Cafe Lomah

169 Union Rd

Ascot Vale VIC 3032,

Australia

(03) 9372 7566
Open Mon-Tue,Sun 8am-5pm; Wed-Sat 8am-10pm

Cafe Lomah, an acronym for 'A Land of Milk and Honey', can be found in Ascot Vale.

Yes venturing outside of the comfort zone again.

Did you know that there is a whole shopping precint in Union Road, Ascot Vale, with many cafes and shops. Well I didn't and I have to tell you I thought it was pretty groovy with room for huge growth and potential. (Sounds like a bit of an advertisement doesn't it). There was more than one cafe I would like to go back and visit for breakfast, lunch or dinner, but this particular morning we settled on Cafe Lomah which is in a well maintained, lovely old double storey building.

Rachael ordered the pancakes which had the berry compote, maple syrup and ice-cream. Once they arrived that was it - I didn't hear another peak from her for all of 10minutes. She was gone, gone ,gone!

I stuck to tradition, having poached eggs, tomies, mushies and spinach. I must say everything on my plate was well cooked and seasoned. If I haven't been to a cafe before I like to use this dish as a bench mark and it often tells me the style of the chef and the experience. The coffee used here is Vittoria and is $3.20 and the tea is Tea Tonic Organic Teas.

Now Rach can you refresh my memory here, how was this served was it in a teapot, in one of those canteen tea pots, I just can't remember. The tea was fine at also $3.20. They do Breakfast, lunch and dinner here and on certain nights they do curry nights or pasta nights at $10, which is a bargain.

They serve the standard generic cakes and slices. I don't mean to offend here but I am a great lover of cakes and all things sweet, but nothing turns me off quicker than these generic cakes that you can get in a lot of cafes these days. They must all come from the same factory. I much prefer a less perfect homemade cake! At cafe Lomah they cater for the children which I really like. They have a kids menu and also activities for the kids such as coloring and jigsaws, which is a cool idea.

Overall I think this is a good business, very professional (check out the website - www.cafelomah.com.au) - with huge potential , but I do think it lacks a bit of atmosphere. I found the service to be good but less than colourful. I guess I mean, a few smiles and bit of chit chat can always perk up the customer. What do you think Rach?

I'm still trying to get over my pancakes Monica. I haven't had this type of breakfast for ages due to peer group pressure to be healthy and low cal. This is my idea of breakfast out and I think it needs to be done more often. Pancakes for me from now on I think. These were delicious and had heaps of syrup which was very pleasing as there is nothing I hate more than having to ration my syrup to make it through the whole dish. I think the tea was nicely presented as I don't recall any generic teapots. Sorry, best we go back and find out - and I'd best try those pancakes again in case I've forgotten anything.

Hausfrau

Did you know that Hausfrau has the best Vanilla Slice in Melbourne. According to The Age's Top 5 book it does. Isn't that wonderful! Sally Roxon, Chef, at Hausfrau, has been providing SKY residents with more treats than Vanilla Slices over the years. As the original owners of the Gravy Train they held the top spot for Breakfast in SKY, according to me. However when they moved to Hausfrau I was disappointed to see that full breakfasts were no longer on offer.

What is on offer for breakfast at Hausfrau? Well not much I'm afraid, they have a few items but your traditional eggs breakfast is not one of them, they do have a bacon and egg baguette (if not sold out), croque monsier and bircher muesli (see 2009 review) and a couple of other items but nothing really made to order. I understand that Hausfrau is predominately about cakes and hence I suggest if you have a sweet tooth at breakfast time, get yourself down there because this would be the place to be in SKY. I did have cheese on toast with the relish but I can't rave about it because there was nothing special about it. It cost me $12 with a cup of tea. I wouldn't have it again. However I would like to try the cakes one by one, all in one sitting ..... now I am getting carried away, maybe just a couple at a time. Some suggestions - the sachertorte, or the hummingbird cake or the plum, or the.............. Oh if only my waist would allow this. Life is so unfair. How can a person such as me who adores food, who is devoted to food, have to watch what they eat. It's just cruel!!!

(above photo courtesy of Flikr/GemmaJones)

The Corner On Bellair

170 Bellair St,

Kensington,

9372 2844.

Breakfasting outside of Sky!

Naughty but nice.

Sometimes we need different scenery.

Visiting surrounding suburbs to see what's happening gives us a good idea of where SKY stands in the breakfast stakes. I do think that we give the rest of Melbourne a run for their money. However, I do like Kensington and so far the two cafe's I have visited for breakfast give us a good run.

The Corner on Bellair is your modern day Australian Cafe. They serve Thai and Italian food but also have a great breakfast menu. I'm presuming they are a husband and wife team doing what they know best, which is great for the customers. I loved the Breakfast Menu, although it is huge, everything was so tempting. I especially liked the sound of a mixed toast basket (raisin, sour dough and wholewheat) Phillipa's no less. At $6.50 I think this is a bargain considering you could probably share it. Building a breakfast is something I know my husband would like to do and I just like the way they sold it to me. Considering I am supposed to eat healthy, I perused and perused and although there were options I couldn't help it, I had to order the Baked Eggs in Napolitana sauce (still not that bad, I could've had eggs with hollandaise or pancakes(next time)) Served with sourdough toast, it was just delicious, really rich (not too) and Italian.

