Cafe Lounge

It’s funky, quirky, friendly and cozy. Not surprisingly, Café Lounge has been voted Best Small Bar 2010 by Time Out magazine. It was the venue for a friend’s Sunday night birthday get-together for a group of about 30 of us. Very convenient to get to (bus it to Oxford St); it’s quite near the Colombian Hotel which is corner of Crown and Oxford. Just walk down Crown a little ways and you’ll see it lit up off to your right down what looks like a laneway. What you get here is a combo of bar (including nice range of cocktails priced at around $16), café and restaurant with djs and/or live music to boot. It’s also a creative space showing the work of local artists.

Our $30 per-head banquet included entrees (ranging between $10 and $13), pizzas (around $18) and sweets. I tried Hand cut potato wedges w/sweet chilli salad and aioli (great Winter comfort food); Salt & pepper squid (I want more and am still raving about this to anyone who’ll listen and I’ll be going back for my own dish of this melt-in-the-mouth delight); Chickpea battered zucchini flowers stuffed with pumpkin, tofu, herbs and almonds.

Next came a selection of pizzas (around $18) and the ones I tried were delicious: Chorizo — baby spinach, chorizo and balsamic onions; Anna — roast pumpkin, zucchini, sun-dried tomatoes, pinenuts, sage, blue cheese & dressed roquette. Mains range between $12 and $18 and cater for vegetarians and the sad and sorry rest of us. You can choose from dishes including Fish Pie, Stew of the day, Warm roast vegetable salad, Pork & cabbage meat balls. I didn’t get to the sweets because I didn’t have room but they looked tempting so there’s another reason to go back.

Café Lounge pretty much suits everyone. Good for groups because you can be noisy and move about without feeling as if you’re bothering other people (or at least no-one seemed to mind); you could sit here alone and not feel uncomfortable and I’m adding it to my list of ideal ‘first date’ places for that casual meet-up.

Lots to see at: www.cafelounge.com.au