Gazi

Salad top

My friend Em and I have been lunching together for many years – back to 2007 according to the blog – and possibly even earlier.

Over the years our friendship has seen several job changes, a wedding (mine), two babies (hers), and many many lunches, and we are still going strong.


Prosecco

Our latest lunch was at Gazi. I liked the venue when it was The Press Club, and even though it’s a completely different fit and feel, it’s always felt somewhat familiar. I’d been there before for dessert one evening last year, and for lunch it’s a much more sedate (read: quieter) place – much more suited for a catch up.

We ordered a couple of glasses of prosecco while we decided on what to eat. I find it very hard to think of mid-range places in/near the CBD that takes bookings or that’s not so popular you have to queue, and Gazi was my suggestion. It probably wasn’t an ideal place for someone who can be picky with what they eat (Em) but we managed.

Dips

We were talked into dips by our waiter, opting for two on his suggestion – babaganoush and taramosalata ($9.50 each or 3 for $19). The taramosalata came with a prawn cracker on top, and both dips were served with pita that had been warmed on the grill. They were both good, but in hindsight we should’ve disregarded our waiter’s suggestion and just had one dip because, even though they were small, after that we had souvas…

(We also agreed to extra bread to finish off the dips, which was a mistake.)

Sweet potato souva

Because Em doesn’t really eat much meat and doesn’t like dark chicken meat (I think), we ordered two souvas – one each. Em’s one had sweet potato keftedes, pumpkin seeds, tahini, and pickled onion ($9.50).

Chicken souva

While I had the chicken souva, with chips, parsley, onion, mustard mayo ($9.50).

Mine was pretty good, it had a thick piece of juicy chicken that came from the rotisserie, soft fluffy bread – and chips inside a souva is always genius.

Salad

Em talked me into a green salad, and we had the Agoúri, which consisted of cucumber, garlic oil, almonds, feta ($11.50). This was a really good side, and a very welcome green crunchy counterpart to our otherwise carby, fatty meal.

Gazi

While it wasn’t really Em’s kind of place we still had a great catch up lunch together. We probably shouldn’t have eaten so much bread – the dips and the souva combined was a tad too much – but afterwards we took a big walk around the city which helped.

I still kinda miss The Press Club and I can’t believe I never blogged it, though Gazi is fine too. Just try not to eat an excessive amount of bread, like we did.

Gazi
2 Exhibition Street
Melbourne VIC 3000
Phone: 03 9207 7444
Web: gazirestaurant.com.au


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