Cafe Vue Lunchbox

430 Little Collins St, Melbourne, 3000. (03) 9691 389
Score: 20/40
Whoa. What happened? The last time I went to Cafe Vue and had their $15 lunch box, it was absolutely adorable and cute, complete with a tiny little portion of leek and potato soup. This time, I have to say, it was an almost complete disaster.

The starter was a smoked salmon rillettes that look suspiciously like taramasalata. It was quite tasty, but the presentation left a lot to be desired – as you can see from the picture, it was placed in front of me smeared around the cup it was served in. It looked like someone had stuck a finger in and given it a jiggle, then wiped the excess off. Ew.

The salad was a tabbouleh. It was terrible. Flavourless and boring and very stingy on the very thing that gives tabbouleh its backbone: parsley. But there was enough red onion for me to partake in some chewy on the way back to the office in case I had to talk to anyone closely during my afternoon.

The hare and pumpkin samosa was quite pleasant, but nothing to jump up and down about, but could have been brought alive by some sort of dipping accoutrements. Minted yoghurt, per se?

The caramel slice was lovely and you could see on its little face that it was DETERMINED to try to help you forget previous disappointments . It was lovely, but try as it might, I couldn’t.  Bleurgh.

Website: www.vuedemonde.com.au

Service:  8/10
Food: 3/10
Value for money: 3/10
Ambience: 6/10