Rouge (Armadale) 08/2011

This little cafe in Beattie Ave, is a surprise packet. Apart from a small, attractive menu it has heaps of almost irresistible prepared food and cakes for sale.
Prices range around. Who needs to cook when all these scrumptious goodies are around. $15 to $17 for most dishes. They feature artisan products, hand made pasta and hand rolled pastry and organic eggs!
They have a some footpath seating, a small front room and a covered terrace around the back, where we ate. Furnishing is strange. Chairs are uncomfortable and the tables are small.
It's not really a place to sit around in although some bench seating in the front
and interesting cushions look more relaxing.
Only when I saw my photographs did I appreciate how appropriate the name is in the terrace area where the whole area has a pink hue that you don't notice normally.
There is a red brick feature wall,
actually the wall of the adjacent building, with a lengthy quote in French expressing the joys of a sunny day (I think) and the name of a Burgundian chateau, Calon-Segur which, evidently, has a 'Salon de Tea'. The rear wall with a painted scene, features more pink.
We ate a dish of paparadelle with slow cooked duck leg, baby peas, cotechino sausage, topped with St Agur, a blue cheese ($17.5)

This was a big satisfying serve.
A slow braised pie of beef and mushroom encased in hand rolled pastry with a side salad of leafy greens ($17.5) was similarly satisfying. The light glinting off the leaves produced some surprising colours.
They also offered a soup, Croque Monsieur, oven baked potted cheese, a terrine, a meat or vegetarian tart, a Sheppard's pie or a chicken veloute pie, hand made sausage rolls and a fennel Parmesan, potato, tomato, artichoke avocado and pine nut salad with a balsamic dressing.
Deservedly popular.
Score: 13/20