Trotters, Lygon Street, Carlton

Simple homely fare. Impressed by bread pudding

I wanted something Western for dinner and decided to let fellow Singaporean “media junkie”, Diane, to suggest a place or to head to her favourite place that serves Western fare. And so that’s how I ended up at Trotters Café on Lygon Street, Carlton on a Saturday night.

Lygon Street is a beehive of activity in the evenings, especially the weekends with many eating establishments opening late into the evening/night, and with staff competing for your attention to get you to dine in the restaurants. Al fresco dining is predominant on this street that has become synonymous with “Little Italy” or Italian food.

Trotters started out more than 20 years ago as a small café, and which expanded over the years, both physical and menu wise. Since I was knew to this place, I asked Diane for her recommendations. I had actually checked out Trotters’ website before dinner and had an inkling of what I want. And Diane recommended the gnocchi which I wanted to try.

This was my first time eating gnocchi so I wasn’t sure what to expect. Basically gnocchi are thick, soft pastas (think Korean rice cake ‘tteokboki’ without its chewiness). Diane ordered Gnocchi – its name on the menu wasn’t certainly an eye-catcher. It is described at house-made pan-fried gnocchi with roasted butternut pumpkin, baby spinach and pine nuts, drizzled with burnt sage butter. I ordered a Gnocchi gratin with beef ragu, parmesan and bread crumbs.

 

I liked the gnocchi gratin. It could have had a little bit more dash of savouriness to it, as the pasta itself is not without much taste, hence the sauce would have to make up for it. It is a feel good comfort food best eaten on a cold, chilly evening.

 

I also has a go at Diane’s gnocchi which she said wasn’t up to previous standards. In terms of taste, this was rather light. But I like the nice charred flavour or perhaps you could call it “wok-hei” that the gnocchi picked up. It paired harmoniously with the sweet pumpkin with the pine nuts lending a nice crunch to the dish.   

 

We decided to order dessert. I love desserts and I agonised a bit over what to have. The sticky date pudding seemed heavenly as with the tiramisu. In the end we opted for the blackboard special – bread and butter pudding with crème anglaise and raspberry coulis (or something like that).

Looking at it was a delight with chocolate drizzled on top of the pudding. There was chocolate sandwiched in between layers which I found delightful. Diane found the pudding a little bit dry which I had to agree, but there is nothing that the cream, chocolate sauce and the raspberry coulis could not fix.

I came to find a main meal, but I got more from dessert.