Comments on: St Jude’s Cellars: a welcome addition to Brunswick Street

By: Rossco

Rossco — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 23:42:23 +0000

I went to St Judes last night and while the food is excellent, the servings are extremely small and very expensive. Their beer and wine is also charged at top rate. I wouldn’t recommend it. The staff were also unsmiling and unenthusiastic. Try somewhere else.

By: SJ

SJ — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 12:31:23 +0000

Ed, I saw Stephen’s review and there was an earlier glowing one as well. We’ve had a few drinks and some food at Griff’s a few times now and although I think Stephen’s review was slightly OTT, Griff’s is an honest, value-for-money type place. The wine markups are reasonable, the food tasty if not exceptionally sophisticated (there are other places to get that), but for me what I like about it is that it’s easy to like. And that was just what we needed that night. I look forward to reading your thoughts.

By: Ed

Ed — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 22:22:16 +0000

SJ, it seems the St Judes experience is a bit uneven. I’ve only ever enjoyed a few Mountain Goats at Griffs and Stephen Downes raves about it. Perhaps that is where I shall eat this Saturday night.

By: SJ

SJ — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 22:14:00 +0000

We were back at St Jude’s last week – a drink to catch up with a friend, then my partner and I were going to have a meal. The winelist by the glass was pretty uninspiring, and to make it worse the staff recommended a wine they didn’t have, and then described the wines quite unlike what they actually tasted like. We looked over the menu and decided to grab some rillette to share for $28. I eneded up tasting a small amount of the rillette, but left the four slices of bread to be shared between my companions. Honestly – would two more small stingy slices of bread have made such a big difference to their profit margins that night?

They “sharing” mantra seems to have been missing from menu, and they sure weren’t encouraging it with giving us portions that were difficult to divide between us.

After a couple of glasses of wine and the rillette, we left $125 poorer. We did consider eating there but the menu didn’t thrill us, and the thought of what it would cost us was off-putting.

So we opted to go around to Griff’s instead in Johnston street, and had a superb meal and a great bottle of Dog Point Pinot for $120.

Makes more sense to me. I really wanted to find a way to like St Jude’s, but I think I’m over it.

By: Vivian

Vivian — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 23:55:16 +0000

I visited for dinner on the weekend and was pretty disappointed by St Jude’s. It was full, and a lot were clearly there following a recent (second)review in The Age. For what it is worth, I am a local and made a booking prior to this review. St Jude’s will struggle to offer value for money. The share plate thing will become limiting for customers and dull I suspect for the kitchen staff. The food is fine, but hardly inspiring and can quickly get very pricy for what it is. The sides were tasty, the mains OK if predictable but it got pretty rude when a $32 cheese plate came out with three of the smallest slivers of unremarkable cheese came out – for a table of seven. The service was, as many have remarked, pushy. The waitress was constantly trying to sell more, and chose to interupt our conversation to talk for several minutes about the afor mentioned review! That’s where your tip disappeared. The clanger was to bring about extra sides that were explicitly not ordered – and then have the temerity to offer them to the adjoining table – who were already on their cheese. No doubt the business model works for the high rent, but not much value found for a group of regular diners. We all left feeling a bit cheated.

By: Contribute to theopen source restaurant | Tomato

Contribute to theopen source restaurant | Tomato — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 00:38:01 +0000

[...] every night at Esposito at Toofey’s and Thursday nights at Libertine for a bargain $10. St Jude’s Cellars is doing something similar with its attached bottle shop where $15 is added to the retail price of [...]

By: SJ

SJ — Mon, 26 May 2008 02:51:55 +0000

What I found hard to deal with was the attitude of the matre’d.

We were interested in what they were trying to achieve, and he stopped by a few times to chat, but told us on at least three occasions that they were a “restaurant, not a wine bar” – even though we were sitting at a bar trying to eat a meal. I live local and felt that he really shouldn’t be trying to tell me how to intepret the place. We will intepret the venue as we see fit thanks very much – you can manage it as much as you like, but at the end of the day, if you are going to call yourself and cellar and have a huge long bar, people (particularly locals) are going to come in and have a drink and a snack on their way home.

The food was intersting and good, but a bit meagre on the portion sizes.

It’s a shame because I really like what they have going on there – but I’m not sure where the attitude comes from -maybe I have to wear an “I live local” badge to get some love from them? I have to find somewhere to take some friends from New York this week – and would love to take them to St Judes as it says a lot about a new revitalised Brusnswich St, and that is why I was casing it out in the first place. But I daren’t do it now for fear of being treated with disdain.

By: Ed

Ed — Sun, 25 May 2008 00:41:50 +0000

Kirsty, I suspect that’s the Epicure effect.

Rule of bookz, who drives anyway when it’s only a short taxi or tram ride home. You’re being a bit generous describing the food as 5 stars though. Sure it’s good hearty stuff and the wines are great.

By: Rule of Bookz

Rule of Bookz — Sat, 24 May 2008 10:53:13 +0000

Ok how many commented actually live in walking distance? OR maybe in biking distance? Well if you really get into the wines you wont drive home. This is a place for locals. All the snobs from far away just go to your local where you are as you only ruin the place. Tourists. Wear a chic suit or a glam frock cut to personal style and the wait staff are fabulous. Jeans are for masses.

The food is 5 stars (and im vegetarian). The secret is to order something of everything and mix it up. So for a 4 person meal. 3 starters. 3 or 4 mains then every vegetarian side you can get. The result with a bottle from the celler then by the glass is one of the best meals in Melbourne.

Im carlton i can walk there its a harder walk home. Good to see fresh air on Brunswick +1 id support them. In fact i plan on having my next meal there (been once for a drink and snacks ala Japan fashion. Once for a blow out lunch). Highly recommended – leave attitude at home but pack extra style.

By: Kirsty

Kirsty — Thu, 08 May 2008 13:06:54 +0000

I went to St Jude’s for a late lunch today – when we arrived everyone else in the place appeared to be aged over 50 years! Well, the diners anyway. Felt strange for Bruns St but then I figured it must have been the review in the Epicure this week (of which we were unaware). The staff were young and a bit haphazard (eg we were only given a spoon each to eat our desserts).

The menu, which they describe as for sharing, is still shaped too much around starters/mains/desserts; there are even vegetable sides. It was a bit confusing – maybe they are trying to hedge their bets. The portions are on the stingy side, and the baby squid with chickpeas was too liquidy to share easily. Bread came out in a tiny ‘one slice per person’fashion. The food was fine I guess. The clove creme brulee with vanilla poached pear was the only thing we ate that really stood out.

I’m going to G.A.S tomorrow night for dinner – am hoping there that I find that spark of hospitality and generosity that I think St Jude’s is missing . . .