Gigi Baba (Collingwood) 08

There are a lot of recipes that never seem to work out well when you try to follow them and here’s one for opening a restaurant that is astonishing because it worked. Open with no fanfare, don’t have any sign with the name displayed, don’t even have the street number displayed and don’t take reservations. Just have very good food. That’s Gigi Baba which is between 100 and 104 Smith St. Collingwood! Yes it is at 102 if you like. There is a bar and a table, also for sharing, at each end of the room which is sparsely decorated with a few photographs of a Turkish theme

and a large rug on the wall

In fashion, the dishes are all entree size and designed to share. They are small, sometimes very small, quite lightly spiced with nothing overwhelming the delicacy of the dishes. We had what amounted to a 13 course menu of considerable variety. The first three dishes were a bean salad,

a slice of air dried beef
and a piece of barbecued haloumi. again very tastily seasoned was A fish salad followed





and then a superb prawn wrapped in eggplant.

A very, no pun intended, moorish lamb cutlet

followed by a most delicate serve of Murray cod presented in a small finjan. Quail







and fish in batter came next








and then a broad bean salad and a vine leaf wrapped 'cigar' of rice

before the dessert an excellent hazelnut mousse accompanied by an apricot and a prune creation













Wine There is a modest range at either as 120, 240 or 500 ml.
Price By the time we finished it ran to about $75/ person with only a small contribution from the wine.
Comments: This is the sort of place that makes Melbourne dining so exiting. I loved the meal tho' other elements of the restaurant were a bit ordinary.
Score: 15/20