Yummo - at $12.50 a bargain! A Tea Bag (can't get everything right) is Classic(?). $2.80. Coffee $3. What did you have Rach I can't quite remember as I was so into my dish I don't think I lifted my head once until my pan was empty. Great looking space with seating as you walk in and then up the stairs to the counter and more seating. Table service and counter service available. I look forward to coming back here for breakfast as well as trying out the dinner menu.

Glad you took so much notice of the company at your table Mon! I had the omlette again and this one was absolutely choc full of goodies, in fact they probably could have kept back some of the ham for the next omlette. Great breakfast all round and had a lovely browse in the bookshop next door. R.

Cafe Alfami

78 Charles Street

Seddon

9689 5055

Now, I feel a bit remiss here, because this has got to be one of the longest standing cafe's in SKY, in fact it has been here ever since I have. It hasn't changed much over the years and to tell you the truth I haven't felt compelled to go in. However with this blog I don't think we can just leave it out. So in we went and as is often the case we were pleasantly surprised. This shop has an earthly feel to it with the exposed brick walls and the floorboards. It has a courtyard out the back which I think is a bit daggy, sort of like Nonna's backyard, and it is covered over so it's not an open to the sky courtyard but none the less, it's okay. The breakfast menu is on the blackboard and very reasonably priced. I asked the waitress (table service and counter service) what would she suggest as the healthiest item (which by the way is going out the window next week, too boring when there is so much to choose from)

She suggested spinach, mushrooms and tomatoes on toast. It was nice but could have had more seasoning. No butter on the toast which I thought was good because I asked for healthy. Did it fill me up? NO, I must have a bottomless pit! Rachael had an omelette (which was very hearty - heaps of ham and cheese).

Unfortunately we quickly slipped back into old habits - We looked at each other and instantaneously we both know that we need to have something sweet. Eyes darting around the cafe, what can we have without feeling too guilty. Muffins okay but one or two? Two? No one, no two, alright we'll order one and then if we want more we can always order another. Unfortunately we shouldn't have even ordered one, it was not a very good muffin, extremely dry with minimal fruit but it did stop the sugar craving (for me at least). Tea was a Twining's tea bag (price?? Couldn't see a price list for drinks anywhere, will have to ask next time), it came in one of those cafeteria style teapots. The coffee is coffex and there was a constant stream of customers for take-aways. Talking about customers Rachael and I noticed that the average customer was of the male tradie looking variety quite a nice surprise giving us lots to chat about.

Also I have been told that the Bulldogs like to hang out here. There is a contingent of Italian looking men and the Hair dressing man from Maggio's next door is the main attraction. Is he the owner? maybe?

It wasn't an expensive breakfast, costing $19 for the spinach, tomatoes and mushroom on toast, 2 pots of tea and one muffin. There is a standard Lunch menu with sandwiches as well as burgers, parmas and calamari. They also have the standard brought in cookies and slices. One thing that caught my attention was an excellent wine list. Mostly wines from South Australia and New Zealand, perhaps this is more of a lunch venue.

February Ramblings

Rachael, have you heard about the February Fast? Apparently it is all the rage! No alcohol for the month of February! Are they nuts? The month of February has seen me out and about - a very busy month and I don't think I could have survived it without the odd tipple. We are only half way through! In the middle of the month we have the Yarraville Festival and at the end of the month we have the Seddon Festival. Throw in a couple of birthday dinners and other dinners just for the hell of it and you have one indulgent month..

I have been to Taxi (Yes The Taxi at Fed Square), Huy Huy a couple of times , Famous Blue Raincoat, The corner shop and the latest addition to Yarraville Village - Dig a Pony. I have to say that all of these are fabulous places to have dinner for different occasions. Can you believe that on a Sunday Night at FBR you can have a steak with salad for $12! And the steak is porterhouse and the steak is tender! What a Bargain!

Oh and the grilled lamb cutlets at the Corner Shop have got to be the best around - Salivating! Some friends of mine from the other side of town come across to watch movies and eat those lamb cutlets (not at the same time, although not a bad idea). At Huy Huy I'm stuck on their lemon chicken at the moment. Sooo bad for you but unbelievably yummy! As for Taxi, WELL it was so delicious - a degustation menu which included tuna sushimi, scallops, sticky pork, ginger and apple salads, an incredibly sweet (but not too sweet) soup with a rabbit wonton and shitake mushroom, spatchcock (superb), kingfish and for dessert chocolate tian, white chocolate ganache, and passionfruit foam. You think that would be the end of it but no there were petit fours, which incredibly we could fit in.

Last but not least we have the new tapas bar in the village. Dig A Pony.

Very exciting when a new establishment opens and it is good. The tapas that we had were excellent, perfectly cooked and so, so tasty. Highly recommend you get yourself down there. Their cocktails are very reasonably priced, all though I was only able to sample one (recovering from the night before). I look forward to working my way through their list. So you see there is no way I could participate in the February fast, or March, April, May or June, we'll see after that!

There I was last week complaining about the photo you put up of me and you know what I think that might actually be flattering compared to what I feel like now!