Fedele's

Fedele's must be one of the strangely located restaurants. It just sits off the main Springvale Road by itself, nestled amongst residential houses. I'm always amazed that they have customers. I must have driven past the restaurant a few hundred times, but have never even thought about eating there.

Hence, when my friend suggested we go eat there for a catch up, I thought it would be great to finally see how this place is. I met up with a couple of high school friends who I hadn't seen for a while for dinner.

I arrived a little early so went inside to sit down first. The interior was an old style looking restaurant. There were wine bottles displayed all over the place. I was greeted at the front bar by a very casual waiter, who then yelled to another waiter to seat me. The second waiter then asked the first waiter if I had a booking, which I had. I was seated and asked if I wanted a drink. I ordered a glass of wine for myself as I wasn't sure if everyone else wanted wine.

I looked around to find that although it was 7pm, it wasn't very full yet. Later on through the night, the place would be mostly filled. I watched food being served to other tables and the dishes looked quite large and full. According to their website, Fedele's describe themselves as "a perfect blend of 'old style' service and authentic Italian cuisine with a contemporary twist".

When everyone else arrived, we ordered our meals while chatting away. Much had changed in regards to people's lives, but yet things still remained the same in terms of how people behaved. We caught up on gossip regarding class mates and the "where are they now" discussions. We were asked if we wanted bread, which we did. I'm guessing bread isn't free if you have to order it. The bread turned out to be very ordinary and a bit stale.

I passed on entrees and ordered a mains of a Trio of Dishes. The trio of dishes included a Duck Pie, which sat on a salad of apples and cucumber, Roast lamb on a beetroot salad and Crispy Quail on with some salad. I found the duck pie to be very dry, and the flavours didn't work well with the sweet apple and cucumber salad. The roast lamb was cooked to perfection, but lacked any flavour. Finally, the quail was my favourite of the three. It was cooked very nicely and had a nice spicy salt and chilli skin.

For desserts, I got the Trio of Chocolates. This included a chocolate pudding, chocolate tart and chocolate parfait. The pudding was deliciously decandent, with warm chocolat oozing out as I broke it. The tart was ok, but nothing too special. The parfait was good, with a light texture.

The ambience was ok. It felt a bit muted and down for my liking. For some reason, I just didn't feel the vibe of the place. That sounds a bit zen, but I wasn't completely sold on the ambience. The service was good enough. It was fairly informal, with the older staff making a few jokes but not really engaging with us much.

Overall, I think the prices they charged are too high. I didn't really like my mains much, but dessert was better. Just reading the menu, no dishes really captured me and I don't think I will come back. My mains wasn't very good but the desserts were better.

Overall Rating: 11/20, Food is ok and ambience a bit lacking.

Scores: 1-9: Unacceptable, don't bother. 10-11: Just OK,some shortcomings. 12: Fair. 13: Getting there. 14: Recommended. 15: Good. 16: Really good. 17: Truly excellent. 18: An outstanding experience. 19-20:Approaching perfection, Victoria's best.