Breakfast in the S.K.Y.

July

2011-08-15T18:19:00.006+10:00

Java

It's been two years since I have blogged about Java. In that time I have been in there for a few cups of chai after a movie but that is about it. To be honest it was hard for me to walk in. In fact Java was not my first destination, the new cafe where Funky Monkey was for 2 minutes last year was. Needless to say it was not open and I could not even find it's name. What happened to Funky Monkey??? It was sooooooo hard not to walk into the Corner Shop and just have some lovely baked eggs and a pot of their chai. But in fairness to SKY and the Blog and I thought it was time I gave Java another go.

The menu is the result of being a member of the Red Engine Group. Nothing new, nothing exciting, very similar to the Gravy Train. The Red Engine Group is a company that owns quite a few cafes around SKY and surrounding areas. It creates spaces which are very humdrum in my opinion. Their cafes are money making machines in great locations with buying power which makes them cheaper than other cafes. Although the menu at Java is basic my breakfast was delicious. I ordered the mushrooms, spinach and fetta on sour dough. However the white bread they call sourdough doesn't taste like sour dough to me . Still this is great value at $10 and shows you how effective buying power can be. Serving all the usual suspects Java does not pull any punches with the menu. You can the pancakes, the porridge, Muesli, French Toast and Eggs with all the sides. Still serving tea in the old canteen pots Java's Chai is surprisingly good. Not as good as across the road but better than a lot in SKY. Chai is also great value at $3.50.

If you want to taste real sour dough then hop on down to Victoria St to the SourDough Kitchen. Also read on after review as I have just recently been there(at least once or twice).

Java is not an inviting space. Some love and attention to the interior would really benefit the atmosphere and ambiance. As I sat there on a very cold morning, with the door wide open I could not help but notice the paint peeling off the walls, the floors looking very unswept and a lot of cakes sitting in the deli fridge looking quite tired.

It is a toss up when deciding where to eat breakfast, I guess everyone is looking for something different and it hugely depends on time and money in your pocket. It you are a bit skint Java with fill your belly but probably not your soul.

SourDough Kitchen

172 Victoria St

Seddon

Breakfast here is a very casual, non egg event. Should I have a chocolate croissant or a plain croissant. I thought this would be the extent of my decision but when the young chap threw a plum jam croissant into the mix, I knew which way I was going. You must go and have a plum jam croissant! Yes YOU must!

The Chai is not bad here served a little bit different from everywhere else but nice and goes with the plum jam croissant..

A little Tibit - There is a new Italian style deli, fruit and veg and butcher going into the old furniture shop in Victoria St. Very Exciting SKY Goss!

MAISON AMA LURRA

123 Howard st

North Melbourne

It is always nice to have a change from SKY and see what else is happening in the surrounding suburbs. North Melbourne is and always has been a leader in the establishment of new cafes.

Ama Lurra is certainly a new approach to cafes, whether you like it or not is again dependant on your own style. A warehouse conversion, with polished floors and steel furniture your first impression may be that it is quite cold and clinical. However I did not feel like that once I was seated on one of the couches with the sun shining in. With mags and newspapers at my disposal I was quite comfy and warm. There is the potential for a lot of customers, however on the day I was visiting it was quite empty and echoey. The menu is quite small but very French and all sounded delightful.. French open sandwiches and Platters of Charcuterie. On display were some macarons but really the display needs to be jazzed up. I had the Croque Maiden Ama Lurra. Really, just an open toasted ham and cheese sandwich with some house made relish. However the ham was off the bone and the cheese was more than tasty. It was a quality toastie served with a lovely light green salad.

Now you know that I am a tea drinker! I have been enjoying chai for some time as I had become tired of drinking English Breakfast out. Well, I have found that the tea at Ama Lurra is certainly one of the best. Imported from France, Mariage Freres, makes a beautiful French Breakfast Tea. In the menu description I was a bit dubious as the tea was described as having hints of chocolate and orange. I asked the waitress and she said you can't actually taste these flavours. It does have a beautiful chocolate and orange aroma . It was a lovely subtle tea to drink with no particular flavour . Don't be alarmed if your tea does not arrive within 5 minutes. Part of the process with these teas is that they are brewed for 9 minutes.

On further research I have found that Mariage Freres is a Tea House in Paris opened since 1974. The teapots are just gorgeous and the best I have experienced in Melbourne. quite exciting really, a little bit of Paris in Melbourne! I look forward to going back to Ama Lurra for more tea and perhaps trying the macarons.

Living and Eating in Gamon Street

2011-07-03T11:50:00.007+10:00

Oh my Lord! It's July!

It's been a while since I've Walked Gamon St. There's a new cafe, which I wrote about in May, Cafe Advieh, but mostly we have the established Businesses, such as Gourmet on Gamon, The Gravy Train and Le chien. As Well as the Cafes we have Sedonia, for a spot of jewellery/homewares shopping, we can buy our pets treats at Pets @ Gamon Street and we can beautify our selves at Wax and Relaxed. We can also take our kids to the park at Harris Reserve, we can buy Pizza from Cuoco's or we can hang out at Sabrosso's on a beautiful sunny afternoon on a bean bag with a glass of sparkling. A whole day could be spent walking from one end to the other. First I would start with Breakfast. After visiting each of the cafes offering Breakfast I have decided my preferance, but would that be yours? As alway food is personal and everyone's personal taste is different.

It's about 10 years since breakfast has taken off to the extent of the popularity it has today and in that time Breakfast dishes have evolved. But do you like the original Brekkie? The Eggs, Bacon and sides of mushies, tomatoes and spinach! If you do then my suggestion is Gourmet on Gamon. They do a fantastic traditional breakfast, which is perfectly cooked and presented. They also do a chai latte which at the moment is my choice of hot drink, which is fairly standard as well. From a premix. The day I visited the cafe was fairly busy but the service was very friendly and I didn't wait too long at all!

The latest breakfast Spot is Cafe Advieh. I had lunch here in April and I have to admit I was really looking forward to my first breakfast here. I was not dissapointed! The food here is really delicious. Simple fare with a twist of mediterraen/middle eastern. Yummo! I ordered the Avieh which consisted of 2 fried eggs, grilled haloumi, tomatoes , olives, cucumber and turkish bread. The turkish bread was slightly toasted in olive oil, exactly the way I like it. A fantastic start to the day, a perfectly cooked breakfast. I love that it is almost like a standard breakfast but it's not! My guest ordered the Turkish Omelette, which was thouroughly enjoyed and I was texted 8 hours later saying that she was still enjoying the flavours of breakfast, especially the Turkish sausage. The Lingering taste says it all. My biggest issue was the emptyness of the cafe. It was 9am but it was cold and empty.

Where are you people? It is definetly worth a visit! I finished this breakfast off with a Morroccan Mint Tea which was absolutely refreshing and served in a traditional pot and glass! Loved it!

Over at the Gravy Train on another cold winters day I was looking for something sweeter. I think the Gravy Train has the biggest Breakfast Menu. Big to me can often mean average! It means that the chef has a lot of preparation to do instead of doing just a few things really well. My breakfast was an example of this.

I had the french Baguette, stuffed with banana and topped with marscapone and maple syrup. As you see from the photo you can see that it is huge. I found that off putting to start with and I really wish that cafes/restaurants would halve their serves. All they have to do is reduce their prices by a third and they would make more money and have less wastage. We do not need to eat that much food. But back to their variation on French Toast. The Mascapone(?) was overwhipped and was off putting. It was nice to have some banana but really I did not enjoy this dish at all. I don't think it worked the way it was put together it was just too chunky. The Chai latte was in one of those dreadful canteen pots and a Kraft sachet of honey was on the side as well as hot milk to add. A different way again of serving Chai but not unpleasant.

Last but least is Le Chien and the Promite Special. Where would Seddon be without the P.Special. I have to say that on certain days I wake up craving the P.Special, I just walk myself down there to indulge in the perfectly ripe avocado with perfectly runny poached eggs with the tomato(sometimes a little under ripe)and the parsley, of course on top of the ciabatta toast with butter and promite(the perfect amount spread). And don't forget the squeeze of lemon.

This is a CLASSIC dish and should be considered along side such famous dishes as Eggs Florentine or Eggs Benedict! Because of the obsession I have with this dish, of course I have failed to try other dishes on the menu. I remember once trying something else and wishing the whole time that I was eating the P.Special. Any Suggestions on other dishes that could surpass the P.Special? As I am going throught the Chai Spell I ordered one here with great apprehension as I have had very average chai's here.This day was no exception . Warm milk(not hot, like I like it)with very faint suggestions of cardamon, cloves and cinnamon. MMMmmmm wish it was better. On the positive side I preferred this to the other offerings on Gamon St.

So in which one of these cafes would you have breakfast, in which one does your personality shine and which one is you local?

The Month of April

2011-05-05T21:13:00.007+10:00

I have to say that after March it has been a very quiet month. However there has been a few exceptional breakfast mornings and an evening of gastronomic highs in a very very cheap Chinese restaurant in the city.

Firstly the local news. New in Sky is Wee Jeanie!

Wee Jeanie - 50 Anderson St Yarraville - 9687 7187

Opened for approximately a month now I was lucky enough to have brekkie there in the first week of opening. Running Completely different to Iain and Claires Cornershop, Wee Jeanie is more a quick stop with a quick coffee and bite to eat, rather than the lets hangout atmosphere of the cornershop.

I had the delicious Welsh Rarebit, which had just the right bite. The breakfast menu is limited with simple and fast options. So tempted was I to sit and try more of the display I had to drag myself away. In the display is a variety of delicious looking quiches, salads, cakes and slices. A great courtyard out the back with a common table looking over the yarraville station provides a different view than the regular in SKY.

I also had breakfast at the cornershop this month and I tried the delicious black rice, rhubarb, strawberry, yoghurt and palm sugar. Served like a breakfast trifle I can only say it was delectable and I think it should be at Wee Jeanie as well.

Lunch today was at the newly opened Cafe Advei(sorry if the spelling is incorrect) in Gamon St. This was only opened two weeks ago and is being run by a Yarraville Family. You may have noticed the blue Mediterranean tiling on the outside, the paper on the windows and the blue doors. I was very excited when the doors were opened and was finally able to sit down and eat there. They do have a breakfast menu, which looks delicious and I will go back to try it, but today was about lunch. As you walk in there is a display counter, with middle eastern looking salads, felafels and other delights. We seated ourselves straight away and were presented with a menu almost immediately. The lunch menu consisted mainly of the displayed items, but also a number a yummy sounding wraps and foccacia's. My guest and I decided to share a felafel plate, which came with 3 felafels with hummus and our choice of 3 salads. We chose the lentil, the silverbeet and couscous and the mediterranean. Everything was so scrumptious. We also shared a zuchhini pancake which was also nice but a little too salty.

The mood of the cafe was one of a new venture. It was obvious that these people were a bit green, but they are on the right path. They need some proper signage on the windows, as it is hard to see the name of the cafe from a distance, they need some heating, cos although today was not very cold, it was cold in there and they need credit card facilities.

I do wish them luck and success. If all the food is as good as what I had today then I think they will make it.

A Seddon Food Crawl.

One friday night went like this!

1. Sabrosso's- French Champagne

2. Seddon wine bar - more French Champagne but this time with the most perfect parmigianno reggiano on one board and a delicious duck liver pate with sour dough from the Sour dough kitchen across the road on another board.

3. Tin Pan Alley - in Victoria St, just down from the Sourdough Kitchen. Pizza and Pinot Noir.Heavenly Pizza's.

4. Sabrosso's - More red wine and Dessert. Dessert was of course, churros with chocolate sauce. There were other dishes on the plate but you will have to forgive me because by that stage at least 5 hours had passed since that first glass of champers, and things were becoming a blur.

Highly recommend this evening out but do warn that the next morning could be fogggy.

Lastly I would like to share my discovery of the Shanghai Noodle house in Tattersals Lane in China Town, Melbourne.

We were trying for Camy Shanghai Dumpling and Noodle House but the line was so long we just walked into the next restaurant that we could see with a free table. Not very often do you walk out feeling you have just won the lotto.

