnish.
Raspberry and rosella flower cannelloni with fresh strawberry and native mint salad. Quite a unique dessert, with the cannelloni made from raspberry jelly and filled with a tart raspberry mousse. On the side was a salad of diced strawberries and native mint. It would have been nice to have had a touch more mint as there only appeared to be a couple of teeny spriggs, but otherwise I really liked this dessert.
And finally, there was a small serve of the dark chocolate parfait, that came with honeycomb. The small amount was enough, as we’d already had a lot of sugar by this stage!
Charcoal Lane is a restaurant with an admirable aim – it is run by Mission Australia and provides traineeships and apprenticeships to Aboriginal and disadvantaged young people. I’m definitely keen to return one day for a proper meal.
For more posts on Charcoal Lane, check out these blogs:
[googleMap name=”Charcoal Lane” width=”600″ height=”300″ directions_to=”false”]136 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy, VIC, Australia[/googleMap]
Charcoal Lane
136 Gertrude Street
Fitzroy
Phone: 03 9418 3400
Web: charcoallane.com.au
January 8, 2011 @ 12:05 am
BFF, when I next come to Melbourne, can we just eat a dozen natural oysters with lemon each for dinner and then go share a dessert platter like this (or exactly this)? I’ll even let you have anything orange-based completely to yourself, because that’s the kind of generous person I am.
January 10, 2011 @ 11:56 am
You are SO generous! 😉
January 10, 2011 @ 12:55 pm
It’s like my heart is made of gold and angels.
January 8, 2011 @ 12:45 am
Desserts look good and they have the kind of flavour profile I like, plus I almost practically live in Fitzroy! Win!
January 10, 2011 @ 11:55 am
It’s so convenient it must be a sign 🙂 Tho living near Fitzroy means a lot of choices for dining out!
January 8, 2011 @ 9:06 am
Oh hello! It’s such a foodie thing to do to hop to another eatery for dessert! Love it. Anything to end with a good finale and dessert at CL was the perfect choice yo
January 10, 2011 @ 11:53 am
Haha I know, isn’t it just! Should do it more often, I think – two venues in one night is fun!
January 8, 2011 @ 6:15 pm
Stunning! So many desserts and pretty great value with people who are willing to share =)
January 10, 2011 @ 11:52 am
Yep, it’s definitely good value over an individual dessert. 🙂
January 8, 2011 @ 6:25 pm
Oh they look great!
January 10, 2011 @ 11:51 am
Maria & I were pleased with our dessert – the boys looked on enviously! 🙂
January 8, 2011 @ 7:43 pm
that’s another place i wanna try dessert at now =). mmmm
January 10, 2011 @ 11:50 am
Hah, you and your dessert tooth 🙂
January 9, 2011 @ 12:27 am
Love Charcoal lane and very sad that head chef Damien has left the place….wonder if it will be still as good?
January 10, 2011 @ 11:49 am
Oh I hadn’t heard that he has left. Only one way to find out tho, right?
January 11, 2011 @ 2:08 pm
I remember seeing that cannelloni at the Taste festival. It still looks like a hotdog.
😛
January 12, 2011 @ 10:40 am
Hah! It tastes better than a hot dog, I can assure you 🙂
January 16, 2011 @ 12:21 am
Did I hear desserts? I’m in, especially when it’s a dessert platter.
January 18, 2011 @ 8:08 am
Hah your sweets stomach is greater than mine – you could probably polish off a platter by yourself 😉