Carnation Canteen — Restaurant in Melbourne

They're still working out how to run a restaurant, evident in a stream of issues. When we arrived a waitress was apologising to a man for losing his coat. The restaurant feels busy and alive and has warm lighting. The music was very loud, we would have been shouting if we had been seated inside, but we were in the courtyard. Our table was wobbly. The waitress commented on how she hated that table because it's so wobbly. We ordered two glasses of Pinot noir and two appetisers. The wine came and after 30 minutes someone asked if we'd like to order, we told them we already had. Another 15 minutes go by, we've finished our wine, they still have not brought us any food or water. Another waitress comes and apologises, they lost our order. We order again, but in the meantime they've run out of what we ordered, so we choose two other appetisers and the waitress suggests we also get bread with that. We order another glass of wine and some water. My date held the wobbly table so our drinks wouldn't spill. We overhear the table next to us complaining, the restaurant has also lost their order. They were here before us and have been waiting even longer. They decided to leave. Over an hour later they brought our two appetisers, which smell amazing. The waitress forgot the bread that she suggested we order. The Spanish chickpea dish tastes amazing, delicate and balanced flavours, great textures. The baked ricotta is also very good. At this point we have decided we will get dinner elsewhere. A waitress takes our menus and clears our plates. Five minutes later someone else sets new plates and cutlery on our table. We're finishing our wine and the first waitress comes back and is confused why our table has been set again. So are we. She says our table must be cursed! She's very sweet and friendly. We pay and it takes three devices to do so. Many places will offer a couple of free glasses of wine after losing your order for an hour. They apologised again and charged us full price. We were nice about it and told them the food was delicious. We went to a place...

Seeing photos of Carnation Canteen on Instagram since it’s opening I was so excited to try it for myself. Although I did overall enjoy my experience at the restaurant, there were some things about it that made me a little disappointed which was a shame because I truly believe this place has SOOO MUCH potential to be one of Melbourne’s top restaurants. Firstly, Interior architecture, styling and branding is so on point, I absolutely loved the look and feel of the restaurant. However I think some soft materials need to be added within the space because the noise levels were a problem. It’s a small space and very loud, you can hear everyone’s conversations. Secondly, I did really admire the handwritten menu but it was so hard to read unfortunately. All the food we ordered was delicious, the only dish I wasn’t too impressed with was the cold veggies with Anchovy, just personally it wasn’t anything special. I feel like Carnation Canteen is in need of a special pasta dish to add to the menu. Yes pasta is everywhere but if you can get creative with it, it’ll be a start dish on the menu. The prices for the dishes were very expensive considering being situated in Fitzroy. I feel like they could be dropped slightly or at least dishes have more generous servings. The only other note I’ll mention is that it’s a little hard to tell whether this restaurant is for just drinks and snacks or a meal. I feel like this needs to be a bit clearer. I went for a dinner but maybe my experience would’ve been better for just drinks and snacks. I’d love to see Carnation Canteen thrive because it’s a beautiful space in a...

carnationcanteen is fitztoy’s newest. just off smith, nestled quietly on the corner of gore, you’ll find a quaint, 20 seat euro-style wine bar.

it was giving dinner party. small, homey and warm. drinks first of course - their short winter spritz (gin, cocchi americano, soda, sicilian olive) was the clean, refreshing g favourite.

dishes came out in a relaxed manner designed to share. we loved the choices we finally settled on - tricky to decipher the handwritten menu! the buffalo mozzarella was extremely fresh and cloudy, paired with salty olives, white anchovies and fragrant breading oozing in sourness…such a GOOD snack. we received the grilled yellowfin between courses, another insanely fresh and lemony bite.

the rotolo di spinaci packed flavour for a veggie dish, thin pasta rolled with mushroom and drizzled with burnt butter. thinly sliced fennel paired well with raw celery (an acquired taste), toasty walnuts and thick chunks of pecorino romano…so yum.

topping it all off with generous blanket of hunteredgathered sauce over a whole orange gateau was divine!!

each plate was thoughtfully crafted and love poured into each dousing of olive oil. kind and caring staff and a humble atmosphere. though, we did find portions to not be reflective of price. therefore, a place I would highly recommend for a thirst-quenching drink and tasty snacks, rather than a filling meal. perhaps their signature whole george whiting is one I should...