We had so much food, too much, because we didn't realise how big the serves would be. Every dish that we ordered was undeniably superb. Dumplings, not a measly 4 per serve but 12, and so fresh. The noodle soups , the other dishes we ate I don't even know the names of, because really you just point and order and hope for the best.
The English language is not well practiced in this restaurant so don't be surprised if what you thought you ordered hasn't arrived, it probably won't, but whatever does comes I promise you will be delicious. There are a few details to overlook, such as a bit of grubbiness, no selling of alcohol(byo is allowed), and no credit card facilities.

We paid $72 for 4 of us and we could have ordered half. Just Amazing!

Melbourne Food Festival

2011-03-30T14:12:00.006+11:00

I get very excited in March when the announcement of the Melbourne food and wine festival is made. I download the program and start planning. I'll do this lunch with this friend and I'll do this lunch with that friend and with the family, we can attend this event. Perhaps with my husband I'll go here and the list goes on. Any excuses to try as many express lunches in 10 days as possible as well attending other events. I've chosen 3 events to discuss that stand out. Libertine 500Victoria st Nth Melbourne 3051 9329 5228 I've heard about Libertine for along time and was very excited that they were included in the express lunch. Express lunches are 2 courses with a glass of wine and a coffee or cup of tea. For this you pay $35. (that's right!). On being seated the lovely waitress(not sure if she was the owner or not(Zoe Ladyman, a local Yaravillian, I hear) did not waist any time in giving us our menus and asking us what wine we would like. She also explained for an extra 10 dollars we could have 3 courses. And of course I straight away went yes that's for me. The Ambience in Libertine, is just lovely. It feels very French and old world. My entree was a cuttlefish salad with turtle beans and mint which was devine. It presented like a freshly bloomed flower and tasted light and sublime. For Mains again I had the fish - John Dory which was probably the best cooked piece of fish that I have ever had. Served on beautiful potato cooked in too much butter. Dessert was a plum and berry struesal served with Pistachio ice-cream. The service was brilliant with the waitress being more attentive to our needs than you would have thought possible. Overall Libertine has left a flavour in my mouth that I long to readdress, soon, please, someone take me there. The Healsville Hotel - The Cider Festival What a great family event! For $20 an adult and $5 a child this is an afternoon that I would encourage all to attend. This event is about cider tasting and although cider is obviously for adults the Healsville hotel made sure that our children were entertained whilst we attended the serious business of tasting. There were four stalls of tasting. I can remember three, Kellybrook, Punt Road and Coldstream Brewery. Now I mainly booked this event because my husband and one of his pals love cider. They also make batches of it now and again which they try to get me to taste. I have to say in the past I have not been too fond of cider. Well this was the turning point. I tried the Apple ciders, I tried the Sparkling Ciders and I tried the Pear Ciders. My fav being Pear. Delicious! For our $20 we got to do the tasting then we got to choose one stubby of cider and we also got a roast pork roll. The roast pork was delicious(from a spit) and I will not complain too much because as you can see for my 20 I'm already getting quite a good deal, but please, a little bit of butter on the roll or some apple sauce or chutney or even some gravy please. I would have paid extra just for that roll to be moist. Whilst eating and drinking cider our children were entertained by a clown and we listened to a lovely jazz band. Overall a brilliant afternoon! Stokehouse Schmoke house! What a disaster! Oh Lordy an example of what not to do during the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival. For a start the Express Lunch was downstairs, not upstairs where it should have been. Secondly whilst they were offering the Express Lunch they were still trying to do their normal menu in the bistro. We were seated on a shabby chipped table. On seating my male guest asked for a beer. We then waited and waited. In the meantime we were given the menu, which was dissapointing and uninspiring. We ordered our food as well as the wine component from the menu - then the beer came. We waited and waited and waited. We asked the waitress where our wine was and she said that she couldn't find any glasses, they may have run out. Oh! Eventually the head waitress came and bought us our wine and apologised saying that she would give us a second glass of wine free of charge. Eventually the entree's arrived for two of us and the waitress also bought out the main course for our 3rd guest. So Wrong! Do you know that the entree was so unimpressive I can't even remember what it was. We also received our second glass of wine at this point. Whilst we were waiting a waitress was carrying two plates of pizza. She tilted one plate and lost control and some of the pizza brushed on another customers shoulder. She regained control of the plate and turned around and served the pizza to the other table who had been watching. It was hilarious because she should not have served it, it was like a scene out of Faulty Towers. Again we waited and waited and waited. Lordy it's 3.30, our booking was at 1.30, our entree had been served 3/4 of an hour ago, we were starving and by the looks of things we weren't going to get anything else. So we walked! Yes that's right we got up and walked right out without paying without being stopped. That felt so good! I have never experienced such bedlam at such a supposed high profile restaurant. NEWS FLASH!!!!!!!! Just drove past Delizia and it is no longer there. Tin Pan Alley Is?? All that googling reveals is that it may be Italian cuisine with wood fired pizza's. How will Touks feel about the Pizza? Corner shop owners are not far off from opening 2nd cafe in their budding empire.Wee Jeanie's is the name and don't we love it. Very Exciting, can't wait for the opening! FYI How much do you love your cheese? Australia is one of the only countries left leaving a ban on unpasterised cheese or raw milk cheese. This is apparently to protect cheese eaters from harmful pathogens(germs). Raw milk cheese is said to have more flavour and health benefits according to some cheesemakers. Australian cheesemakers would like the ban to be lifted so that they can practice the tradional artisan way of using raw milk for cheese making. The variety of cheeses that benefit from this practice range from soft brie's and camembert's to firmer cheeses such as manchego and gruyere. Let's rally behind our local cheesemakers and support this ancient and natural process.

FYI

2011-03-05T12:24:00.003+11:00

The Next Craze - Bugs!

Yes! Apparently bugs are extremely good for you and they are going to be promoted as the next best thing. It's not that much of a jump really if you think of Moreton Bay Bugs or Balmain Bugs. These Bugs, the giant water bug, crickets or your average grasshopper apparently are full of protein, nearly the same as ground beef. They are environmentally friendly,they can be farmed more cheaply and on less land. They are already a part of a diet for amongst others Bear Grilles and our own aborigines.

Would you eat Insects as an appetiser? MMM!

auction rooms

2011-03-05T11:40:00.003+11:00

Auction Rooms
103-107 Errol Street
North Melbourne VIC 3051
(03) 9326 7749

On my second visit to the Auction Rooms I was very excited. First time round I had the baked eggs, and they were delicious. So in the car trip over I was having a difficult time wondering whether I should have those eggs again or whether I should have the pork Knuckle sandwich(This breakfast was about lunch time) or should I have muesli and then a sweet treat. Ah decisions, decisions decisions. In the end The baked eggs were no longer on the menu and because I wanted to review I decided to stick with the breakfast menu. The breakfast menu is not for your average bacon and eggs Jo, it is quite sophisticated with many ingredients in one dish. I like that if it works.
I decided on Coriander felafel and poached eggs on grilled flat bread with a cumin and mint yoghurt, tabouli, dukkah and a tahinin dressing.(See what I mean). Unfortunately this did not work for me. Why, because this was not cooked with sophistication. So disappointingly the eggs were hard, this dish was really in need of runny eggs due to the tabouli being really dry . Couldn't taste the tahini dressing. The dish had quite a nice nutty flavour but could have had twice as much cumin and mint dressing. It had potential but didn't come close to realising it.
I get very upset when I find it difficult to choose off a great menu and then end up with that.

I like the atmosphere here! It is a beautiful brick building with exposed wood, lights made from construction piping, great music and of course the smell of freshly roasted coffee. It's also very busy which creates that buzz that one likes to feel in groovy cafes.
They Roast their own under the name Small Batch and even I Might be tempted to try a coffee here one day. Not really, I love my tea. Talking of which although I loved the way they served the Chai, it was undrinkable. So strong and luke warm. YUK!

The service was poor at our table, the girl who served us seemed to be in La La land. I never received the rhubarb crumble tart I ordered, could not be bothered chasing it up cos I felt the whole experience was a bit laxidaisical.

Not worth leaving SKY for!

Reviewing reviews

2011-02-09T11:10:00.003+11:00

How good is a review? How long after it is written is a review relevant? Each time I review or blog about a cafe/restaurant, what does it mean to you when your palate is completely different to mine. Or We could share very similiar tastes in food and you follow my blog and agree with what I have written, but what if the night you go into a cafe I have blogged about and unbeknowst to you it is the Chef's day off and you have a temp cooking for you. I have decided that I will test this theory this year and do some follow-up reviewing.

I will start with a Vietamese restaurant that was given a few lines in the Age last year. It wasn't a rating review but because it was in Footscray and close to me I thought I would like to try it. My favorite in Footscray is Huy Huy and I do feel guilty when I eat anywhere else. Trying other restaurants also makes me realise how consistently good Huy Huy is.

Star Restaurant
149 Nicolson St Footscray - 9687 3555

The restaurant is in the Footscray Mall, not what you would call the most inviting place. The mall has a reputation and I find it hard to see it improving in the near future. There's no doubt it has potential but so far no one in the council or in the traders association has been able to reach it.
When I walked into the Star Restaurant it was empty. It is a very old building and actually a great space for a restaurant. There was a table of Vietnamese people, they were not customers they were just hanging out there. There are booths which I quite like and myself and guests sat down. It took a while for the waitress to move from her buddies and serve us. There was a man behind the bar who did not register that we were in the restaurant. The waitress spoke very little English. It was very difficult to order.

There is a very big menu and not cheap! We ordered the Vietamese Chicken salad, salt and pepper calamari, beef and vegetables. We asked for fried rice and the waitress said they didn't do fried rice, it was not on the menu as a separate dish. Whether there were language problems, I'm not sure but I did think that fried rice was universal language. The same with wonton soup. Okay! MMMMMmmmm I started to worry. Was this restaurant just trying to be a bit different and a notch above the rest by not having common vietnamese menu items or did they just not want to do them for us. It was quite weird, oh they did do steamed rice!
The chicken salad was dreadful! It should have been listed as chiken skin salad, not of the yummy crispy variety, but of the boiled chicken skin variety. It is making my skin crawl as I write about it. Very little chicken, some carrot and coriander and a nice dressing. All for $16.00! Did I feel ripped off, cannot tell you how much! This scarred the rest of the meal for me. The other two dishes were fine. The whole cost of the meal with a couple of soft drinks was $65.
They didn't take credit card so we pooled all our cash and we were out of there as quick as possible. My overall feeling is that they didn't really want us as customers and did absolutely nothing to make us want to come back.

To be fair to the original reviewer, we did not eat what they ate, however even if all the food had been fine the atmosphere was dead and the quality was no way near that of Huy Huy!

The Gold Leaf
Level 1, 10-11 Star Circus
Waterfront City Shopping Centre
Harbour Town, Docklands - 9670- 1128

Now to a much more positive experience. Again I read about this in the Age and again this was not rated but just listed as a great place for Yum Cha!
Great is not the right word, Sensational would describe this experience for a lazy sunday afternoon. It did not start off well, we had a booking for 1.30 and it was very difficult to get seated. It is a huge restaurant and it was full and people were spilling out the front door and lining up. They have 2 sittings and this was the second one and obviously it was difficult as people weren't finishing as they should at the end of their sitting. The other difficulty was the maitre d had no logical system to seat people. We watched and learnt as people pushed their way to the front, pointed at their name in the reservation book and then were seated. It took us 15 minutes to learn that this was how you got seated.
Once we were seated(in very low but extremely comfortable chairs)it began. The service was excellent. Drinks were ordered and came straight away. An extremely well priced wine list was very satisfying to read.

And then came the food! Yum Cha is a tradition of drinking Chinese Tea and eating small portions of food. The small portions of food come around on trolleys in bamboo steam baskets. It was great fun looking and working out what was what(limited English for the waiting staff was a common problem) and then trying your choice. Yum Cha is mostly Dim Sum(it literally means a 'bit of Heart' but is actually lots of steamed or fried dumplings) but there are other choices, such as pork belly, which was so sublimely cooked, pickled fish and chicken feet(confession, I am a wuss and had no desire to try the chicken feet). There is lots and lots of different kinds of pork and prawn dumplings and they are all delicious. The springrolls were extroadinary, the best I have ever had! Once you have had enough savoury there is also sweet yum cha, which looks so bright and colourful, this is also a must. I have to admit , I ate and ate and ate until the custard filled doughtnuts(which I highly recommend) said to me how will you fit us in!
When we asked for the bill we were all a bit concerned because we had no idea how much this was going to cost. The way they charge for each dish is with a cross in a box on an ongoing order sheet left at your table. There were about three different sections obviously falling into cost categories. So imagine our surprise when the bill came back at $40 a head. That included one bottle of wine and soft drinks. Amazing, considering I was so full I didn't need to eat for days after! If you are looking for a nice way to spend a sunday afternoon I couldn't recommend anything better.

