Von Haus, Melbourne CBD by Big Fil

Von Haus was somewhere I had walked past a few times without paying any real attention. If you don't know it's there it would be easy to miss, another barely marked doorway on a small CBD street amongst a few quirky shops. In some ways this is a good thing, as it's nice but very small.


Given its laneway location the décor inside comes as a bit of a surprise. A few small tables running around the wall, a moderately sized communal table in the middle, bare sanded walls and dark wooden surrounds reminiscent of somewhere in France or Italy.


Very warm and cosy and not as noisy as you would expect. The few tables in the courtyard didn't look anywhere near as inviting given the rain, and were ignored by all the patrons while we were there.


Predominately a wine bar, the range of food offerings is small but looked promising. With only three mains, a soup and three sandwiches to choose between Snooze went for the chirizo and butterbean hotpot.


Our immediate reaction on seeing the dish was that it looked nice but was very small given the price ($17). Taste wise though it was very good. Rich and surprisingly filling when combined with the complementary bread, the highlight was the nicely spicy chirizo.


My choice was the Kransky with potato salad, coleslaw and mustard. If anything I thought this was better than the hotpot. Again it turned out larger and more filling than appeared likely. I particularly liked the mustard but all the other elements were also very good.


Overall
Nice, pleasant place to eat with robustly flavoured food. Not somewhere I'd use as a location for a work team lunch but more somewhere to share with a friend or small group of friends you haven't seen for a while. A slightly larger range of dishes would be appreciated but what we saw all looked very good.

Verdict
Food - 8
Service - 7
Ambience - 8
Price - 6.5

Address
1a Crossley Street
Melbourne CBD VIC 3000
Tel: (03)9662 2756