Little Rose is a French-Asian bistro in Fitzroy, run by Chef Rosheen Kaul. We heard there was a 2 month expiry on the pop-up, so we legged it fast as possible to get a taste of the Chinese twist. We dined on a Thursday night, making a reservation about 2 weeks in advance.
Food
Started with their baguette $10 – a Vietnamese style baguette with whipped pate butter, pickled shallots and scud chilli.
The bread was a tad dense for a “Vietnamese style” baguette, but the right density for a French baguette so they should have leaned into the French side for the marketing on the menu. The butter was amazing. It was airy and creamy, packed full of flavour. If the bread was lighter, we would have licked it all up.
The bread was a tad dense for a “Vietnamese style” baguette, but the right density for a French baguette so they should have leaned into the French side for the marketing on the menu. The butter was amazing. It was airy and creamy, packed full of flavour. If the bread was lighter, we would have licked it all up.
This was coquillages froids $25, a clam dish marinated Chaozhou-style with vin jaune, coriander and garlic, served chilled. This tasted like a classic Chinese XO pipi with a nutty and creamy French twist that paired excellently together. It was a perfect balance that represented the fusion well.
This was saute de jou, local squid with garlic chives and lamb merguez sausage sauteed with white wine for $28. The lamb tasted like it was inspired by yang rou chuan, and really rounded the dish. We didn’t expect these two ingredients: French-style sauteed squid and the intense flavourful Chinese-style lamb to go together so well. It was such a unique combination.
This was a side of pommes puree with a side of Suzhou-style crab roe sauce for $22. Bruhhhhh, the umami and flavour punch of this sauce was perfect. And it complimented the creamy thickness of the potato so well. The only downside was our stomachs were too full to lick the plate clean.
This was the special of the night: Quenelles. It was a fish and prawn dumpling in crayfish bisque and sichuan chilli oil. It was amazing, 10/10 put it on the menu permanently.
This was our favourite of the night, a saucisse de porc for $40. It was an Andouillette-inspired, rustic pork sausage with liver, shoulder and slow-cooked skin. It was made in collaboration with Meatsmith, served with rich mustard sauce.
It was done so well. The sausage was tender, juicy and flavourful. We rarely eat sausage so this dish was a surprising victory.
It was done so well. The sausage was tender, juicy and flavourful. We rarely eat sausage so this dish was a surprising victory.
The last dish was a salmon au gribiche, a NZ king salmon that was pan-seared with charred green chilli gribiche for $48. Again, another delicious dish cooked well with a balance of flavours.
Service
The service was fantastic: friendly and attentive. The pacing of the dishes was great too. The only downside was being placed at the table in front of the door so we felt every blast of cold Melbourne winter air 😂.
Review
We love it when restaurants do fusion with French food, and this was a hit for us. Writing this post up in September 2026 and seeing their updated tagged Instagram posts, Little Rose has refined their presentation so now we have more reason to return and try other dishes.
Thanks for reading. Happy eating.
Thanks for reading. Happy eating.