Duchess Of Spotswood

2011-01-21T22:31:00.004+11:00

January 2011.

: 87 Hudsons Rd, Spotswood, 3015 Phone (03) 9391 6016

What a great way to start the year off with a visit to the Duchess! My timing could not have been better as I believe the new menu had just been introduced. Last year this little cafe blew me away so the expectations were pretty high. Veering away from the tradional bacon and eggs Duchess has stepped up and is showing Melbourne how breakfast can be. I particulary like how each menu item is named and would love to know how the titles come about.

I had Stormin' Normin(now if you google this it comes up with General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, the famous American general, is this dish named after him?). Did I like the dish, mmmmm it was okay. Griddled(American for Flat Grilled)Ham with fried egg, heirloom tomato salad and sour dough toast. I thought the tomatoes would pack a punch but no such luck, very ordinary tomatoes which sort of let the dish down.
Other dishes include a homemade museli bar, an omelette with yabbies(one of my guests said it was sensational), house smoked salmon with potato pancake and poached eggs. There is the tradional full English Breakfast, black pudding included if you don't want to be adventurous. You can also create your own breakfast with eggs done any which way and the sides which are a notch above the rest. It was interesting to watch 2 rather hefty gentleman sitting at the end of the table(share table)dissect their breakfast. You could tell that they were not happy with the size of their breakfast and they were looking at it with a certain amount of curiosity as well as disappointment. They are not big breakfasts at Duchess, they do have a premium price tag attached so in a working class suburb this is bound to happen. I like the size of the breakies, I don't want to start the day overeating, but for a guy, I get it. As far as the premium price tag goes, I do believe they deserve to charge that much as they are serving premium products. Consistently sensational are the gingerbread cup cakes. Can't leave without one!

My Chai was luke warm as were the coffees served to my guests. Disappointing! I love the way they serve their tea hear and the chai was lovely spice wise.

Although not a perfect score, I can't wait for my next visit, I would love to try the Lancashire Hash among other dishes.

2010

2010-12-30T21:24:00.005+11:00

Another year gone by. I know I have been slack, I can not believe that one month has passed since I last posted.In fact I cannot believe that a new year is about to start. However, I have not been idle in the past month, of course I have been out and about and I will try to sum up my culinary month of December.

WEEK ONE

The month started off dining at The Bank in Yarraville Village. I am not sure of how many people are aware of this but The Bank do quite a good meal. I have eaten here a few times over the last few years and each meal was lovely. Most locals tiss at the mention of The Bank but I Tiss back because I think it is a business that deserves a bit more support. They have specials on weeknights, some incorporating a movie at the Sun Theatre which is just across the road. Give it a go! Let me know if you think otherwise.

The next night I was off to The Middle Park Hotel to Paul Wilson's Gastropub. Paul Wilson took over the kitchens approximately one year ago and has been a consultant on their menu. It's a great pub and set up really well with booths with teles for sports fanatics. When we walked in our dinner guests were not in the dining room yet so the waiter suggested a drink at the bar. He was extremely accommodating and ordered our drinks for us and found a bar table for us. The service was excellent for the rest of the evening. The Food, mmmmmm extremely meaty and pricy. Would I go back, probably not for the dining room but a bar meal yes. The bar meal has Pauls hotly talked about Scotch Eggs on the menu, apparently they are delicous. That's what I would like to try next.

WEEK TWO

In the Next week I had lunch in Northcote at The Breakfast Club. A Groovy little cafe on St Georges rd. A very limited menu, a smart idea for a very small space. Lots of toasties to choose from as well as all the brekkie regulars. I had a mexican bean toastie which was pretty delicious. The tea cosy on the tea pot just about sent me into hysterics because it was perfect. That is the way tea should be served!

The next lunch was at the Kent Hotel in Rathdowne st North Carlton. Another Groovy little spot. Sitting outside on the pavement was a great space for catching up with some old workmates. I ordered the Nicoise Salad and it was excellent. The Tuna cooked to perfection, seared on the outside and rare in the centre. A glass of white wine in hand and I was settled in for the afternoon watching the passing trade.

WEEK THREE

Funki Monkey. New to Yarraville, I was very excited when I saw the menu for this cafe. Gozleme! Anything I read after this has disappeared from my memory. I had to have their Gozleme. I had only had it once before and that was at the Yarraville Gardens Farmers Market. It was delicious! Gozleme is a Turkish pastry that is hand made and hand rolled,filled with spinach and feta cheese,lamb, beef or other vegetable fillings. It is then sealed and pan fried. At Funki Monkey they served it with hummus, babaganoush,lemon and tzatziki. Brilliant! What's more I think it was like $12 for this huge platter that you could easily share with a girlfriend for lunch. At the end the waitress then treated us to some of their home made Turkish Delight, I couldn't have been happier. This cafe is mainly focused at mothers with young children. They have a complete playroom for toddlers with every toy a child could need plus a dvd player(not in favor of this, don't see why our kids need to watch the screen all the time). We sat on the verandah and it was a warm day and it was a wonderful spot to watch Yarravillians go by.

WEEK FOUR

Enter the Indian Influence

Breakfast over xmas saw me at the Corner Shop eating the most delicious Baked Eggs with Eggplant Kasundi. (Kasundi is a hot Indian traditional Relish) On the side, a couple of pieces of toasted ciabiatta and I was in heaven. I thought wow, this is fantastically orginal.
Fast forward a few days and I am at Grindhouse cafe in Carlisle St, Balaclava and there is that word again Kasundi, but this time it is with tomato not eggplant. This time it is being served on the side of the Breakfast Vegetarian and Egg Biryani(Indian fried rice with spices). It is also topped with a freshly cooked papadam and some raita. Again I was sent to heaven. It is fantastic to see our chefs incorporating new ideas into our breakfasts, making another's cuisine into our own. Gone are the days of just Bacon and Eggs, I'm sure in 2011 we will see some more of these inspirational enhancements to our menus. The question is who will lead and who will fall behind.

Looking Forward.

As always I have had my ear to the ground and have heard that there might be a few changes in SKY in 2011.

We know there is a new cake shop in Anderson street coming(Hurray Up)and we might also know that there is supposed to be a new Mediterraen restaurant opening in Gamon St, in the old pet shop. I have also heard that Delizia and Seddon Deadly Sins may have new owners next year. But the big scoop is that the owners of the Corner Shop are opening another cafe in Yarraville. It's in the old record shop by the railway and you can see that there has been a lot of work done on it lately. This is very exciting news for SKY. For those of you who have had difficulty getting a table at the Corner Shop you can now try at their second cafe. Although I have heard that the second shop will not be a replica of the first one and they will be concentrating on take aways.
So as you can see there is lot to look forward to in SKY in 2011. I also hope to improve on my blog with a few photos and some extra snippets and tibits of all things culinary.

Cafe Cirino

2010-11-28T13:57:00.003+11:00

Cafe Cirino
133 Nelson Place
Williamstown

Breakfast in Willi is a pleasure at Cafe Cirino. When you walk in your senses are heightened by the true authenticity of the owners. They are Italian, you can hear it in the accents and how lovely it is. The Second hit is the smell, the smell of the coffee and although I am not a coffee drinker I love the smell of good coffee. Here they ground the beans per order and the brand being used is Coffea. The third hit is visual, the glass deli cabinet filled with fresh lovely looking ciabiattas, bruschettas, foccacias, croissants and small olive bread rolls. All looking so fresh and tempting me to go back for lunch.

The breakfast menu is very small, with a choice of a toasted sandwich, a ham and cheese croissant or a plain croissant with jam. There is also a chocolate croissant, which I had to resist as I had already ordered a classic hot chocolate (more about that later). Muesli with yogurt and fruit was also an option. As at the moment there appears to be no kitchen out the back we have one of those situations where everything is being done front of house.
Normally I have suggested that perhaps some imagination be used in situations like this but and this is a big but I don't think they need this at all because at the moment it reminds me of being in Italy where on your way to work you grab your coffee and pastry. So when in Rome................. I ordered a toasted croissant with my Italian style hot chocolate.

They have a very special selection of hot chocolate drinks from Fraus. Fraus has a cafe in Victoria st North Melbourne serving these very European blends and now wholesaling to other lucky cafes in Melbourne. Classic chocolate, Orange, Hazelnut, tirumisu, orange and coffee are just some of the 20 or so flavours on offer. This is a real hot chocolate experience, none of the tepid and watery hot chocolates some cafes give the same name. This is like drinking pure velvet , it is impossibly rich but the most delightful sensation in a hot drink.
Drinking this whilst eating a gorgeously buttery croissant was like going to heaven. At $7.70 I thought this one of the most simplistic but Delicious breakfasts I have had since being in Rome itself.
This cafe has managed to give you the feel of being in Italy,there is Italian music playing in the background, people are coming and going and the atmosphere is enticing.
So enticing it seems that they will be expanding. I noticed some work going on out the back and have confirmed that they will be opening a restaurant. How exciting, but the question is will they be able to hold on to the Little Italy feeling once it becomes a restaurant. I guess we will just have to wait and see, if they can create an Italian restaurant with the same atmosphere as their cafe I'm sure it will be one of the best restaurants in Williamstown.

2010-11-28T13:51:00.003+11:00

QUOTE - Ferran Adria of El Bulli -

"I prefer eating to cooking!"

Did anyone see the documentary on SBS about this most Amazing Chef. He is an inspiration!

A few cake tibits!

2010-11-17T22:20:00.004+11:00

Cakes, Cakes, Cakes! Two new shops that I have heard about.

1. Already opened(apparently in Spotswood) is a take away cup cake shop. Owned by Ariana, formerly of Try this in Yarraville. Let me know if you have been there, I haven't got there yet, but look forward to checking it out. It's across the road from the Duchess of Spotswood.
2. Coming to Yarraville a new cake shop, opening where Recoleta Boutique was. This is exciting I really hope they do something unique.

Whilst we are talking about cakes I have to let it be known that I am a huge fan. It is one of the biggest conflicts in my life. I love to Bake Cakes, I love to Eat Cakes and I love to talk about cakes, so why oh why can it not be a daily indulgence. Because my dear friends cake is the enemy of my body! If I ate Cake everyday I would resemble a Jam Roly Poly. As much as I love cake I do not want to look like one, so these days when I'm going to have cake it has to be pretty dam special.

Making a resurgence in Melbourne this year has been the 'High Tea'. The Hotel Windsor, The Park Hyatt, The Sofitel are all places where you can indulge in all sorts of cake.
Chocolat Gateax, Lemon Tarts, Upside down Cakes, Tortes, Pavlovas, Mousse Cakes, Cheese cakes, Fruit Flans, Roulades, Nut Cakes, Pastries, Muffins, Apple Pie and the Australian Piece de resistance, The Lamington!
Well, have you had enough yet, I'm drooling, my stomach is rumbling and I just wish I had something like this in my fridge, but alas, the sensible Monica doesn't have these sorts of things in her fridge. That's why I have to go out for these and that's why I chose the Hopetoun tea Rooms for my cake indulgence.

Have you been to the Block Arcade in Melbourne it is a lovely arcade to shop in and it has the Hopetoun Tea Rooms. If it's cake you want this is a great place to come and eat it. I had a piece of the latticed Cherry Pie and OH MY it was absoulutely delicious. Not to sweet and not to tart , lovely crumbly/buttery pastry. I would love to work my way through the window display. However(yes, there is almost always a however with me)the cup of tea I had with my cherry pie was the worst cup of tea I have ever, ever, ever had. I sent the first pot back thinking that they must have made a mistake, but no it came back just the same the second time around. I was in shock, Is this not the Hopetoun Tea Rooms where they serve Tea! MMMMMMmmmmmm. Mystified! And the service? Well apparently The Hopetoun Tea rooms have been undergoing some changes, where they want to lift the standards one more notch. As far as the service is concerned I just thought is was appalling, I saw a waitress(very young and inexperienced) drop some cake on the floor and ignore it, I thought she must be coming back to clean it up but she didn't. All the staff are very young and modern which does not match the tea rooms. The Hopetoun tea rooms are from a time gone by. The 1800's, and the rooms are decorated as such(orginal I'm told), this calls for respect and grace and calm, but the young staff had none of this, such a mismatch!
SO! The question is would I go back for just the cake and not bother with the tea! I'm not sure that I would. But you see the window display is JUST so enticing and if I happened to be walking by doing some shopping in the Block Arcade, then maybe, just maybe I would have to pop in for a bit of cake and a glass of water.

