Cafe Fidama

8.5 Highly Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  8      Service  9      Value  8     

Service was great, ambience and decor was great. Food was really delicious, so much so that we even ordered dessert, and I don't normally have dessert anywhere. But their dessert menu sounded great. We shared a blood orange creme brulee. Will go back.

Dec 19, 2011 

10 Highly Recommended

Food  10      Ambience  10      Service  10      Value  10     

Love this place! The food is delicious and always consistent. You can pick anything off the menu and you will love it. Well priced meals. Very private and cosy restaurant. It's a tradition for my group of friends to meet here. Let's hope it stays like this forever :)

May 04, 2011 

3.5 Below Average

Food  4      Ambience  4      Service  4      Value  2     

We had been wanting to go to Fidama for a long time and finally managed to get a table. The experience was disappointing to say the least. We were originally seated in the middle of the restaurant but after our drinks arrived were moved to make room for a bigger party. We were promised our new table would be private and quiet but literally 3 minutes later another table was placed an inch from ours!

Forget a romantic dinner for two. We felt rushed the whole evening, from the waiter coming for our order ever second minute to the wine being poured constantly to our mains arriving before we finished our entrees. The food was so disappointing, bland and poorly cooked with tiny servings. My husband's duck was bloody and so chewy he couldn't eat it, when we complained we were snootily told it was "rare". We couldn't wait to get out of there, there are so many other places in Yarraville we won't be back.

Mar 19, 2011 

5.3 Average

Food  7      Ambience  4      Service  5      Value  5     

Initially we were delighted at being offered the option of still, sparkling or tap water. We opted for the sparkling but were soon put off when they brought us two open bottles when one would have been sufficient. Because they were open we felt obliged to accept both. At a charge of $5.50 per bottle we felt ripped off.

The food which varied between divine to quite ordinary. An entree of salt and pepper squid with sweet Asian vegetables and coriander dipping sauce was, without doubt, exceptional. Could not fault it, we raved. However, the grilled saganaki with lemon and olives was ordinary. The cheese itself was huge but tasted like the tart, heavy kind you get in a supermarket and the olives seemed like they’d come from a supermarket deli counter as well.

The main of crispy pork belly with rosemary roasted chats, green beans and sticky apple jus was also disappointing. Serving two small pieces of pork atop a huge mound of luke-warm green beans, apple chopped into tiny pieces and a few meagre pieces of potato does not justify the outrageous price of $32. The pork was stringy and lacked flavour and the mountain of beans was boring.

In addition, the crush of having too many tables for the staff to comfortably pass between and making it impossible to have enough staff to cope with the numbers made for an uncomfortable experience. It didn’t help that the place was so packed staff forgot who they had served and who they hadn’t. We were left waiting quite some time before we were offered drinks or menus, then forgotten between entree and mains.

Being forgotten once is bad enough, being forgotten twice is bad management but being forgotten three times is just unforgivable. We grew tired of waiting for someone to clear our plates and offer desserts or coffee so gave up and went elsewhere. By then the lack of service had become tiresome.

Too many other places in the vicinity with better offerings and who make you feel welcome for us to bother going back.

Jan 26, 2011 

8 Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  7      Service  8      Value  8     

We went here on a recommendation from my partner's work colleague and we will definitely be going back. The food was outstanding, we both had entrees and mains and skipped dessert but next time I'll be giving the creme brulee a go. The place was comfortably busy (on a Thursday night).

Jan 13, 2011 

8.3 Highly Recommended

Food  10      Ambience  8      Service  5      Value  10     

Along the streets of the ever trendy Yarraville sits many restaurants worthy of repeated sittings. Cafe Fidama may lack some of the glitz from the outside but as you enter on a cold winter's night it is a cosy retreat that could be anywhere in the world. It is dark and a little jam packed but at no stage did I feel squashed. Art for sale decorates the walls, with black leather booth seats lining the bottom of the walls.

The service we received by a man of Indian decent was way too in your face for my liking. Although very efficient he was more concerned with telling us how much he can eat and how he is the best coffee maker around and his protege had made our coffee. It felt like we were getting served by a stereotypical door to door or car salesman.

We skipped any sort of entree, a decision that I now regret, not because I left hungry (far from it) but because the food was just so bloody good. My main was the oven roasted chicken breast with pan fried gnocchi, asparagus, chorizo and wild mushrooms. Wow! It was cooked to perfection and the flavours were rich, as the ingredients were of quality. The dish is served leaving the eater to have to do a bit of work picking which flavours it will mix together with each bite adding to the experience.

Now I am not the most sweetest of tooths but I like a good dessert. The menu had too many tempting options, I sometimes wish tasting plates were on order. As I asked the waitress (not the waiter) which I should eat another customer lended in to say 'Try the creme brulee'. I did as she recommended despite a little shock. It was hands down the best dessert that I have ever eaten. It was orange and dark chocolate crème brulèe w homemade short bread and I truly wish I had a double serve as it was 'divine' for lack of a better or more masculine word.

It's only a few bucks more than any local average joe eatery and well worth every cent. To be my new regular joint!

Aug 01, 2010 

7 Recommended

Food  7      Ambience  7      Service  8      Value  6     

Went here for mother's day (it was my third visit). The Mothers Day lunch was fantastic value and the service very good on the day. The other two visits whilst good was a bit marred by how squashy it is in the restaurant and it being a bit on the expensive side considering this fact.

Feb 14, 2010 

9.8 Highly Recommended

Food  10      Ambience  9      Service  10      Value  10     

We had a first birthday/christening function (20 adults, 7 children) at Fidama and were extremely happy with the service, food, wine and attention to detail. The operation was smooth and well run. My mouth still waters at the very thought of that Black Angus scotch fillet. Everyone who had the steak had smiles on their faces. The same can be said about the wines and the absolutely awesome Pedro Sherry.

The waiters were great, they knew the wines and what they were talking about and very importantly you could sense that they were really passionate about what they did. We had been going to Fidama for the last 5-6 years and it seems to have only gotten better. It seems that Adriana and her dad have raised the bar since recently taking over. I have never written reviews on restaurants and felt it was necessary in this case.

My all time ultimate places have always been Circa the Prince and Stokehouse in St Kilda and while they remain my favourites, my wallet (strongly) disagrees. You get great quality from Fidama and my wallet is much happier. They have great Margaret River wines, my fave was the Moss Brothers and for white, you can't go past the Dog Point, all reasonably priced.

Well done Adriana and the crew, you certainly came through and exceeded our expectations. Everyone from the function was extremely happy and impressed by the food and service. You will have them return, I'm sure. Keep up the good work.

Feb 23, 2009 

5 Average

Food  6      Ambience  5      Service  4      Value  5     

Food is variable, sometime really good and sometimes ordinary. Too many tables and indifferent service. Eaten here more than ten times and have decided to give it a miss these days. There are many other better places now.

Nov 21, 2008 

7 Recommended

Food  6      Ambience  7      Service  8      Value  7     

A great local. What a selection of wine! Good feel. Entrees OK - croquettes lacking in flavour, scallops not quite 100% but superb quality duck (with duck spring rolls that would shame Chinatown) and an extraordinarily rich covertures chocolate pudding.

What makes this place is the service. How many bistros are let down by poor/indifferent waiters. Carla was great on our night - knowledgeable about the wine list, a bit of a flirt but she made sure the meal went smoothly. Worth a visit. Value for money.

Sep 28, 2008