Seagrass for Dessert

Seagrass
4/220 Melbourne St, West End



One of my best friends flew off to the States recently. He was one of my 'go to' friends in the event of a crisis and his absence is HUGELY noticeable. Before he took off, we had a dessert farewell in West End. The original plan was to go to Freestyle but the line was huge so we wandered from one end of the street to the other, convinced that something good would catch our attention.

Nope, nothing.

Perhaps we're just very picky?


My criteria on the night was similar to my usual criteria i.e. not too loud atmosphere so I can speak without yelling. This discounted most of the pubs along the way. We had both eaten so we specifically wanted dessert, not food.

Finally, having reached the end of the street to no avail, we turned back with the intent of waiting in line at Freestyle. When we got there, there was STILL a 10min wait. The funny thing is, we were prepared to wait but due to a miscommunication with the waitstaff, he thought we didn't want to hang around and bid us goodnight.

Digging the textured wallpaper

Seagrass is located right next door to Freestyle. It describes itself as 'boutique fish and chippery'. I've had fish and chips there and remember it to be good. We spied a sign outside proclaiming a tiramisu special - coffee and tiramisu for only $7. In we went.

I scoured the drinks menu for something I wanted which also fit in with the special. Nothing did so I asked the waitress if I could pay a bit extra and get a cold drink rather than hot. She said it was not a problem at all so I went for the caramel iced coffee. My friend ordered a cappuccino.

Iced caramel and cappuccino

Drinks arrived... the cappuccino was considered decent but nothing too spectacular. I liked my caramel iced coffee but have one issue with it. I noticed that the ice-cream was scooped into the glass and left on the counter for quite a while before the rest of the components were added and the glass finally handed to me. As a result, the ice-cream (in my opinion, the best part of any drink that has a scoop of ice-cream in it) was half molten and gone. There's a shame.

Tiramisu

We had both gotten the tiramisu special so I only have one item of dessert to comment on. Amusingly, we had different complaints. I thought my piece was too dry. The sponge tasted almost stale. My friend disagreed and said his piece was too moist because it was soaked to death in some liquid. We were of consensus that the tiramisu was below par and generally bland. I couldn't taste alcohol at all and even the coffee flavor was minimal.

I'm not completely turned off Seagrass because as I said, my previous impression of them based on the fish and chips was good. The service was lovely (bar the fact they waited for the ice-cream in my drink to melt before giving it to me) and I like the cozy yet stylish feel to the place.