Nosh

2010-10-20T21:26:00.003+11:00

Nosh

24 Hall St
Newport 3015
9391 6404

I always thought that Hall st Newport had huge potential. In a way it reminds me of Seddon quite a few years back and although I think Seddon has a way to go, Hall St, Newport is even further behind. There’s really no competition for Nosh, lucky them!

As soon as I walked in the door of Nosh I liked it. For a start it was very busy and to me that says a lot. The bar stools lined up against the window looked inviting and I mozied on over, only to discover that they are really very uncomfortable, so I relocated to one of the few tables left. Immediately the service began with a menu being given to me and my coffee order taken, or in my case my chai tea order. On the menu it says they will keep no one waiting more than 25 minutes and they didn’t, in fact the service was excellent. I ordered the brekky wrap with house beans, chilli scrambled eggs and avocado. (15.50). I’m not sure if they were “house” beans, they seemed more like “3 bean mix” to me, however as a dish I thought it was quite enjoyable(with a little bit more salt) and very generous, there was at least half an avocado in there.(I’d be a bit concerned about my food costs).

Other dishes on the menu that caught my eye were the bacon and egg roll on toasted Turkish bread with cheddar, caramelized onion, aioli and house made relish or the bircher muesli with banana and roasted rhubarb or the oat porridge with strawberries, vanilla milk, roasted almonds and golden syrup. Yum Yum Yum!! It clearly states that all the eggs are free range and sourced in Victoria. It also directs vegans or gluten challenged people to menu items.

And for the children, fantastic, a Kids food and Drinks menu. Very impressive! My kids would love it! Cocoa Pops(what a treat) or cheese and vegemite toasties (crusts cut off) or for the more sophisticated child, fresh fruit salad and yoghurt. I also liked the notice on the wall asking parents to ask the children to respect that Nosh supplies colouring in materials. (I could open a can of worms about other children’s behaviour in cafes; of course mine are always perfect.)

I had a chai latte which was served in a very disappointing cafeteria style pot but none the less a nice chai made with the spices(not the powder and sugar mix which seems to be everywhere) and served with honey,(not on a spindle but in a tube). The cost $4.30.
The coffee is Supreme and costs $3.20sm or $4.20lrge. The tea comes in loose leaf or tisanes (mmmm what is this, a new word for me, I’ll just google it.).
Tisanes are a herbal infusion or similar preparation drunk as a beverage or for its mildly medicinal effect. According to dictionary.com.(wow, don’t you just love google!)

Nosh can be very noisy, so this can be a distraction if you are trying to have a conversation with your mate. I've had friends say to me that going there in big groups is a disaster as you can only hear the person sitting next to you.

Lack of competition can breed complacency and although I wouldn't tag Nosh as complacent I would say the that the reason it is so busy is because there is no where else to go. Overall I think Nosh covers a lot of bases which would attract a wide range of customers. The service on the day I was there was excellent, the food was good with the menu tempting me to go back and the chai was good. However if they put, for instance a Duchess of spotswood next to it or the Auction Rooms(north melbourne review to come)they would lose a lot of customers.

2010-09-10T22:44:00.002+10:00

Petitou
206 Somerville Rd
Kingsville VIC 3012
0421 946 871
9 months on

Well not much has changed since I was last here.But on saying that I did hear whispers that renovations were about to start. Interesting, because I was just thinking to myself that they could make much better use of the space. After visiting Luncheonette(Kensington) I thought that they are a fine example of a great menu coming out of a little kitchen. It would pay for the girls at Petitou to pay Luncheonette a visit to see all the possibilities.
I say this because the brekkie menu at Petitou is really non-existent, when really that’s what they need. Whilst I was there a lot of mums with toddlers were the main customers, and on that basis I would put some kids breakfast dishes on the menu as well as something more than toast for the mums. I had the raisin toast, it was very nice , I also had a chai late which was lovely, but really I want more than that. The other option is toasted sandwiches, as far as brekkie is concerned this is not what I want . (I could be wrong here, other customers might love a toastie for brekkie, but for me toasties are something I have at home.) There is a special on where for $7 you can have a toastie and a coffee, it is a bargain really and I’m sure it catches the eye of the every ending truckies driving down Somerville road.
Also on offer are cakes from Chef Emma Mackay, our very own celebrity chef.(watch out for Emma on the next series of Iain Hewitson’s, Huey’s Kitchen, she is his guest pastry chef). Emma also supplies Petitou with sausage rolls, meat and vego which are very popular.
The coffee is Jasper and the tea is T2(tea bag). I love how the tea is served in a little pot that sits on top of the cup with a cute little milk pot on the side. I would prefer tea leaves than a bag( again I have tea bags at home). Thinking about tea wouldn’t it be lovely if we had time in our lives to have a proper tea ritual at least twice a day. Where we brew the tea leaves in a lovely pot, which we cover with a tea cosy that grandma made, we turn the pot three times in one direction and then one more time in the opposite direction and then we wait, until it is perfectly brewed.

The owner, Tara, is lovely and her assistant is also very nice, I wish them luck with the renovations and look forward to visiting again to see what they have come up with.

2010-09-01T19:50:00.000+10:00

Luncheonette café
173 Rankins Road,
Kensington
(opposite Kensington train station)

Open - every day except Mon 8am-3pm.

I like Luncheonette. It is very appealing to the eye, simple but effective. They have made very good use of the tiny space available to them. There is no visible kitchen and yet they produce some lovely breakfast dishes and also have some wonderful produce on view. Very cleverly the menu has been written with a lot of thought as to what their resources are. The organic muffins, cookies and pastries are from Crumbs Organic Bakehouse in Ascot Vale and the Raisin Bread and other Breads/Baguettes are from Dench Bakers in Fitzroy North(just looked them up, must put that on my breakfast list to try, it looks superb).
I love the menu, again simplicity, but with beautiful fresh ingredients. On my first visit here I had the Breakfast Platter and for the price of $15.50 I think it is extremely good value. It has Granola(rolled oats, nuts, dried fruit and honey, baked until crispy), rhubarb, pistachios and yoghurt. Scrumptious, and quite a big serving considering that there is also a serve of the Dench Bakery Raisin Toast and Raspberry Preserve. Delicious, apart from the hard butter which I hate trying to spread. Always so difficult to do especially in a social situation. On my second visit I tried the Baked Eggs with Asparagus and Gruyere. At $12.50 again very good value. The Eggs were nice but nothing to write home about and the Gruyere(was it?)didn’t taste as nutty as I am familiar with. As the Breakfast Platter was served on a wooden board so was this dish, with the eggs in a pan and the toasted baguette on the side. Also on the board some more hard butter and a side dish of very peppery rocket. I think it is interesting to serve the rocket with the eggs but tone down on the pepper. Still not 100% sure that I want to eat rocket for breakfast. What do you think??
The presentation on the wooden boards is delightful but extremely impractical considering the size of the tables. There really is not enough room. I found I was worried about knocking something over (another social faux pas) every time I took a mouthful, so although they look good I’d have to say Get rid of Them! I also found the seating a bit weird. It seems that the bench seats are higher than the chairs so you either feel you are looking up or down at your breakfast or lunch buddy.
Today I tried a Chai late here and it was quite different to any other Chai I have had. It was very peppery and whether the café was just having a bad pepper day(note the rocket earlier on)or this is their version, I don’t know. Chai is supposed to have some pepper in it but this much???? Last time I was here I had a green tea and it was very strong however I also had an English Breakfast tea today which was perfect. Same Barista? Yep! I haven’t made up my mind on this one.
I do feel though that in a lot of café’s, training and consistency is lacking and this could be the answer to success. If every barista working for you made coffee exactly the same way then your customers would know what to expect, however if a customer is unsure of the quality then they will no doubt think twice about ordering.
The Coffee at Luncheonette is Supreme Coffee and it is organic and from fair trade beans. $3.20. They also use organic milk which is served(on the side for tea)in very cute little jugs. Also available is KoKo Hot Chocoate, which I made a quick mental note to try next time, because yes, there will be a next time because like I said at the beginning, I like Luncheonette!

2010-08-24T16:09:00.002+10:00

The Corner Shop

9 Ballarat St
Yarraville VIC 3013
(03) 9689 0052

It is soooo busy,but not just busy, viby, if that makes sense. For good reasons this is where Yarravillians like to hang out. If it is not for the serious business person on the way to work, it is for the harassed mother with children hanging off her, if it is not for the mums after school drop off coffee, then it for the groovy young hip person’s chai latte. This café has an energy that represents Yarraville and all the different types of people who live here. It is perhaps the Heart of Yarraville. I take my hat off to the owners Ian and Claire who seem to have hit the nail on the head with this one.

This morning I had the ricotta hotcakes with Poached fruit(I think I am going through a ricotta phase). They were delicious, but and this is a big but there was the most measly bit of poached pear and rhubarb on the side. I could have had 3 times the amount of fruit with the 3 medium size hot cakes.

I also thought I would try out the chai tea. Chai has been fast becoming my choice of hot drink in a café, but like with my standard tea and as you would find as coffee drinkers the variations are endless. In the corner shop I really think that the barista is key to whether to order a hot drink or not. This is certainly the case with chai. I have noticed if it is not Ian that makes the Chai then usually the mix is not right. At the Corner shop they serve it not as a latte but in a lovely tea pot, with a ceramic mug(no handles, which I love because you can wrap your hands around the mug on a cold day) and a spindle with honey. For those of you not in the know, Chai Tea is generally strongly brewed milky tea with spices such as cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, pepper and ginger. Ian makes a lovely brew. Other brews or lattes I have had can taste like warmed milk with cinnamon so it is important to get those spices in there and brewing.

Overall still one of my fav places to hang out for brekkie. Actually I like to hang out there at any time of the day. For lunch I recommend you try the lebanese Shanklish(a hard Lebanese cheese) salad, so yummy and so good for you. The salad mainly comprises of cos lettuce, crispy pitta, the shanklish, radish and onion.

2010-08-18T10:50:00.002+10:00

The Gravy Train

83 Gamon St Yarraville VIC 3013
(03) 9687 9866

AHA! It was just an undercoat! The Gravy Train has been painted. Good for them, it took them a while but they finally got there in the end.
Six months down the track and the Gravy Train certainly looks better, but has it improved inside. The Breakfast dish I had today was excellent. A Ricotta Pancake with fried eggs, bacon and spicy tomato relish. The pancake was light and fluffy, the eggs cooked to perfection with a runny yoke and the bacon was the best I’ve had in a long time, crispy but not too hard to eat or cut in to. At $14.50 I think this is really good value as it fills you up for most of the day. Unfortunately the Porridge I had a couple of weeks ago was not A grade. The pear looked like it was from a tin(sacrilege) and there was no honey or milk on the side. In fact it was quite bland. I like my porridge with poached fruit, lashings of honey and maple syrup(yep both) and warm milk on the side, as we know that porridge can stiffen up a bit. Some people like it with butter and brown sugar, I’d be quite willing to give that a go. The menu has slightly changed since the last time I was in and it is still a good menu with all the usual suspects, eggs done any which way with all the sides, eggs Florentine, eggs Benedict and plenty of sweet options for customers like Rach who love Pancakes and French Toast.

The tea I had today(T2) came in a dreadful cafeteria pot and was sooooo strong I think it was filled with tablespoons of leaf tea rather than one – two teaspoons. This should not happen in an established café like the Gravy Train. If you can’t get a decent cup of tea in a café then what is the point of visiting. I might as well stay at home.

As soon as we entered our drinks order was taken but after that it took a while for it to come out. There was a big group out the back(The Gravy Train holds a lot of corporate meetings) and it seemed that that was all the staff could cope with.
I think the Gravy Train is hit and miss, so when you go you have to take your chances. Why would you want to do that when you can go somewhere else where every part of the breakfast experience is near perfect .

