Arintji

I was there with my kids on holiday from the US. We went in the late afternoon and sat outside.
The food was OK. Nothing special but OK. The girls found something to eat. Good beer list. A triffle expensive for what we got, but not outlandish. But if it wasn’t for the view of Federation Square and people watching, I’d dock this place another star for not being worth it. The location makes this place.

It’s great to sit in the outdoor area and watch Melbourne life pass by. I enjoyed dinner with a companion here — we had a Vietnamese Chicken Salad, a Greek Salad and Dips with Turkish Bread. Although busy, the environment was good for chatting. It’s close enough to watch the forecourt activity but far enough so you don’t feel in the middle of it all. Service is very nice and overall it’s a pleasure to visit. Thank you.

Arintji has a good selection of food for sharing and a decent wine list to boost. I came with mates but I reckon it would be a nice date night spot, to sit with a view of the Yarra.
It’s a moderate size restaurant with a small bar area to sit downstairs, or venture upstairs for more tables across the kitchen or a private area for groups or couples near the window.
Everyone was satisfied with our dishes. The baked potatoes with bacon and herbs were on point with enough creamy cheese to bring the perfect balance. The fried halloumi salad had a nice tang and was simple and straightforward. The beetroot salad packed a bit more toppings with fresh strawberries, walnuts, feta, and radishes, alongside a nice dressing. Salt and pepper calamari were generously cut and fried, and paired with a tasty aioli.
If I had to recommend skipping a dish it would be the bread with three dipping sauces. The bread was a bit tough to chew and the sauces were just ok, nothing extremely original.
For drinks we sipped on Bloody Mary (average, needed more spice) and Pimm’s (refreshing with fruit). The wine selection looked appealing but it was much too hot to indulge in. Prices are high based on the convenient location at Fed Square but it’s a great place if you are in the neighbourhood.

As like most of the other reviews, I found the food a bit blah. I only sampled the dips and Vietnamese chicken salad. So perhaps I chose the wrong dishes.
While the dips were served with a massive amount of warm fresh bread, the bread to dip ratio was all kinds of crazy. I think we had about half the bread left when the dips were gone. Sure, the dips were good, but certainly nothing to inspire me to return.
The salad lacked any real flavour. And the chicken was almost nonexistent. Maybe if they added more chicken, amped up the dressing, then the dish would be ok. I was not impressed at all.
It’s a great location, with both in and outdoor dining available. I will give it another go, but will not order he same dishes again.

Three of us had drinks during Winter Solstice and after Hawks win over Collingwood. Good staff (not great bc they couldn’t serve a White Russian even after I told them how to make it AND they had the ingredients). Great location and ambiance. I’ll go back but only bc of the convenient location and outdoor heated seating area.

I have spent many years avoiding the Fed Square eateries… no particular reason, Melbourne snobbery perhaps. However, no more! The menu has a bit for everyone, some people won’t like this but it will result in me coming back. I had the spicy BBQ spare ribs and OMFG! These were American good and almost American sized. Good spices and falling off the bone, do yourself a favour and these inside of you… you may wish bulimia to come forth and deliver you from your girth post the meal it’s worth it. At $ 29, it is an absolute steal when it comes to Melbourne restaurant terms.

