Emilia reviews a family bistro from the Rumour File this week!

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Freda’s Bistro

359 Brunswick Street

Fitzroy 

We heard about Freda of Freda’s on this week’s Rumour File. Freda’s granddaughter Ruby who owns Freda’s Bistro posted on Instagram about her 94-year-old grandmother announcing she was coming back to work with her.

Freda’s son Graham came on the program on Wednesday and told us of her cheeky personality and the bond between Ruby and Freda that led them to opening the bistro and bakery. 

It’s the passion, determination and grit that we see 94-year-old Freda personify that clearly gave Ruby confidence, the confidence to open her own bricks and mortar restaurant in Fitzroy at 22 years old, alongside her dad of course.

Freda’s was born out of lockdowns, providing takeaway home made meals to Melbourne, which they still provide from Freda’s Bakery. The crowd favourite is takeaway lasagne on Wednesday nights from their Brunswick location.

Freda’s influence doesn’t stop there. There’s a warmth, an open door policy that you get with a venue like this, they’re not trying too hard because they don’t need to – Freda’s European influence is woven all throughout their menu.

Ruby also worked at (the now closed down) Rosetta before this so between that and her heritage, you can see various European techniques coming through.

Despite the family ties in this place, it doesn’t just read at family restaurants – the dark interiors and classy fit out feel upmarket and chic. The food reads the same.

On Thursday’s it’s steak night, and for $35 you can get a 250g Robbins Island Wagyu MB9 with sides of honey roasted carrots and cheddar and chive mashed potato. See what I mean? Simple appearing but quality.

The simplified menu was banger after banger, making it a difficult choice. 

For starters we got the spin on a bruschetta topped with marinated grilled eggplant, charred leek, and stracciatella. Eggplant bruschetta comes from a Sicilian dish, the caponata which is traditionally a summer dish. 

From the smalls, my favourite dish on the menu was the beef tartare paired with pickled onion and jalapeños, around the outside to scoop up the tartare was potato chips of the ‘crisps’ variety. Now that’s a great delivery mechanism.

Speaking of summer dishes, we tried the refreshing tuna crudo with a chive and shallot salsa verde on top and little spirts of lemon cream to finish it off. 

For pastas, they make you choose between prawn linguine, rigatoni alla Vodka and beef brisket ragu gnocchi. I tried the gnocchi (gluten free for those that need it) in beef brisket ragu and it was a standout.

Alongside that, we tried the rich grilled half chicken infused with nduja and preserved lemon, the nduja (which is a spicy, spreadable pork sausage from the Calabria) deepened the flavours making it piquant and concentrated.

Finish with the creamy crème brûlée, affogato or tiramisu for dessert, a perfect sweet note to conclude your meal.

Overall, there were occasional elements where perhaps their young underbelly showed; service was a tiny bit slow maybe thanks to a big group at the back of the restaurant, the crispy caramel on top of the creme brûlée was a tiny bit thick, requiring a heavy hand to crack but nothing that would deter me from going again (and again).

The service was great, fit out was relaxed and the food sat naively between innovative and traditional. If this is where Ruby is starting, I’m excited to see where she ends up.

They’re expanding their opening hours come Christmas week. They’ll be open their normal Thursday, Friday, Saturday that they are throughout the year and then some.

From the 27th-31st December they’re open everyday from 5pm to cater for the Melburnians staying here or interstate travellers to Melbourne looking for good, Melbourne food.

Images: Supplied