Lift your game guys!

Social Roasting Company

2010-08-09T20:57:00.002+10:00

Social roasting company

307 Racecourse Rd
Melbourne VIC 3031
(03) 9372 3288

Doesn’t sound like a café, does it? But it is! And a good one at that! I think the name can provoke a lot of thoughts about what it is or what it isn’t. When I visited their webpage at http://www.socialroasting.com.au/ I discovered it is a café with a conscious and a very exciting social concept.

First of all the coffee! Now you know we don’t do coffee, but hey we know the importance of it for those of you who do. The Social Roasting Company uses fair trade coffee that is ground freshly for every cup. In this process they are involved in every step of the way of getting it to you, from sourcing in Peru, Papua New Guinea, Tanzania, Columbia and Ethiopia, in grading and roasting it. They advertise that is 100% ethically sourced. This is an exciting development in the coffee world because if there were more cafes using fair-trade coffee there would be less opportunities to exploit the workers on coffee plantations (some of who are children). Another unique concept that is in play is the delivery of their coffee by a man called Josh on a bicycle. He delivers to cafes all over Melbourne. How fantastic!
I would really love to hear from any readers if they have had a coffee at the Social Roasting Company and what their experience was. Is it good coffee?

Secondly the tea! Well not in our books but obviously at the Social Roasting Company. MMmmm. The cafeteria pots showing up again and at such a groovy café. Couldn’t work out the brand of the tea as it was not displayed, but my English Breakfast was leaf, but I noticed Rach’s herbal tea was a bag. Nothing special but then again this café is all about the coffee and everything else is secondary.

Thirdly but I guess most important for me is the food. Can’t miss the menu, it’s on a blackboard on the wall, it’s huge. I think it’s a great idea, as it must save them a fortune in not having to print menus. I really liked the menu; there was definitely more than 3 items I could have tried. Porridge with rosewater and rhubarb, granola, dukkah poached eggs. I had the baked eggs with hash browns, olives, cherry tomatoes, parmesan and pide. $15. It was a little dry but quite delicious. Rach had scrambled eggs with bacon. On the blackboard it did say scrambled eggs with chilli and fetta, however Rach’s were missing these key ingredients. She also thought it was missing salt and pepper and just a little on the bland side. Disappointing! But what was more disappointing for Rach was that there were no pancakes on the menu. She does love her pancakes! There were a few sweet treats on offer but we both showed restraint, unusual for us( we won’t tell them about the lollies and chocolate we bought at the foodworks afterwards).
I liked the space we were sitting in. The procession of different types of groovy people from the Bulldogs Player to the boys in suits made for interesting people watching. I really liked the communal table and chairs and as is quite common practice these days there was some art on the wall for sale. The coffee roasting machine is a great centre piece in the café and it emphasises the importance of the coffee.
Another point of interest is the fair business side of it. Employing those who for whatever reason have found it difficult to get employment. These guys are covering a lot of social ethics in their business and I really hope it works.

On paying it was disappointing that there was no credit card facilities however given the nature of the business it is understandable, it just means we have to be more organised next time we visit.
And yes there will be a next time because I really liked the whole concept and experience, everyone should support businesses like these.

Mon
.

Duchess Of Spotswood

2010-07-20T09:22:00.006+10:00

87 Hudsons Rd,
SPOTSWOOD, VIC
Phone - 03 9391 6016

Image found here

What a find! This is the first time I have eaten in Spotswood at all and what a great impression it has left on me. When I think of Spotswood I think of the movie with Anthony Hopkins and Ben Mendolson, and I think of the pub across the railway where lots of men have sniggled when it’s mentioned.(I did find out why they sniggled, need I mention it, I’m sure you can guess).

There is only one instance when I would relate Spotswood to food and that is only for takeaway Lebanese Pizza at Al Nada. Otherwise for breakfast, lunch or dinner there is SKY(seddon Kingsville and Yarraville) of course, then willi on the odd occasion, Kensington more so than not and other surrounding areas for when I am bored.
But now Spotswood is always on the tip of my tongue for breakfast, because the best breakfast I have had in a long time was had here. At Duchess of Spotswood. Notably there are a few new cafes in this shopping strip but guess which café was full, yes that’s right the Duchess. Unfortunately for other cafes, Duchess was full and the others were empty, that’s right empty. As soon as I walked into this café there was a good vibe and the look, I loved the look. The lovely wooden communal table in the front of the café sourced from the old Dance Hall in Yarraville made it all closer to home. The very yellow oven in the Kitchen fantastic, did it come like this or was it their idea, I don’t know. Very Simple, understated.
And the menu. The first of it’s kind! Very English with each item relating back to the home country. Menu items named as such, Simple Pleasures, Fruit of the Forage, Scotch Woodcock , how fantastic. It’s like the breakfast menu has been completely re-invented here, Hooray.

I ordered the Fruits of the Forage which comprised of Wild Mt Macedon mushrooms with soft semolina, crispy double smoked pork neck and a poached egg. Excellent, superb, can’t get it out of my mind delicious. There is fish on the breakfast menu, blackpudding , toast from Zealy Bay, porridge and muesili mostly done with an English twist. Racheal ordered the scotch woodcock( I think the scrambled eggs was called this with a relish, which I also can’t remember the name of). Unfortunately for Rach the menu had not informed her that the relish that came on her scrambled eggs was anchovy. OOHH she said get it off my plate( of the garnish of anchovy fillet) As I am not a huge fan of Anchovies I completely understood her horror at such a strong flavour being added to her dish. It did make it difficult for her to eat the rest of the dish as she was worried that a sneaky anchovy was going to make it into her mouth. As she was still hungry we thought we’d both(yes even though I devoured my dish I still had room for more) better try the gorgeous gingerbread cakes on display. How simply luscious! And the Tea, wonderful, served in lovely pots with cups and and even the presentation of water, in great bottles.
My only critique would be about Rach’s dish and warning customers about strong flavours such as anchovy via the menu or through the waiter just mentioning it, otherwise this has got to be the best breakfast joint found in 2010.
My advice don’t waste any time and get yourself down there. MON

Luca Haus

2010-07-10T23:01:00.000+10:00

86A Charles Street
Seddon
(03) 9687 0039

Hooray Hooray!

On walking into this new establishment I was so excited, I almost couldn't contain the big YES that was echoing in my head! Yes Yes Yes!
You guys know what you are doing! It's a only a small space but wow have you filled it with the most wonderful array of food products. Everywhere I look I see something that I either want to devour or to use
in my kitchen. The Paella pans hanging side by side with the woven baskets have started a craving for wanting to cook a paella. The Bread from Noisette(remember a couple of reviews ago I introduced you to
Noisette from Port Melbourne or at least the bread) is crying out to me take me home as are the chocolates and tea blossoms, Jasper coffee(and I don't even drink coffee) and the granola products. And I could go on
forever - instead I suggest you should go and visit and check it out for yourself.

Now that's the packaged products, but what about the breakfast menu? A very small meun with no eggs at this point, but you must try the Croque Monsieur. It was absolutely delicious. Beautiful ham, a beautiful bechamel and the bread, what can I say. Very Very delicious.
There were other items on the menu such as plain croissants and filled croissants, granola and yoghurt, Noisette breads toasted, portuguese tarts. Who needs Eggs? They also have a small lunch menu with lasagna
and the like being cooked on the property.. The coffee is Fairtrade from Jaspers(if you watched Foreign Correspondant the other night you would never drink coffee or eat chocolate other than fairtrade again).
The tea also from Jasper was 3.50 but I also had a chai late and it was the best chai late I've had yet. I had to go back and get another one not long after and I can assure you it won't be long before I have another one.
Luca, I think is the barista and owner, has such a lovely smile and way with him that I am sure he will give Andy from Le Chien a run for his money on being one of the nicest barista's/owner in SKY.

Poynton's Cafe

2010-06-06T19:51:00.000+10:00

The Boulevard (cnr Vida St.), Essendon VIC 3040

03 9337 8111.

Generic!!!!!

Poynton's is a sensational nursery. I love going there, if not to buy then just to look. The natural colours of the nursery are amazing from no matter where you are standing, but I guess the best overall view is from the cafe.
The cafe is extremely generic in how it looks. The table, the seats, the space, the cake fridge are all a little bit ho hum. However look out the window and peace overcomes you. It's quite serene, the river, the nursery and the birds singing (are you with me Rach?). Then look at the menu and it's all generic again. A menu that is quite extensive and expensive. I knew before I had even ordered that the food was not going to be special. You know, you get a feeling that the people in a cafe either care or they don't. The overwhelming feeling here for me was that there was no love here. In the nursery you see lot's of love, but unfortunately not in the cafe.

I ordered the baked eggs which were supposed to have chorizo, tomato and coriander. No coriander, tiny
bits of chorizo and turkish bread on the side (no butter). Fancy no coriander when they probably have it growing in the nursery. $16.50 was a bit steep, probably quite steep actually. T2 at 3.50, but can't remember how it came. I quickly finished what I ordered (no savouring) just so I could get back out into the nursery. Sometimes you should stick to what you know and if it is plants you know stick to growing them and if it's food you know then stick to cooking it. However if you are very clever and think you can pair the two how about serving food grown in the nursery and advertising that! Too easy!

The Famous Blue Raincoat

2010-06-06T19:40:00.002+10:00

South Kingsville sounds like it should be in SKY but actually it is on the other side of the West gate. It is so worth hopping in your car for a meal at this fab venue. I call it a venue because although it is a café (it calls itself a restaurant and bar) on different nights of the week it does turn into a music venue where owner James Wakeling and some of his mates get up and play a combination of Jazz, Folk and Blues. Cool!

This venue is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The breakfast menu is great and has some fav’s of mine on there. The muesli and promite eggs are a couple, however this particular weekend morning I opted for the pancakes with berries, yoghurt and maple syrup. It was delicious! I felt by adding the yoghurt it was healthier than your average pancakes (that’s what I’m telling myself anyway). If you are a regular reader of this blog you would have noticed that generally I stick to the egg dishes but there are the odd occasions when I wake up craving something sweet and it has to be given in to. Although I may never have pancakes again for this blog I think it is my duty to try as many breakfast options as I can so I can report back to you. I think eating the pancakes at the time was feeding my cravings and just yummy but I have to say afterwards I felt somewhat bloated and perhaps a little regretful. What I totally regretted was ordering the tea! As blogged nearly 12 months ago I was not that impressed with the tea. Even less impressed this time. Adam’s Peak Tea (never heard of it before) it’s called and it’s a bag in a cafeteria pot. Luke warm water, ilk!! I reckon they could lift the standards here!

Coming here for dinner is great fun because on different nights of the week they have different cuisines and for less than $15, you could have a paella or you could come on a Sunday for the Sunday traditional roast.

I really like this place. It’s warm, it’s groovy, it’s comfy and most of all it could be a home away from home. I just wish it was closer to me so I could walk there and then I would visit more often.

The big news for Famous Blue Raincoat Owners James and Kaz is that they have just taken over the deli which is a couple of doors down from FBR. It is a lovely shop decked out with fresh fruit and veg (some organic), lots of different deli items and the best part I think, Noisette Bread. Noisette is a Boulangerie Patisserie in Port Melbourne and it is truly divine. Not sure whether they serve breakfast but perhaps will have to venture over to find out Rach, what do you think?

Finally - Pancake Time

2010-05-19T23:30:00.000+10:00

I never did find my picture of the Seddon Deadly Sins banana pancakes .... so I just had to go back and have them again just for the good of this blog!!! Dedicated aren't I!
Rachael

The Corner Shop & Le Chien

2010-05-19T21:07:00.000+10:00

Like two peas in a pod. Still my fav's. Both these cafes know how to run a business! And although they would not like to be grouped together I have put them in the same review because although they are quite
different as cafes they both still have a lot in common. That's no coincidence! Ian and Claire who run The corner shop once used to be part owners of Le Chien! Eighteen months ago Ian and Claire struck out on their own once again and have made a huge success of it, whilst Andy remains at Le Chien continuing on the sucess story there.

My fav brekkie at the corner shop is the baked eggs. Just superb with Chorizo and fetta. Maybe a little bit more turkish bread needed to go with it but otherwise a faultless dish!
At Le Chien, my fav brekkie (as well as a lot SKY peoples) is the promite special (poached eggs, on promite ciabatta toast, avocado, tomato and parsley). Just Brilliant! Consistently excellent.

