Grossi Florentino, Melbourne – fine Italian dining

One of the few leading restaurants of Greedy Girl’s youth that is still trading today is Florentino, at the north-eastern end of the city of Melbourne. An impressive low-rise building, it’s home to three establishments – the Cellar Bar, bistro and, upstairs, the fine dining restaurant.

Now called Grossi Florentino after its chef/owner Guy Grossi, the dining room upstairs remains dominated by the Florentine murals, timber panelling, wall sconces and damask tablecloths. In short, it’s olde worlde luxe. While the chef has made his own mark on the food, there are also dishes that have stood the test of time.

Back in the days when gluttonous husband was an, ahem, interested suitor, he invited himself along to Greedy Girl’s birthday dinner with a girlfriend. On learning of Greedy Girl’s particular fondness for chocolate souffles, he swept us off in the car to Florentino – famed as having one of the best such desserts in the city. Sadly, it was closed that particular evening. Still, it was a nice touch. Greedy Girl was always going to have the souffle on this particular evening but, she’s getting ahead of herself.

Like Iggy’s in Singapore, Greedy Girl had ticked Grossi Florentino off her list of places to dine. This stemmed from a particularly uninspiring Valentine’s Day dinner many years ago, where the starters were fabulous, the mains were dull and the dessert was a disaster. It was probably the last time she and gluttonous husband ventured out on that night for lovers (see the blog Whining and dining here). Foodie friend Ms Divine had recently ventured there for some pre-Christmas cheer and pronounced it delightful. Looking for another little surprise for gluttonous husband’s birthday celebrations, Greedy Girl immediately booked a table.

With a Christmas party in full swing next door, the dining room was rather noisy as we took our seats in the early evening. Undeterred, we settled in with a bottle of Henri Giraud Brut Grand Cru and perused the menu. Given we’d been to Brae the day before, we opted not to have a tasting menu here, instead choosing different antipasti, first and second courses so that we could do our usual practice of sharing – in effect, our own version of a degustation.

To nibble with the first sips of champagne, we were given ricotta and spinach croquettes, grissini and black olives. Delish.

Croquettes, grissini, olives. A good start

Once we’d made our selections, we were also treated to a cool asparagus soup with creamy eggs – a little amuse bouche. Again, very tasty. We were primed.

Creamy eggs, cool asparagus soup

The waiter had apprised us of the fact that the restaurant was in possession of some white truffles (from Alba, naturally). These could be added to various dishes. Greedy Girl’s eyes gleamed. She uttered a fervent ‘Si, grazie’ to liberal shavings on her first dish, asparagus with veal sweetbreads, smoky potato and sugo grasso.

Keep shaving the truffles. I’ll tell you when to stop

While the dish was absolutely yummy, Greedy Girl is going to cut straight to the chase. Despite the almost religious fervour that surrounds white truffles, she prefers the flavour hit from the black variety. Having said that, every last skerrick of this dish was mopped up.