Goodness Gracious...Great Balls of Meat

Who would have thought a restaurant could survive serving meat balls alone? Well, these talented Melbourne folk at The Meatball and Wine Bar have succeeded in just that. Then again, google tells me that the humble meatball was a staple for the Romans, with a recipe for the meatball appearing in one of the first ever cookbooks …. In 25 AD!

I can’t rave enough about this place, from the novelty factor of the “balls”, the schmick interiors, our charming waiter.. the fact that you didn’t have to queue and can actually book a table, makes this place a cracker.

We took a seat outside and had a drink whist we waited for our table.  We loved that you could see inside and check out the balls being served to other diners in the window (good for preventing ball envy later in the eve).

We started with a pinot grigio delivered in this super cute carafe (labelled with our wine of choice).

Half a glass down, we were then swiftly seated at our table, and presented with the menu…

 We all loved the simplicity and variety of the menu...made for some relatively easy choices

We started with the truffle salami, the fior di latte and the mini balls. 

At the last minute we threw in the sliders (loved that you could choose your meat and your sauce). 

On the advice of our waiter, we chose the Pork slider with a white sauce

The truffle salami had a melt in your mouth texture, it was so delicately flavoured and went perfectly with the fior di latte

As for the mini balls, these are a must.. they came with three sauces a home-made tomato based bbq sauce, an aioli and a green sauce… all three were delicious, although we loved the salsa verde the most and it was a must for the ordering of the next course.

At the The Meatball and Wine Bar they are passionate about the source of their meats… and big on pork here. The pork comes from Kurobuta in Bryon Bay and is from the black Berkshire pig…apparently the wagu of pork!

For your main... or the "big balls" as we called them, you choose your ball and your sauce (red, white or green). We went for the fishballs (locally sourced fish, dill and lemon) with a white sauce

and the chicken balls (Lilydale chicken, pistachio, muscatels and Parmesan) with salsa verde.

Not only did we have a delicious meal but the atmosphere was great, music was loud but non intrusive, and the staff full of facts about meatballs!  

Our only regret of the evening is that we didn’t order dessert… Whoopie Mac (homemade ice-cream sandwiched between two macaroons). That was our own fault as we couldn’t decide on the flavour. There goes our excuse to go back and check out the rest of the menu.

Enough from me….. the ball’s in your court now so go and check it out!

(Be prepared to make bad ball jokes throughout the evening it's addictive)

Posted with Blogsy