At both cafe's tea is served in lovely big pots. But here is where Le Chien still comes out on top! The tea here tastes, like English Breakfast, at the Corner Shop, it tastes flowery. (Jeepers Mon - I still can't tell the difference. They are some serious taste buds you've got there! Besides, some of us like our EBT flowery) It always has and so I have stopped ordering it. The Last two times when I was there I ordered a Chai latte. The first time was delicious the second time not so. It is the barista of course, on both days it was a different barista. So now when I go there I will check out who the Barista is and that will determine what I will order. Much Easier though at Le Chien, consistency is a key ingredient here.

The most common denominator in these two cafes is the atmosphere. In both cafes when you walk in there is an instant vibe. Content and relaxed people, enjoying their mornings. There have been many a friendship forged in these cafes, and isn't that what our local cafe is about, community spirit and meeting other locals. When we leave these cafes, we leave feeling fulfilled.

LOVE these two cafes - the best in SKY by a long shot!!

Coffee Edge

2010-05-06T17:12:00.000+10:00

1 Anderson Street. Yarraville 3013.
Tel: 9687 0977

Not new, so how did we miss this cafe last year. Well quite easily it appears! Coffee Edge is tucked away at the top end of Anderson St. I knew there was a cafe there I just didn't think they served breakfast.

As I never walked past this cafe I never gave it a second thought. I would drive past it and it looked like a cafe in which an older generation of European men hung out at. I didn't think it was my scene. One particular morning when I drove past I saw a new sign out the front, advertising breakfast, so I thought ah, change of
owner/management, now is the time to have breakfast here.

So off Rachael and myself go, walking to the top end of Anderson St and Coffee Edge. The first thing that I notice is a cute little courtyard. I thought not a bad place to hang out with my book and a cup of tea!
But once we walk inside it is pretty clear, pretty quickly that this place is lacking! This is how a cafe looked 20 maybe 30 years ago. The decor is simply boring! The atmosphere is simply boring! and The menu is simply boring! Have they not been to any of the other cafes in SKY, have they not checked out their competition. For Heavens sake they did not even have any music going!

I ordered the old standard breakfast(poached eggs, spinach mushrooms and tomato). It was served on
white toast but had been on the menu as sour dough. I always find this disappointing and think that if there is a menu item missing it is courteous to let the customer know. But something tells me they may not know the difference. However this breakfast was only $10, quite a steal compared to the rest of SKY! Apart from the toast thing , it was quite well cooked, just like nona would make! How was your omelette Rach?

Ummm - barely remember I'm afraid. Fairly average I think.
The coffee is Griffiths and as we sat there, there was quite a few take away orders. $3.20 was the price, let me know what you think! The tea is T2! (I think T2 is invading the world, everywhere you go it's there on the shelf, watching you, saying order me!) They were offering 7 blends of T2 and I tried the peppermint. Yes it tasted like peppermint, nothing amazing.

Coffee Edge is still not my scene! It needs a lot of work. But for those who don't take their cafes so seriously, it might be just the place for you. It has all the basics, just no personality!

I'd love to play devil's advocate here but I was so disconcerted by the appalling decor I couldn't concentrate. Maybe the courtyard experience would be better. Please don't make me go there again.

Rachael

Seddon Deadly Sins

2010-05-05T23:08:00.000+10:00

Going back to Seddon Deadly sins is always a pleasure.

Although it is not perfect it has many fabulous qualities.

Probably one of the most important is their service administered by their consistent, experienced staff! A treasure and a rare find in any cafe! They know about follow up service which is more than most cafes!

I'm very excited about Baked Eggs at the moment and tend to order them any chance I get. So I gave SDS's a go. And the verdict? Quite nice, however the menu said Parmesan cheese but I didn't taste any Parmesan, which is disappointing. Served with Turkish Bread which of course I love, but no butter. Mmmmm, you are probably thinking she doesn't need that butter after those pictures we saw of her at Xmas, however what is dipping bread without butter I ask you? I also had to ask for another serving of bread because it wasn't quite enough, a bit light on really.

Rach am I remembering correctly that you had pancakes? ( I get so wrapped up in what I am eating that sometimes I forgot to check yours out). How were they?

Oh Lordy! They were fabulous - Banana and ice cream with lashings of caramel sauce that lasted right through to the last bite! If I could justify it I would have it every morning of the week.

OK, so I didn't quite have this many but I've lost the photo I took and this just looked so damn good!

I love the Golden Book menus. They are fantastic, but my favourite menu item is the PuppyCino - Soy milk with Liver Sprinkles. I had to pass, but I am highly recommending this drink to all my friends with dogs. I loved the names of the tea but when I asked they didn't have what I wanted or there was confusion over the printed names on the menu, so needles to say I am still a bit confused and don't know what I ended up drinking but it was nice. $12.50 for the baked eggs and 3.30 for the tea so 15.80 for my breakfast which is very well priced.

Snippet!!!!

2010-04-20T17:01:00.000+10:00

On Friday March 19th after much anticipation I met some friends at the Dancing Dog cafe for the beginning of the Footscray Progressive Dinner. The Cost $65 a head - wine not included! Our Mayor was present and gave us a little speech, I have to say that he looked very young to be the mayor and a great impression was not made.
We were divided into 3 groups. At the dancing dog we were entitled to one free alcoholic drink and there were nibbles, nothing innovative, just your standard dips, turkish bread, cheese, etc.

My group then moved on to Masters Restaurant in Hopkins street. I was glad we came here because it got a good write up last year so it had been on my list for a visit. Here it was bedlam! Very difficult to get a drink, in fact they didn't even offer us any wine. As we did not know this would be the case, it was again disappointing. There was plenty of food here, in fact far too much considering we still had two more stops. There were spring rolls, sesame prawn toasts, chicken and sweet corn soup (a little too cool for my liking), san choi bao, I mean really that was a meal in itself. I sat there looking across the road at Huy Huy wishing I was there with my family.

At some point we were told it was time to move on and up we got and walked around to Lalibela, the African restaurant. This would be my 3rd time visiting this restaurant. The first time I liked it and second time I hated it. I was disappointed that we got this African restaurant as the other groups got different African restaurants, which I would have preferred to try.
Anyway - I thought it was disgusting! A few curries, the lamb (mutton) tough with no flavor what so ever and the chicken, (sorry I meant one chicken wing between four peopleP), also disappointing. Only one beer available although 7 advertised on the menu. The beer available, African! It was embarrassing really, is that why they fed us so much at Masters, they must have known we'd need it. How this restaurant is in the cheap eats guide, I don't know. I'm starting to wonder whether they have actually been there in the last two years or whether they just do reprints from the previous years.

The final destination was back to the Dancing Dog Cafe for Dessert and coffee. HHMMMM! What's for Dessert? Nothing much, really! Slices- you know the ones. You can buy these slices anywhere, even coles(ooops maybe that's who the supplier was). Peppermint Slice, Lemon Slice and so on. How unimpressed was I considering I'm normally a desserts girl. Not only though were these slices generic they were cut
so big it put you off attempting any. No fear I thought, I'll just have a hot chocolate. Previously I have told you how high I rate the Dancing Dog Cafe's hot chocolate. Unfortunately once again, and the last time for
the evening, I was unimpressed. I won't go on any further but needless to say I thought the whole night was a complete rip off. I could have been eating a lovely fulfilling meal at Huy Huy with my family and for the cost of less than one ticket to the Footscray Progressive Dinner.

There is a lesson in that!

FYI
Seddon is also hosting a Progressive Dinner, with Le Chien, Touks and Sabrosso's participating. It is on the 28th April and costs $70 - wine included! Need I say more!

Cafe Urbano

2010-04-13T13:20:00.003+10:00

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.

Cafe Lomah

2010-03-17T21:54:00.002+11:00

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

2010-03-16T21:44:00.003+11:00

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

2010-03-05T19:15:00.003+11:00

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

2010-03-05T18:59:00.004+11:00

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

2010-03-05T18:42:00.005+11:00

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!

Cafe Feedback 2010

2010-02-10T19:43:00.004+11:00

I like the style of this cafe, always have. The casualness, the smallness and the fantastic food. That's why I chose this as our first place for 2010.

When I asked the girl behind the counter what would they suggest for a healthy breakfast she laughed at me. LAUGHED! Can you believe it? I didn't think it was that funny, in this day and age when weight and health are huge issues. Anyway she laughed, scoffed and then said TOAST.
'Oh!' I thought in my head.

I thought the muesli would be - but then the guy behind the counter suggested poached eggs, avocado, spinach and tomato.

In my head , I thought 'YES that would probably be quite healthy', and when he asked whether I would like butter on my toast, I thought 'YES please', but my mouth said no. I thought it was a great question because he heard me say I wanted something healthy.

The meal was fabulous. Who needs butter when you have runny egg yolk and those gorgeous little cherry tomatoes? They are so delicious. I hope they were roasted minus any oil because I had the avocado for my healthy fat part of the meal.

I really enjoyed my first healthy breakfast and I was satisfied, but I must admit that I found it really difficult watching you eat that delicious looking muffin Rachael. I could easily have had a second course, but I didn't! It will be interesting to see how long this healthy breakfast thing will last because if every cafe suggests the poached eggs I may not be able to stick to it. Especially when, like feedback, there are so many other options.

Coffee is still Genovese and is $3.20. Tea is T2 and is $3.00 a pot. A regular sized pot. You order at the counter here and they bring the order out to you when ready. Not a long wait here. On the particular morning that we were there it was not particularly busy but it took a long time to clear the table, I'm talking 40 minutes after we had finished. It disturbed me.

How about you Rach? What do you feel about the lack of clearing?

Must admit I do get a little peeved when the table isn't cleared, annoying when I can't find anywhere to lay my head! I often need a little nap after a massive yummy muffin and don't relish getting your egg yolk in my hair. R.

So there you have it the first breakfast out for 2010! And what did I like the most about Feedback Cafe? - The Gingerbread People, yes that's right not a gingerbread man , but person!

Welcome Back

2010-02-10T19:28:00.003+11:00

Oh Rachael why did you have to post that picture of me?

Do I really look like that?

See what happens when you let yourself go, I can hardly look at myself!

Well I'm not going to wallow in it, when I eat out at our breakfasts I'm going to ask the staff at the cafe's what they think is really healthy on their menu. What would they recommend for someone who is suffering from post xmas heftiness? I'm not expecting this to be an easy task because last year at our little breakfasts sometimes we went on to a second course (very naughty of us) and sometimes by the time we sat down for breakfast I was starving and wanted to order everything on the menu.

So when we got together for our first breakfast in 2010 'Healthy' was my intention!

MONICA

Sorry Monica, I just couldn't resist.

I was a witness to some of your Christmas eating and it was awe-inspiring! If I think you have truly made an effort to 'curb your enthusiasm' I will post a lovely slim version for you.

I'm looking forward to another year of eating our way around the west - I have a couple of places I discovered over the summer so I'll be interested to see what you think of them.

Luckily 2009 seems to have gone quite well. I have not heard of any cafe's closing due to your scathing reviews, and no cafe owners have been seen crying over their metal teapots - perhaps you can aim for that this year!!

See you at brekky

RACHAEL

Finishing off for 2009 with snippets from beyond Sky

2010-01-30T21:21:00.004+11:00

Fruits of Passion - Kensington

Wish we had one in SKY! Points of difference, that's what makes a good business. What are those points of difference that make a cafe the place where everyone wants to meet, eat and drink,whether it be coffee or wine.
I think it is the owners. The owners personality shines through the business. The Likes and Dislikes of the owner come through in their choice of staff, their choice of furnishings, the music played in the background and the style of food. These owners must have personality and I think good taste, because I like everything about this cafe. Across the road from Kensington Station in the nicest part of the Kensington shopping strip is this little haven filled with treats. As I sit and wait for the bircher muesli ordered I look at the Kensington Clock (from London) on the wall, I listen to an interesting mix of music and then checkout the baristas, boys in their early 30's? who don't brush or style their hair as opposed to the metrosexual 20 year olds (in
many a cafe these days) who use the hair straightner before they walk out the door (oops I've digressed). The Bircher is only $8 and topped with bananas, strawberry's and kiwi's, truly yummy. Rachael had Flinders fruit toast which she seems to be enjoying (correct Mon, lovely toast thanks) and overall it is a lovely breakfast menu, which is enticing me to go back. I have it on very good authority that the French Toast with Poached Peaches and Marscapone is excellent. However as in the Happy River case their service is also lacking in that follow-up service. I don't get it. Anyway I will be going back and hopefully the service will have improved so I can keep going back until I've tried the whole menu.

