If your car battery ever goes flat and you're in the middle of the Melbourne CBD, you could always try borrowing a couple of jumper cables from the most obvious place:
The sticks-n-jumper-cable sculpture hanging over the entrance inside Hairy Canary.
Weird art aside, this place is pretty cool. Actually you get the sense that it tries to be very cool, but it loses points for lacking subtlety and a bit of originality (the jumper cables notwithstanding). This could be just another hip and trendy CBD café. Long and narrow, small tables, padded benches, a lounge area, a little bit retro. You get the idea.
The food, however, is better than most of the hip and trendy CBD cafés we've tried. Even the bread was noteworthy. For entree, we tried the Asparagus in chickpea batter ($6). I don't know what Japanese tempura batter is made from, but I don't think chickpeas are the main ingredient. Still, the asparagus was similar, and was as good as any tempura I've had.
For mains, Dave ordered the Fish of the Day (ocean trout), which came grilled on top of a radicchio and potato mash, with a green bean, ruby grapefruit and parmesan salad ($21). Very elaborate sounding, and very well prepared (I'm salivating... this will teach me to write these reviews when I'm hungry). I chose a really strange pizza from a selection of really strange pizzas: Buffalo sausage, red onion jam, blue cheese and apple, on top of an oblong Turkish-style handmade pizza base ($14). Whilst the flavour combination probably isn't for everyone, I certainly enjoyed it. Until I realised that it was giving me the worst breath I can ever remember. Don't order this one if you've got a hot date.
About halfway through the pizza I noticed a tiny piece of foil wrapper still attached to some of the blue cheese. I pointed this out to the waiter, mostly as a courtesy (the chef might want to know, in order to be more careful in the future). With an instant apology, the waiter removed the pizza from our bill. That's the sort of service that makes you return to a place.
The foil didn't detract from my enjoyment of the meal, but I couldn't finish the pizza because it was simply too big. And I wanted dessert.
The wines were nice but not outstanding (this seems to be a pattern - either we've got no idea, or you basically get what you pay for). I had the Oakridge Pinot Noir 2001 and Dave had the Margan Merlot 2000.
Dessert was good value at $7.50. Dave had the Dessert Calzone, which was filled with apple and blueberry and topped with vanilla custard on the outside. I had the Bitter Chocolate Parfait, which came surrounded by poached cumquats and proved to be too rich to finish. I thought parfaits were light and airy - not this one.
Wouldn't you know it, we forgot to check out the restrooms. No doubt they would be hip and trendy, but I suppose jumper cables would be a bit much.
We left feeling satisfied, full, and self-conscious about bad breath (okay, maybe Dave didn't have that last problem).
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Dave's summary: "I wouldn't have complained about a small piece of foil. And I finished both my courses!"
Probability that we will return: 35 / 42
Note that the probability rating is affected by the fact that there are hundreds of places to eat around here.