Postmistress

71 Melville Rd
Brunswick West, VIC 3055
http://www.postmistress.com.au/

Frankly, I don’t know how anyone can stomach dining with me. I will always passive-aggressively insist on picking the restaurant (after falsely offering the privilege of choice to my unfortunately companion), and as soon as something has been agreed on, I will go ahead and change my mind to something entirely different. This will occur approximately once a day until the day of the meal, where I am forced to decide on a restaurant. But the ordeal doesn’t stop there. Once we actually arrive at the restaurant, I am a flaky dining companion at best, and a mortifying one at worst. I will get up without warning to take photos of the interior, garnering stares from diners and staff alike, before burying myself in my phone to take notes for the blog post I plan on writing later. And believe it or not, there’s more! Once the food arrives, I’ll spend another 5 or so minutes taking photos from every angle, barking at my dining companions to move limbs and possessions out of the way, and insisting on them helping me with tricky food manoeuvres in order to get the perfect shot. The food is definitely cold by the time any actual eating occurs.

Take today for example. I had gone through a variety of cuisines – Spanish, Mexican, Italian, and Korean – before my pizza craving came back to haunt me, and I decided on pizza at Postmistress 3 hours before my catch-up with Ethan.

I really like the style of Postmistress. It’s slick enough for a nice night out, yet at the same time, laid-back enough for the casual dinner Ethan and I had in mind. All staff boasted an Italian accent, and service was very friendly – though I don’t know how much of that can be chalked up to Ethan being friends with one of the waiters (complete coincidence, I swear).

Ethan’s Berry Blast ($10) mocktail was a little too tart for my liking, but the combination of citrus and freshly crushed berries made for a refreshing, juicy beverage – perfect if you plan on consuming a lot of cheese and carbs like we were.

Although Postmistress is billed as an Italian eatery, with a selection of pastas, mains, and share plates, it was the pizza we were really after. The classic Margherita ($18) is done in the traditional style, the thin base and puffy crust smeared with ripe tomato, pools of mozzarella, and a few leaves of fresh basil. The base is a bit too thin and soggy here, even taking into account the time I spent snapping photos, but other than that, it is a solid rendition with creamy cheese, and a satisfyingly robust tomato sugo.

The thinness of the crust was a little more problematic when it came to the Porco Patate ($22) – it simply didn’t have enough integrity to hold the chunks of potato and pancetta. Gripes about the base aside however, this was a tasty and indulgent pizza. The combination of fluffy potato, caramelised onions, and salty pancetta on the base of creamy fior di latte was rich yet comforting, though I couldn’t help but have hoped that the potatoes were cut into melt-in-the-mouth slices, rather than the chunks found here.

By leaving some of the crust, we had room for a dessert of Budino Di Panettone ($13). Yes, it’s bread and butter pudding, but not as you know it. Instead of stale bread, there was a round of citrus-infused panettone soaked through with sugar and cream, drizzled with sticky butterscotch sauce, and topped with a scoop of cinnamon ice cream. Each bite of pudding melted in the mouth, and the contrast between the warm, sugary bread and cool ice cream was especially enjoyable. Ethan was too full to finish his share, so I gratefully mopped up the remainder.

All up, I enjoyed dinner at Postmistress. It may not be anything ground-breaking, but it’s got a great overall vibe, and will work well for anything from date night to corporate function. And although the food has some rough edges, the range is wide enough, and it’s made well enough to please all but the fussiest of diners.

Rating: 13/20 – side girl.
This rating reflects my personal experience at the time of visit.