Provisions - Williamstown

Glad we don't have one in SKY! Big, loud, and not very interesting.
Breakfast menu huge and like stepping back a decade or two. The food was average and the service was again apalling, no follow up to offer us that second cup of tea. Nothing to entice me back here at all. I may have come to the end of my tether here, sorry a bit harsh perhaps but it
is late at night, and I have looked at my notes and they don't give me anything appealing to add. Rachael??? You perhaps have more positive things to say????

Monica

Ummm... not really sorry Mon. Fairly bland and unexciting to be honest. Won't be going back.
Rachel

And there you have it! The first year of breakfast reviews from Breakfastinthesky. We hope to continue our good work in 2010 as it is a never ending task (and may I add, an extremely enjoyable one). We hope that you keep reading and please always feel free to agree or
disagree or perhaps you have something to add to enhance our local knowledge of breakfast.

Monica

Snippet 7 - Round 2 at Happy River

2010-01-30T21:15:00.005+11:00

Very Exciting News - The New home of the Laneway festival - Footscray
Community Arts Centre with such bands as Echo and the Bunneymen, Mumford
and Sons and Sarah Blasko .

This cafe located within the Footscray community Arts Centre is set in a great
location. It is lovely to sit outside on the lawn whilst the children play. The food is great, I had scrambled eggs with chilli, coriander, avocado and lemon and it was delicious, BUT and this is a very big BUT - the service is appalling. After you put your initial order in and you receive your order, that's it. No more service. They don't suppose that you might like a second cup of tea or that people like me sometimes like to have two courses for breakfast (my poor waist line). It turns me off going even if the food is great. Too many good cafes with good food and
good service!

Monica

Usually I am the voice of reason and the good cop to your bad cop but I am in complete agreement with you on this one. I will not willingly go to this cafe anymore despite it's advantages as I am yet to receive good service and I used to go all the time. There are only so many chances you can give a place before it really starts to piss you off. We aren't the only ones either. What a shame that the staffing isn't up to scratch as it has everything else going for it.

Rachel

Snippet 6 Round 2 @Famous Blue Raincoat

2010-01-30T21:12:00.000+11:00

Just a little bit of controversy here! One menu item seemed very similar to another cafe - see if you can guess who - Promite, Roma Tomatoes, Avocado and Poached Eggs,mmmmmm,, what do you think???
Anyway the muesli I ordered was absolutely delicious, light and refreshing . Poached apple and berry compote with toasted muesli and natural yoghurt. $10. The toast (sometimes after a couple of hours I need a second course at breakfast) was thick white with SOFT butter to
spread. So Right!!
Also had dinner here, great value! Curry night $12 for Rogan Josh, rice
and roti! SUPER!

Snippet 5 - Round 2 @ Alpha Bakehouse

2010-01-30T21:09:00.000+11:00

Dissapointed! Not half as good as the first time we went there for breakfast. The once overly filled bain-marie was completely empty of any breakfast goods(we were in at exactly the same time as last time). No muesli on the menu, in fact the menu was quite boring for brekkie.
However if you were feeling self-indulgent then there was plenty to eat. The cakes and pastries do look really superb. Chocolate doughnuts, pastry filled buns, almond crescents, etc. I didn't think of lot of the fruit bread toast which was mostly raisins and blueberries, I like more
variety if it is to be called fruit. Still don't like the Harriss tea bag either, however It was so busy and apparently they are open very early in the morning for the early starters first coffee of the day. They say the coffee is good!

Snippet 4 - Round 2 @ Urbano

2010-01-30T21:04:00.004+11:00

Much more impressed, second time round. Again a big Menu. I had the middle eastern beans with tomato, parsley yoghurt and lemon. It was simply delicious! Urbano is very understated and it doesn't seem to put on any airs or graces. It has a fabulous showcase of food, such as
frittata, pies, salads etc which are all made on the premises. Toasted sandwiches are just $7. The cakes, muffins and brownies all look great as well. Highly recommend.

Monica

Hey Mon,
I think there has been a change of ownership since we last visited - an Asian influence now I'm thinking. I'll do some investigating and see if my suspicions are correct.

Rachel

Snippet 3 - Round 2 at the Gravy Train

2010-01-30T20:32:00.002+11:00

So it wasn't an undercoat! I still can't get over the colour of the facade. Does the food make up for it, I'm not sure! Another huge breakfast menu, assortment of croissants, fruit toast, pancakes, french toast, BLT's and eggs done any which way. Still in my muesli stage, at $6.50 it is very good value. But would I prefer to pay more for something a bit more elaborate. For instance Pludo's in Willi or Fidama's or Feedback? (Probably).
The Gravy Train is good value for money, the service was excellent and the atmosphere was given a boost with great music. Still not 100% about the food given the competition in the area. Rachel's toast was burnt and when after a couple of hours I ordered some baked eggs the toast (Turkish bread) was served with out butter.

Cafe Fidama

2010-01-30T20:16:00.004+11:00

http://www.cafefidama.com.au/

34 Ballarat St
Yarraville VIC 3013, Australia
(03) 9687 0133

When an institution that has not faltered is sold it must be scary for both new owners and old customers.
In 2009 we saw Mark and Louise Cohen sell Cafe Fidama. My history is a bit shaky here but they are the only owners that I know of. (Rachael you may know a bit more than I do
about this)(not a clue, sorry. R.). They were here when I first moved into Yarraville and they were the best - Great, up to date, modern food at affordable prices. It was consistent.
As SKY had more and more additions of good cafes and restaurants Cafe Fidama held it's own. Naturally when I visited for breakfast after the new owners had taken over I had reservations. But I must say any reservations quickly disappeared. They have a beautiful big breakfast menu, which made it really hard to choose from. Selections of waffles, apple and buttermilk pancakes, sardines and meaty brekkies must be able to please a wide variety of customers.

I chose the muesli (seems to be my preference at the moment). It was huge but delicious. It had toasted kiwi and cranberries and poached pears on top. Really good at $10. The Big Breakfast was $16.50, which is great value. I really liked the 'for sale' art work on the walls too.
Unfortunately there was not many people in there so the atmosphere was a bit lacking. Please people if you are scared of new owners always give them a go (sometimes it takes a while for everything to settle after a take over).

Cafe Fidama is only open for breakfast on weekends, I strongly suggest you give it a go in 2010.

(image - Miettas.com.au)

Snippet 1 - Petitiou

2010-01-30T19:57:00.000+11:00

Firstly an apology is necessary here. The spelling of the name of this cafe was wrong in my last review! So sorry ladies.
Secondly, this sweet little cafe, located on Somerville Rd is greatly appreciated by those who love a good coffee and now don't have to go to Seddon or Yarraville village. However apart from coffee and tea, there is not a lot on offer. As it is a tiny space the girls don't have a lot of room to work with. I can't wait for them to find an ingenious way of stretching the menu as I am sure they will.
At the moment you are limited to toast, toasted sandwiches and cakes (of the Emma Mackay variety). The playroom for kids is a great idea with a showroom for baby products - creative, but wondering if they will make any money out of it. My business brain says maybe they should decide what sort of business they want, do they want a cafe or a baby products shop and then more room could be devoted to one or the other.
Good luck ladies, with your new business.

2009 Wrap Up

2010-01-30T19:48:00.004+11:00

Dear Rachael,

I have been so naughty and unfortunately (for our blog and my waist) have been doing more eating than writing. Where did 2009 go??? One minute it's November 09 and I have all these intentions and then its Jan 2010. All good intentions blown out the window and reality setting in. I have hardly written anything and I have so much to say, (and I bet you're saying 'when don't you have something to say') so I guess I thought I would wrap the year up with a bundle of snippets....

As it is January a lot of our local cafes in SKY are taking a break (well deserved, I say)
but I have noticed that a lot are just taking the main public holidays, which is good news for the locals. I will make it my mission in 2010 to be more diligent and write more and eat less. That almost defeats the purpose of this blog however, if I accepted less dinner invitations and
accepted more breakfast invitations then I could write at dinner time, does that make sense, or does it sound like I'm still recovering from New Years Eve and I'm mumbling?

Cheers Monica

So here we go .....

Pistachio Snippet

2009-11-29T23:39:00.003+11:00

Out with the old in with the new!

Pistachio is no longer trading! Why?? It's all still there but they just aren't opening the doors anymore. Apparently they are paying their lease so it's not even available to potential new businesses. I went into Pistachio twice in its lifetime which I think must be approx' 4 years (let me know if you know different). On both visits I felt the lack of atmosphere, but I did think that was just because there was no one else in there but me. The breakfast was great and very reasonably priced.
So Why didn't it work??? What do I think?
I think that Pistachio did not stand out on Charles St. The frosting on the glass prevented you from seeing what you were walking into, and when you did walk in (if you did, as obviously a lot of you didn't) there was no bright welcome, no joy! What other reasons are there for a cafe to
close it's doors.
Please let me know what you think!

MONICA

Co Klat

2009-11-29T23:18:00.013+11:00

Co Klat is trading! On Friday I was in the village and I saw a couple of young girls walking around offering free samples of chocolate. YES FREE! So what would any sane woman who loves chocolate do? I followed them to the source. The source is Co Klat. It's a little chocolate shop which also sells waffles, muffins, coffee (illy) and of course chocolate drinks. I didn't sit down, I thought I'd buy a few samples and take them home to indulge. The average chocolate is $1.70.
There are all different flavours, some alcohol, some child friendly. Mint,
raspberry, orange, praline, caramel etc. My first impression is I'd
like to try more! I'd like to go there for dessert or for an iced
chocolate and spend more time over tasting the chocolate.

I was told by Paul who works there that they buy the chocolates from a family in
Caulfield who have been making them for more than 30 years. What's interesting about this shop is that it is the first shop in the new block to open. The New Block being the recently built one behind the Sun Theatre. It's exciting, waiting to see what else will open there. Let's hope that this new building and the businesses within it will be a success.
MONICA

I know where I'll be heading tomorrow. I had seen them setting up but didn't know it was going to revolve around the greatest substance the world has known! I'm assuming they're all low fat and will make us slim and beautiful! By the way where are the chocolates you bought for me to try??

Rachael

Snippet

2009-11-26T14:23:00.001+11:00

CUTLER AND CO
55-57 Gertrude St
Fitzroy VIC 3065
(03) 9419 4888

I will be very short and sweet on this one. Last night I went to Cutler and Co for dinner. It was my girlfriend's birthday and she had 8 people in total at the table. All went very well, food great, service great, atmosphere great, all living up to what had been heard or read about, UNTIL, YES UNTIL we got the bill. On the bill they had charged an extra 10% because there were 8 people on the table. When questioned about this the waiter said that 8 people was considered a large group and a large group made it harder for the kitchen staff and they needed extra waiting staff. What a load of BALONEY. What sort of Pansy’s are working in the kitchen that they can’t cope with a table of 8. Extra waiting staff???? MORE BALONEY. In a restaurant you allow staff for the amount of seats, the size of the tables makes no difference as at the end of the day the restaurant can only seat so many people. So disappointing! As Derryn Hinch would say SHAME SHAME SHAME!

Monica

What I would have given to see your face when they told you that!! It makes me laugh just thinking about it. Wish I had been there.

Rachael

TOUKS

2009-11-26T13:12:00.004+11:00

77 Charles St Seddon 3011. VIC
(03) 9687 7194.

Touks is the 1st restaurant/cafe to stay at this address. Before Touks
there was the Charles St. Bar and before that there was ... oh, can't
remember, but what I am trying to say is that there must be something
good at this place because it has succeeded where others have failed.

Matthew and Carrol Thurley obviously know what they are doing. The restaurant looks great, modern, airy(the garage style doors are great for these wonderfully unseasonal hot spring nights we are having) and it has what a lot of other restaurants in SKY don't have and that is SPACE. You can easily wheel your pram in here, you can sit down without fear of sitting on someones bag or skirt and you can get to the bathroom without having to hold in your stomach as you pass through tables.

