Travel | The Meatball & Wine Bar, Melbourne

I've now dined at The Meatball and Wine Bar twice and on both occasions I've been blown away by their fantastic food. As the name suggests this gem of a restaurant serves meatballs and only meatballs! I'm not a huge meatball fan, I rarely eat them, however I was intrigued by this place from it's cool interior, excellent reviews and lengthy queues. 

Fish balls in a pesto sauce on polenta.

The basis of the menu is choose your ball, sauce and what you'd like it served upon. Balls come in beef, pork, chicken, fish and vegetarian. Sauces come in red, white and pesto. And you can have it all served on top of polenta, mash potato, pasta etc. 

Last time I dined here with a friend we couldn't decide what to get so went with the barman's suggestions. So this time Stew and I chose different dishes to what I'd already tried. 

Now we chose two 'balls and all' dishes plus 3 sliders which was slightly too much food for two people (although we forced ourselves to finish). You don't have to have the balls on top of anything, you can just get them in a sauce as a lighter option. You can also order a selection of cheese and meat boards as an alternative. 

Sliders - Chicken balls in a white sauce served in brioche buns.

One thing I would 100% advise on having is the sliders!! They are little pieces of heaven that melt in your mouth. I had them both times and both times I couldn't get over how amazing they tasted. The brioche buns are exceptional and the white sauce works really well as a kind of melted cheese from the heat of the meat.

Special - Meatball spaghetti

If you ever visit Melbourne go here! Although be prepared to queue. This place as well as a couple of others near it on Flinders Lane are very popular. Every tourist brochure suggests going to them and every night of the week there could be queues outside the door. We went on a Tuesday night at 8pm and luckily got the last 2 seats in the window.