Dancing Dog Cafe

42a Albert Street
Footscray 3013
8am - 4pm, 9am Sundays.
03 9689 2566
http://www.dancingdogcafe.com.au/

What a relief! Dancing Dog Café no longer does Egg breakfasts. It’s not that I was opposed to the Dancing Dog breakfasts it’s just that I am a bit over the poached egg thing. It was nice to have a break from the norm.
The Dancing Dog Café is Groovy. Everytime I walk in there I go into a relaxed state and stare at the walls. All the posters, make such interesting reading, all the pictures of dogs are entertaining and the music in the background encourages you to take it easy. When it is time to order it’s really simple, it’s either toasts with spread, fruit toast with butter or muesli. No major decision making, not too many choices. Life is filled with so many choices now I think it is great that this is one easier decision I have to make. Fruit Toast Please.
My god! A serving of fruit toast here consists of almost a loaf. Extremely generous! Too much I think! I could not finish it. I tried but it was just too rich after slice number mmm, I had lost count. The fruit toast is laden with fruit, mainly dates and is really lovely but they could save themselves some money and serve at least one less slice.
Hot Chocolate. One of the best in Melbourne! Nowhere in SKY or Footscray can you get a hot chocolate like the Dancing Dog’s. In fact it was after having a hot chocolate here that I decided that I would no longer order it anywhere else because, it just cannot be beaten. The Tea, also brilliant. They are using flowers, which appear to be the latest in tea drinking. Magnificently the flower opens slowly as you drink it and all you have to do is keep adding hot water. It looked beautiful, as it is drunk in a clear glass and you can watch the process. Fruit Toast, Hot chocolate and tea cost me about $11. Excellent value for money.


The Dancing Dog Café has once again evolved. They are using one of the rooms as a theatre/cinema! Very exciting! As always the Dancing Dog Café has so much to offer the local community, you would be mad not to visit this quirky café with all its extras.

Cafe Urbano

43 Anderson St,

Yarraville 3013.

Ph: (03) 9687 1198

Destination destination! Position, Position, Position! Café Urbano is right in the centre of Yarraville Village. It’s quite unassuming, no big signage just a blackboard with the menu and a glass window showing the patrons enjoying the coffee. It’s got a rustic European feel to it and it certainly has that lovely coffee aroma and wonderful smells coming from the kitchen.

Café Urbano has a lovely display of food at the far end of the café. Everything looks fantastic with once again that rustic feel to it. The food looks fresh, colourful and inviting and even though I’m here for breakfast I’m wondering when I can get back here for lunch.

There seems to be a combination of table service as well as ordering at the counter. The lovely young girl who we found out is in love with Chuck Bass(Gossip Girl) brought us our first cup of tea. And I’m cringing as I say this but there they were again, those hideous generic teapots. I must say I was quite shocked because the last time I was here this was not how the tea was served. Moving right along!

Breakfast was great! Beautifully poached eggs and beautifully seasoned spinach. Yummy tomatoes and mushrooms. Funnily enough I can’t remember what sort of bread the toast was but it couldn’t have been bad because I would remember. Rachael had a fabulous looking omelette which she said hit the spot. With these cold winter mornings eggs and sides sometimes aren’t quite enough and occasionally I get a craving for something sweet afterwards. Usually another cup of tea would suffice but this particular morning I wanted more and decided to order a friand. A friand is a little cake originating from France. They should be made with almond meal and generally have some fruit folded through. The Urbano friand was not crash hot and I was a little disappointed. When the second pot of tea came out surprise, surprise not the generic tea pot but the tea brewer( is that what you would call it R). Anyway whatever it is called, it is much more preferable. Much nicer second cup of tea.

A nice little touch is the collection of grandma spoons. Did you have a grandmother (usually of Scottish or English descent) who collected souvenir teaspoons where ever she went? She may have donated her collection to Café Urbano. Cute idea.

As busy as any other café in SKY it is really worth a visit for the breakfast. It’s great value at around $15 including a cup of tea.

The Famous Blue Raincoat

25b Vernon Street
South Kingsville
93918520
http://www.famousblueraincoat.com.au/


Does anyone remember The Bowser Cafe? The Bowser Cafe is where I first saw Kaz in action. I thought then that she was a fantastic waitress and all these years later I still think she is a fantastic waitress. However her place of work, now in South Kingsville, is so different to 'The Bowser'. Thank God! The Famous Blue Raincoat, what a fantastic name for a café.

It’s been a couple of years since I have been here and I have never had breakfast. I have to say I was a little bit excited about it.

When I think about the Famous Blue Raincoat I think of comfort, warmth and great music. I Love the layout and the interior design. It's very groovy and arty. The circular couch around the fire is so inviting you could plonk yourself there for the day with your favourite reading materials.

The courtyard out the back is just as wonderful as the Seddon Deadly Sins courtyard. Fantastic for summer. But it wasn’t warm at all the day we visited so it was either inside for us, or if we wanted to brave the elements we could have sat outside around the pot belly. (Handy for smokers).

Back to Kaz, such a bright spark. Obviously running behind in setting up she still had a smile on her face and managed to chat with us as she worked, taking our order. As she had just turned on the coffee machine I don’t think the water had reached boiling, when she poured our pots of tea. Not quite boiled water on tea bags in teapots didn’t quite hit the spot for me however I loved the tea cups. Rachael made a very astute observation whilst we drank our tea, as much as we love these tea cups they don’t appear to keep the tea hot.

Oh the dilemma. (The practicality of choice. Do we drink out of cups that are aesthetically pleasing and let our tea go cool or do we drink out of cups that keep our tea hot but don’t look so hot).

We had put our order in for the usual (poached eggs and all sides in site (to quote an anonymous contributor to our blog)and it was a long wait, but we didn't mind. The locals drifted in and out, ordering take out coffees, mainly. Tables were filling up. Kaz still attentive, did we want more tea? Breakfast arrived and to be honest it didn’t look fantastic, one of the eggs was broken. Kaz apologized! The eggs were on lightly toasted white bread and there were plenty of tiny mushrooms and a lovely well seasoned roman tomato. But like last week the spinach was a major let down. It just didn’t taste right, probably a few days past it’s serving up date. After the breakfast, more tea,and unfortunately not much better than the first pot. The cost for this breakfast (tea included) $18, which is consistent with the average price of this particular breakfast dish in SKY. Overall it was an okay breakfast but because I so like the surroundings I would be more than willing to give it another go for breakfast.

All in all a lovely morning out. Monica.

Snippets

Which Vietnamese restaurant to choose in Footscray?

We choose HUY HUY!

Why? Well obviously the food is great, but it’s the staff, in particularly one gentleman who we adore. We don’t know his name but whenever we walk in the door it’s like we are his long lost cousins. He is so welcoming that I almost believe that we are. He waits on you like you are the only customers in the restaurant. He makes jokes with the kids and everyone laughs, even though we are not really sure what he says. He takes your order so promptly and the food arrives not much later. The food is generally great Vietnamese Fare. As a family we eat and watch the big tele on the wall (we’re not allowed to watch the tele at home while we eat). Before you know it we are finished. Sometimes we want dessert and sometimes we have it, sometimes we don’t. Love the casualness of it all. Then it’s the goodbyes and they are as theatrical as the entrance. The Price is fantastic, approx $10 a head. We all leave with big smiles on our faces.

108 Hopkins St Footscray 3011
P: (03) 9687 4130