Sofia Levin reviews: Truffles Patisserie — ‘don’t order cake!’

In a sentence: a cake shop serving Polish & Colombian specialties
The damage: $19 to $32.50 for Polish & Colombian food
Top tip: come with a crew, it’s filling!
Quench your thirst: coffee, chai, kombucha & fresh juices
If you like this: visit Tipsy Village (South Melbourne) or El Toucan (Abbotsford & Maribyrnong)

If you visit Truffles Patisserie at 192 Carlisle St in St Kilda, right near the corner of Chapel Street, don’t order cake. There’s nothing wrong with the house-baked goods, it’s just that the breakfast and lunch menu here is one of Melbourne’s great hidden gems south of the river. On one side of the menu you’ll see the usual breakfast granola with berries and smashed avocado with blistered cherry tomatoes and feta – ignore it. Instead, flip over the menu for the most curious mix of Polish and Latin American specialties.

The Truffles Patisserie owner is Polish, you see, but the chef is Colombian. Where else in Melbourne can you order flaczki (pronounced flasch-key) aka ox tripe soup with your latte? I’ve named the most challenging dish first; not everyone wants offal for breakfast. The pierogi (Polish dumplings) are more crowd-friendly and come in serves of six, 10 or as part of a Polish tasting platter with two of each variety (sauerkraut and mushroom, slow-cooked pork and beef or potato and cottage cheese with caramelised onion). Also on the tasting plate are pickles, herring salad, sauerkraut, sour cream, a cup of borscht and toasted house sourdough for dipping.

Another Polish classic, bigos or hunter’s stew, is a sour tumble of shredded sauerkraut interspersed with pork meat and sausage. There’s an option to add an extra whole sausage on top of the dish, also pork. To save you the question, it’s different to the sausage in the dish, and yes, you should go for it.

I didn’t have the stomach space to order the lamb shank with creamy mashed potatoes, roast duck leg with warm red cabbage, schnitzel, Polish gnocchi (kopytka) with goulash, or mince and rice-stuffed cabbage rolls – I couldn’t leave without trying at least one of the three South American dishes on offer.

There are empanadas filled with potato and either beef or chicken. The Colombian Breakfast is a take on a full English but instead comes with eggs your way served on arepa (ground corn cakes) with black pudding or chorizo, avocado and coriander chimichurri and hogao (Colombian salsa).

I went for the tamale. When you think of tamales, the more common version that comes to mind are often elongated maize cakes wrapped in banana leaf. In Colombia, they’re heftier, round packages. At Truffles, the dough baked inside the leaf is made from maize and rice spiced with cumin. It’s bundled up with pork belly, a chicken drumstick and an egg with hagao sauce on the side.

As for those cakes? We only had room to try a couple of bite-sized treats: a mini chocolate ganache and lemon meringue.

Truffles Patisserie
192/194 Carlisle Street, St Kilda
03 9042 1889
trufflespatisserie.com.au