14 Jul St Ali, South Melbourne

So it’s truffle festival time in Melbourne and I decided to check out one of the more accessible truffle food items available: the truffle toastie. Because I was unable to attend the market at Caulfield Racecourse and try it there, I chose to sample St Ali’s offering.

$18 bought me a toastie with Gruyere and shavings of truffle. (Good Food listed the toastie as being $15 – maybe it was a typo?) It arrived pretty quickly and was accompanied by a mound of tasty salad. With great anticipation I cut into the toastie, expecting to be met with the rich, earthy aroma and flavour of truffle…but there was none. Not a whiff. I slowly worked through the toastie, checking for anything resembling truffle shavings. I did notice a few (barely any) flecks of darkness embedded in the cheese so I carefully excised them, hoping to taste something there, but try as I might, I couldn’t. I was pretty confused and thought that maybe I’d been given a plain toastie by accident, but the only other toastie on the menu was one with prosciutto.

I have to say, it’s been quite a while since I was really disappointed with the food I’ve ordered and I was surprised that this experience happened at one of Melbourne’s most popular cafes.

Truffle Toastie ($18)

St Ali
12-18 Yarra Pl
South Melbourne, VIC, 3205
(03) 9686 2990
http://www.stali.com.au