Thursday 2 April 2009

Gigibaba: a most sminki pinki addition to Smith Street

Gigibaba
102 Smith Street, Collingwood (map)
9486 0345


After two failed attempts to visit Gigibaba since it opened late last year, I was determined that nothing would stop me from dining there the third time around. Contrary to popular belief, it is not actually impossible to get in at Ismail Tosun's tiny, incredibly popular, no-bookings, modern Turkish restaurant. You just need to:
  • make peace with the fact that there will almost certainly be a wait of at least 40 minutes;

  • get at least one of your party to show up as early as possible to get your name put on the waiting list; and

  • go somewhere else for a pre-dinner drink and await your phone call.

There are plenty of great places to drink nearby in Fitzroy while you wait (eg Gertrude Street Enoteca, Caz Reitop's Dirty Secrets). Birdie and I went across the road to enjoy a mocktail and an umeshu, respectively, in the spic 'n span Cocoro Japanese Pottery Cafe. I must return to Cocoro soon to buy one of the cute little ceramic spoons and to try the gobo salad that the latest Cheap Eats guide raves about.

Cocoro Japanese cafeCocoro Japanese cafe

We were called back to Gigibaba and were seated at one of the few tables at the front. From our vantage point, we had a great view of the sumptuously-patterned bar, twinkling under a loose canopy of threaded, oversized, low-wattage, bare light bulbs. Drool.

Gigibaba

It's billed as a "Turkish tapas" restaurant. Although the dishes are inexpensive, bear in mind that they are very small serves - and five or six dishes adds up quickly! The food is, however, delicious.

When I'd told her where I'd be going to dinner, one of my Melbourne Gastronome readers had insisted I try the pickled octopus salad ($8). She was right to recommend it - the octopus was tender and oh so nicely piquant, very similar to the way my nonna makes it. Thanks, B! :)

Pickled octopus salad

The skinny little vineleaf sarma rolls were filled with lamb and served with a dill yoghurt ($9). I also loved the baharat spiced BBQ mushrooms topped with a parsley and feta crust ($9). Birdie normally hates feta but even she was won over by the stuffed mushies.

Vineleaf lamb sarmaBaharat spiced BBQ mushrooms

Bizarrely enough, the highlight of the meal for me was the $8 cauliflower. Yeah, I know. Cauliflower! The world's most boring vegetable! And yet... spiced with zatar... it was heavenly.

Zatar spiced cauliflower salad

We finished off the savoury dishes with lovely fresh eggplant-wrapped BBQ prawns ($12) and (an admittedly slightly unexciting) braised rabbit with sucuk ($18). I'm not normally much of a bread eater, but the restaurant-made bread brought out to mop up the rabbit sauce was just beautiful.

Eggplant-wrapped BBQ prawnsBraised rabbit with sucuk

I loved how all of the surplus chairs were hooked up on the wall facing the bar, serving a Brother Baba Budan-like decorative function as well as a utilitarian one. :)

Gigibaba

Bird and I then shared the dessert platter (I think it was $12 or $15). The desserts offered in the platter change daily. We were served two little diamonds of dense, moist orange and almond cake (again, very similar to how nonna makes it!), two little ladyfinger pastries that just dissolved deliciously in the mouth, and a gorgeous pot of crème brûlée containing both ginger and one of my very favourite liqueurs, Poire Williams. Best crème brûlée I've had in ages.

Gigibaba desserts

As was mentioned in the Epicure, Gigibaba is a little TOO popular for its own good, and - for the sake of the sanity of its small family of staff - has cut back on its opening hours (no more weekend brunches or Sunday dinners). It's still open for dinner Tuesdays to Sundays, but be prepared for a bit of a wait. It's worth it!

Gigibaba

7 comments:

bunchesmcginty said...

That is quite a mid-week feast!

Hopefully you'll see me back on the fatty circuit, now that I have a job again...two in fact.

Ben said...

I went there last week when I was back in Melbourne and LOVED it - service was fantastic, we got the banquet and the food was sumptuous and virtually never ending and we only waited half an hour!

We left there stuffed to the gills with fantastic food - the moussaka was my girlfriend's favourite, my sister the vego loved the braised runner beans and I can't go past the kofta and pan fried snapper. I'm also not a dessert guy but the quince with creme anglais was amazing. I'd highly recommend it.

Temasek said...

Going to try and get in this saturday night - but I'm not holding my breath. As for cauliflower ... hhmm. Cauliflower with white sauce, in fact anything with white sauce, is pretty boring ... but stir fry cauliflower with some turmeric, cummin and carraway seeds, and you'll be wanting seconds!!

claire said...

Congrats again on the job, Bunches :)

Hi Ben, glad to hear you loved it as much as I did! We didn't have any of the dishes you mentioned - sounds like I'll have to go back and try them. Thanks for dropping by!

So, did you get in on Saturday Temasek? :)

Temasek said...

Unfortunately I was enjoying South Paw a little "too much" so we had snackage there instead!

Anonymous said...

Hey that's me in one of those pics. Lucky I am not having an affair!

claire said...

Oops, sorry anonymous! Yes, just as well you're not having an affair. :)
If having your photo on the blog bugs you, please email me and tell me which photo you're in - I could take the photo down, or blur/crop you out or something.