Arintji — Fed Square’s unsung hero
BY SHARKING FOR CHIPS AND DRINKS
Roti bread and jasmine rice, pomelo and nam jim dressing, harissa sauce — on first glance you might be forgiven for thinking the menu at Federation’s Square quiet achiever is suffering some kind of identity crisis — is it Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, pan-​Asian? Does it matter? With no single cuisine taking centre stage, head chef Martin Horsley’s accomplished (and downright delicious) cooking is free to draw on influences from around the world. Never overbearing, but always subtly there, his clever use of global flavours makes for a surprisingly exciting restaurant surprisingly situated in the middle of tourist-​trap hell. Yes, it’s true, while we love Fed Sq for its cracked-​concrete design and big-​screen singalong carol sessions on Christmas Eve, we usually give its eateries a wide berth.
How wrong we were. Now, instead of dashing from some inner suburb restaurant to the ACMI while still digesting our food, we can buy our tickets, head to Arintji for a stunning feed and saunter back to the big screen at leisure. On our first (and certainly not our last) visit, we started off by feasting on a range of ‘starters’ (like the grilled Turkish bread and homemade beetroot and feta dip, which was an amazing colour) and ‘light meals or share plates’ — uniformly generous serves and punchy flavours.
A colourful watermelon salad with tomato, strawberries and marinated feta was scattered with large leaves of mint, adding to the refreshing Middle East-​inspired offering.
Stewed octopus with tomato chilli came in a terracotta bowl, sucker-​covered tentacles weaving together and falling over the edges. Tender and tangy it was the kind of thing you might devour in some dusty Greek fishing village, where white houses cling to the hillsides and the air is fresh and salty… you get the idea.
Sashimi tuna, tosa-​zu sauce (Japanese-​style vinegar), large flakes of fried garlic, sliced green onions and pickled seaweed came out next — firm and fresh fish (would have been nice to know the variety to appease /​confirm our ethical-​eating fears) with great Asian dressings and accompaniments.
One of the real highlights — a big melting heap of indulgence — was the fried haloumi with pear, candied walnuts, mizuna and sticky honey dressing. Eat it while it’s hot kids, this is gooey, tangy and dreamy. Then the influences move to Eastern Europe and a Polish style apple-​smoked csabai sausage with pickled cabbage, mustard and hot chilli.
The visual delight of the night award goes to the garden vegetables crudités, served in a plant pot filled with ‘edible’ soil — dehydrated olives and hazelnut meal. With a goats’ cheese mayo for dipping it was the most fun way of eating tasty, just-​cooked seasonal produce we have ever encountered.
From the charcoal grill we opted for a smoky-​sweet Moroccan-​style dish — lamb shashlik with wholegrain freekeh, golden raisins, roasted almonds and red onions. Refined comfort food, could happily pass an evening eating this falling-​apart meat with a spoon and a glass of pinot.
From the ‘main’ section — the most expensive of which was the slow-​braised lamb shoulder with polenta, peas and basil at $ 35 — we ordered penne pasta in a zucchini cream with seasonal greens and pretty yellow zucchini flowers. A surprise option that was spring-​fresh and healthy tasting, but with enough cream to make this substantial vegetarian dish feel like a real treat.
To finish it all off we had vanilla crème brûlée and shortbread sable, and pavlova — which more resembled the Brit dessert Eton Mess with broken up shards of meringue (crunchy on the outside, sticky on the inside) and berries and fruit tumbled all over the place, the whole thing held together by smooth and not too sickly sweet vanilla chantilly.
No huge surprises on the beer list, but eight cocktails all priced at $ 18 and a good mix of wines means this place is also worth stopping by for a pre– or post-​cinema drink. Although we really do urge you to linger a little longer and check out the menu.
Can’t sign off without a shout out to the staff — who were extremely welcoming and capable, and just like the cooking, exceeded all misguided preconceptions we might have had about this strangely overlooked CBD gem.
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The atmosphere is good and the staff friendly. The food was also good, but I found the two dishes I tried a little bland — well made, but not packing the level of flavour I usually go for. In spite of this I enjoyed my afternoon here — especially as it was a hot day and they had water misters running :)

3 stars for location. Open air covered area with view of fed square.
Food was disappointing. We tried lemon gnocchi and steak sandwich. Flavors were just not there.

I love the location of this café; set up top Fed Square, sort of in between ACMI and Transit, its the perfect position on a beautiful, sunny afternoon.
With plenty of seating inside and out, a cool, arty feel inside and views out to St Kilda rd, Fed Square and over to the Yarra it’s a great pit stop for coffee or wine. I’m sure it’s a great bar on a Friday and Saturday night, and I know it’d make an awesome event space, especially for a film night or art showing.
But I hate wait staff who think they’re too friggin good for pen and paper, and forget some of your order. It seems to happen at the best cafes and restaurants, but to me I’d rather see them writing my order down then forget it.
I went here one afternoon with my kids after going to Birrarung Marr Park. We sat outside, and it was great to feel welcomed, some of these places put their noses up at kids. My little girl enjoyed being able to run around the empty spaces and my son is still in a pram so he was just happy being outside.
I only ordered a juice and chips for the kids, and a glass of wine and mini cheeseburger for myself. It wasn’t much, but I was really looking forward to a decent, juicy burger. Out came the chips and the drinks, and after about ten minutes my daughter looked at me and said, «Mummy, I think they’ve forgotten your lunch.» And beautifully slid closer to me, put her chips in between herself and me and put her arm around me. And at five, she sensibly said, «Silly lady should have written it down mummy, next time we come here I’ll bring her a notepad and a pen, actually I’ll bring them all one, I’ve got heaps and they’ve got none!» It’s even common sense to my beautiful little girl.
Look, the staff were pleasant enough and we even had a nice little convo when I was leaving, but I don’t order something unless I want it and it really pissed me off. And I’m sick of complaining and getting attitude, so instead of complaining this time, I’m Unilocaling. :)