Claypots

Mietta's Eating & Drinking in Melbourne 2000

Contributors' Choice
Page 94

They don't take bookings here because they don't need to. You fight for the right to eat Claypots' variously Asianised seafood. The last time I was here a charming lass wearing a black eye patch and little else, while offering to take our empty starter plates away, looked gently at us all - she could see we weren't familiar with the self-help style of the place - and said. "Do you really want clean plates and implements?" Brows furrowed. We honestly didn't know. We were so busy gorging, talking, laughing, drinking our own grog, brushing away buddleia fronds from our hair, revelling in their garden, that the very idea seemed finicky. Then someone's suburban nature spoke. "Yes please." Without a sneer or hint of disdain she replied "Well that's what I'm here for, I suppose." Communal tables, lovers' corners, jazz (except Saturdays when French accordion music gets very loud), bliss.

213 Barkly Street
St Kilda
Seafood
Melways reference 58:B11
Phone: 9534 1282
Opening hours: Monday evenings, Tues-Sun 11am-11pm,
Does not accept credit cards
Seats Inside: 40, Outside: 40
Features: No smoking, kids encouraged
Favourites: Moroccan claypot $10/$15, Sambal stringray $25, Chilli Blue Swimmer crab $25 (depending on size)

*An updated review of Claypots