Cafe Urbano

43 Anderson St, Yarraville 3013.
Ph: (03) 9687 1198

So it has changed hands! OMG, that wonderful cabinet of food, Gone, Gone Gone. It bothers me when something good, ceases to exist. But that's life, constantly changing. However the changes aren't that big (yet), at Cafe Urbano.

The menu remains the same and obviously the name hasn't changed. The new owners have introduced some Thai dishes on the specials blackboard and I look forward to trying something for lunch one of these days. I just wonder how long before their natural instincts will take over and the whole menu will be Thai. Not a bad thing in my books, however is there room for another Thai restaurant in SKY.

Rachael and I had the discussion over breakfast about the chef's authenticity in any restaurant. If the chef is from Thailand should he/she just be cooking Thai food and so on with Italian and Greek and Lebanese. There are a few Australian Chef's cooking food from different cultures and a perfect example of this is David Thompson who is famous for cooking for the Thai Government in Thailand and promoting their food and culture. So can just anyone do this? In my opinion NO! A perfect example of this is Pub food. More often than not a pub menu can represent 3 to 4 different nationalities. Does this mean that the chef is an expert in each of these cuisines? I don't think so! I know I've digressed a little but my point is that your origins and your experiences make up what you are good at so if you have grown up in Thailand and then come to Australia to cook, I would say that your Thai food would be authentic and successful but if you tried cooking unfamiliar cuisines, would you have the knowledge and experience to make it just as successful? Mmmmmm.

Nevertheless the food was quite good. I ordered the untoasted muesli with yoghurt and compote of fruit (on my heath kick again) . It was okay however there could have been twice as much compote and considering all the beautiful fruits that are in season at the moment the compote could have had more than prunes and figs in it. Rachaels' omelette looked nice, perhaps a little oily from where I was sitting and she seemed to enjoy it. The coffee is $3.00 for a small and $4.00 for a large and tea is $3.50 ( I did not see which brand they used). I had peppermint tea which was nice. As said earlier I really look forward to trying some of their Thai food(perhaps some Thai influences on the breakfast menu would be interesting) but I wonder how the rest will go.