Lucy likes food.

De Clieu
187 Getrude St,
Collingwood, 3065

Website: http://sevenseeds.com.au/seeds/de-clieu/

Before my second (and last!) exam, had lunch with another friend, this time up Getrude St as it’s still within close proximity to the Exhibition Building. My friend has The Age - Cheap Eats Guide of 2012, in which we have tried most of the CBD restaurants/cafes so we need to start expanding on our suburbs.

De Clieu is actually part of the Seven Seeds empire, and sister cafe to Seven Seeds and Brother Baba Budan; so I expected good food from them! Unfortunately, I couldn’t try the coffee as I have a strict no coffee before exams policy.

The cafe is about a bit smaller than Seven Seeds, and seats approx. 30 people, with most tables seating four - so you have to share if it gets too packed which is fine. Around 1pm when we arrived, the place was still busy but had kicked back to a relaxed pace.

I ordered a Hepburn Springs/Daylesford Sparkling Water in Pink Grapefruit to start, as I was craving something carbonated. It was quite nice and refreshing but sweeter than I expected and would have liked.

For food, it took us awhile to pick two things that we wanted since most of the menu sounded quite exciting. We ended up picking two items that we could share easily (just how I like to eat out!).

We ordered:

• Smashed green peas, mint & Persian feta on quinoa & soya sourdough toast -this was my favourite dish! The combination of the peas and mint was spot-on without carrying too much of the strong minty flavour which could have been off-putting; while the feta wasn’t too heavy and complimented the peas perfectly. My friend thought the toast had been toasted too long (hence, was a bit hard to bite through), but I didn’t mind as much.
• Roast pumpkin, leek & rocket salad w pomegranate, Persian fetta, sumac dukkah & lemon dressing-We were a bit split on this salad, my friend thought it was a bit oily for her liking, but I quite enjoyed it overall despite the “extra oiliness”. I thought the combination of all the flavours overtook any thoughts of the oil, with the right amount of all the ingredients so that nothing dominated too much. Then again, I love it when pomegranate makes an appearance.

I would love to come back again and try more of the menu, or come back another season when they change the menu. And to try the coffee!