On my first breakfast ever at Touks I found it really difficult to decide what to order. The menu is lovely. So many delicious items to choose from it took a while to make that most important decision. However as it was the first time I thought it would be a good idea to try my standard brekkie. It's like my benchmark now. If they can poach an egg well that is always a step in the right direction. For a twist to the norm I added the 'many ingredient beans' as a side. It was
delicious. Perfectly cooked, everything on the plate was delightful.

The cost of a brekky here is on scale with most other cafes in SKY. Eggs and Toast $9 and sides 2.5 - 3 . I was a bit disappointed to see no muesli or porridge choices on the menu but at the same time I understand that just because every other cafe is doing that doesn't mean that they
have to as well. As my younger kids were with us this particular day they had the toast with rhubarb jam, they loved it . But the Prize of the day went to the Ricotta Pancakes with orange blossom cream. It was light and fragrant and melt in your mouth stuff. Highly recommend this
dish. Lovely cup of tea and I have heard that the coffee is okay here.

Touks is only open on weekends for breakfast, after some research I found out that on Sundays Emma Mackay is the chef for the day. Emma used to run the Commercial in its HEY DAY when the food was Top Class but is now a mum of three. Not only does she doing the cooking on Sundays but she supplies Touks as well Petit Tou (review to come) with her magical cakes. And if that is not enough (with three children in tow) she runs a cooking school for children (contact Touks), which apparently is fabulous. Emma also has recently been seen on Ian Hewitson's television cooking show as his pastry chef , what a busy lady! Touks is more about dinners than it is breakfast, but they still do a mean one so I would recommend getting down there on the weekend and trying it out.

MONICA

I haven't had a chance to go to Touks for breakfast in ages - I'm a fan of their hot chocolates which come with a variety of different flavoured chocolate buttons. Such a lovely idea.

Rachael

PLUDO

2009-11-25T14:13:00.005+11:00

98 Ferguson St
Williamstown VIC 3016
(03)9397 2591
Open Tue-Fri 7:30am-4pm; Weekends 7:30am-4:30pm

WELL HELLO RACHAEL!
Finally you have a voice!
I Hear what you are saying but I don’t get it, because YES I am huge foodie. I love FOOD! I think about every meal that I eat. I get so excited about food that even choosing a cereal in the morning for breakfast is a major executive decision. One that I relish. I think about morning tea, I think about lunch, I think about afternoon tea, I think about dinner and dessert, then I think about supper. So NO I don’t look like Monica in the picture, how could I after all this food, but YES I am as anal as the Monica in this picture about the food I get served.

Now, when I pay for food I do want it to be good, very good in fact, but if for instance you or any friends were to invite me to their house for breakfast I would love everything that was served to me because it would be rude to say otherwise. And Hey it’s a free feed! (Nobody will ever invite me now!)

Moving ON

You would think that living in SKY the options are endless and they are, but sometimes it’s nice to step outside the box and do something a bit different. So today we went to Williamstown!

Growing up on the other side of Melbourne I had never ever heard of Williamstown . It’s amazing how this seaside gem is kept a secret to the rest of Melbourne. It really is a beautiful inner city suburb of Melbourne, with much to offer. There are many cafes, restaurants and pubs in this area but to be honest I have never found any that stand out. Until today that is. Obviously I had just not been going to the right places because Rachael introduced me to Pludo. What a DELIGHT! Gorgeous! So Cute! Actually I think Pludo fits in better at SKY than at Willi, it actually has a sky feeling to it!

It is quite small, seating about 20 people, with quite a small menu. There is a lovely young girl behind the counter who has a 50’s look about her. The whole place has that feel to it. There is a great big surfboard up on the wall which puts me in beach mode (luckily the beach is about a 5 min drive from here). They have a very cute display of a few homemade goodies. I ordered the house Muesli and at 12.50 I was thinking this better be good because over in SKY I know I can get really good muesli for about $8 Good? This was Sensational! It was like having a healthy sundae for Breakfast! Dried cranberries, figs, almonds, pistachios amongst other muesli goodies topped with Gippsland Yoghurt and house preserved strawberries. The most divine ingredient however was the unprocessed corn flake. This was heaven, it added a crunch to the muesli like no other.

Lovely old fashioned, mismatching teapots and tea cups pouring lovely cups of tea. Just delightful. $3.20 for a pot of tea, very reasonable.

Notice Rachael, I hadn’t had one glass of wine to be able to say all those nice things. It was just that the owners of Pludo got it so right!

MONICA

Quite frankly I am just relieved that my suggestion met with such a positive response! Phew! If anyone else has a cafe suggestion, let me know, the pressure is getting to me. I think Pludo has changed ownership and I'm so pleased it still retains the lovely feel it has always had. It's one of my personal favourites.

Rachael

Taj Palace - An Institution

2009-10-22T20:27:00.012+11:00

We are lucky in S.K.Y. to live right next door to Footscray.

Now I know other Melburnians may make jokes about Footscray, but what they don’t know is that Footscray has some of the best restaurants in Melbourne.

If you look in cheap eats this year there are almost a dozen entries. Not all suburbs can boast this! What is amazing is that it is a combination of Melbourne’s latest migrant groups that fill this suburb with such delectable choices. Indian, Vietnamese and Ethiopian.

Tonight we focus on an Indian restaurant – The Taj Palace! It is an institution! It has been in Footscray for 22 years and we have been visiting it for the past 10.

(228 Nicholson St Footscray VIC 3011(03) 9687 1020)

I’m not sure how we knew to go but it’s one of those local legends that just gets passed around. I love the chef with the curly moustache, who waves when you walk in. I use to wonder how he knew us but then I realised he waves at everyone. A great gesture. A good way to make your customers feel special. Apart from noticing the chef you can’t help notice the pink tablecloths. They remind me of a wedding I went to years ago. MMMMMmmmmmmmm. Really though, what we go there for is the feed. Yummo! Bhaji, Butter chicken, tandoori mushrooms, naan bread, plain, garlic or paneer, rogan josh, vindaloo, I’ll stop now because I can tell that you are drooling. If you haven’t been there before, get yourself down there, it is great Indian food.

Monica

Well, well Mon, I am very impressed - you loved everything about the Taj Palace, not that it doesn't deserve it. Do you really mean to say that you couldn't find ONE thing to suggest? Maybe you are just more mellow after a few wines! For a fabulous, reasonably priced dinner in modest surroundings the Taj is definitely the place to go, they also do kick arse take-away.

Rachael

Seddon Deadly Sins -

2009-10-22T19:14:00.011+11:00

Walking in to SDS this time was a bit of 'WOW, it’s changed.'

Yes folks they have redecorated and I like it!

Lots of wood and lots of workspace for the boys. A fantastic new cake fridge with a great display of cakes. Fantastic improvements. As usual Simon and the boys were hard at work. They really give you good service, very attentive, I also like that.

One of my pet hates is having finished my breakfast, and my first cup of tea, and then not being offered another cup of tea. Often R and I sit and sit and wait and wait. And eventually one of us will go and order it. We shouldn’t have to go, they should be coming to us! And at SDS they come to you. Excellent!

That’s all the good news and now the not so good.

As I said in my first review I think the food is fine, but sadly this time round I was far from impressed. I had the muesli, at $7.50, this is quite a bargain compared to other muesli dishes in SKY. Unfortunately it was not really worth $7.50. It just wasn’t up to scratch. The actual muesli itself was okay but it was topped with fresh fruit.

Another pet hate is fruit cut up too early. If I order fresh fruit I want it cut to order. Do you know what happens if you cut fruit too early before serving it, it goes brown. Yes, you can stop it from going brown by adding lemon juice but you can still tell it was cut earlier (or at least I can, I am pretty fussy though). At Seddon Deadly Sins on that day I was served uneven chunks of browned fruit on top of the muesli, it just put me off .

Sorry Boys, you need to do better than that! Most other cafes in Sky are serving poached, baked or compote of fruit. Perhaps you should consider this if you don’t have time to cut up fruit to order.

Monica

Jeepers Monica!!! Talk about a fruit Nazi! Glad you've never been to my place for brekky - I think I'd just hand you the fruit, a good sharp knife and make you do it yourself! I'm thinking maybe you need to order something less healthy in the first place - I had a chocolate and fruit muffin, delicious, probably highly fattening, and bloody good.

By the way everyone - I have been silent too long! I have decided it's time to add my 2 cents worth for those of us who aren't foodies, don't really care if our fruit is fresh or poached and like desserts for breakfast! So watch out Monica - I'm here to pig out on pancakes, and shout you down when I think you're being harsh. (Mind you I tend to agree with you 90 per cent of the time but that's no fun!)

Cafe looks fabulous boys - well done.

Rachael

Feedback from Feedback!

2009-10-13T18:49:00.007+11:00

Mmmm Mmmmm! I love Feedback! So unassuming! So delicious! Cold mornings call for wholesome nurturing food and who better to deliver. A bowl of toasted muesli was what I felt like, and I got the deluxe of all muesli’s. At $8 a bowl there is no better value for money. Beautifully toasted muesli, tossed with dried fruits and nuts, with a dob of yoghurt and the piece de resistance, a half baked pear on top. No other words to describe this breakfast dish, except divine.

Rachel had a muffin which she thought was divine, heaps of fruity goodness and big and fat. I know in my last post on feedback I said I would try the muffin, but really I could not fit it in. Funnily my teacup set from the early nineties showed up as the tea cups our tea was poured into. (I’m not sure about that though as I did give them away because I didn’t like them anymore, so it’s all a bit weird. Or is it Karma?)

Overall the breakfast experience at Feedback is still one of the best in SKY especially in the food department. It is very laid back, unpretentious and seriously casual, maybe, a bit like me. Or Not?

Monica.

You definitely missed out not having the muffin - fantastic! In the interests of our readers I think you should have gone the extra mile and fitted one in. You owe it to your readership Mon. Soft, that's what you are!

Rachael.

Gourmet On Gamon

2009-09-18T10:53:00.003+10:00

It’s been 5 months since our last visit to what I will name the “homeliest” of cafes in SKY. The lovely waitress whose name I learnt was Felicity is a local mum and has a very natural way about her. They were much busier this time. Funnily enough it was a weekday, as opposed to the last time being a weekend. We still found a seat but we did have to wait a while for our tea although it was a lovely cup of tea when it did arrive.

This time Rachael had the Eggs and I wanted to have a departure from eggs so I tried the French Toast. Unfortunately the eggs were overcooked, ordered runny and arrived hard. Luckily she said everything else on the plate was delicious. It was a full breakfast and once again at a reasonable price. The French Toast with maple syrup was lovely but lacked imagination or garnish. Some dishes don’t need anything to have eye appeal, but others do and just one strawberry can make the world of difference to how something looks.
I think that is why I call this the homeliest of cafes, its no frills, it’s like going to your friends house for brekkie, they don’t garnish either!

Monica

The Corner Shop

2009-09-18T10:37:00.005+10:00

It’s still got the buzz! I have to say I think the corner shop has permanent atmosphere, if there is such a thing. The last review for this lovely café was in March, just a few months after opening. Since then I have been there, for breakfast, lunch and supper. My favourites have been the soup and the cakes. After our last review and the comments left I only felt it fair to give it another go for breakfast, although I did order something completely different from the first time. If we remember rightly I ordered eggs and a few sides, the standard breakfast that I was reviewing all over SKY. It was the most expensive breakfast, but I have to say that since that review was written both Java and Le Chien have increased their prices so maybe, just maybe The Corner Shop was just ahead of their time.

This particular cold winters morning I decided I would have porridge, I am a huge fan. The porridge was served with the most beautifully coloured rhubarb. It looked sensational! The porridge was not made from oats but from quinoa. Quinoa is a protein rich seed, eaten like a grain and hails from South America. It is fantastic because it is gluten free and has all the essential life-sustaining nutrients. Exotic but good for you! The porridge was a lot runnier than I have had before but not unappealing, however it was ever so slightly burnt and you just got a faint whiff of it. It was still fine to eat and with that beautiful rhubarb it was barely noticeable. At $8.50 this falls into the average price range for the SKY area for porridge or muesli.

Naturally a new business has some teething problems but I guess the key would be to listen and take on board any information that comes your way. I have to say that I am a bit reluctant to mention this, as we are not coffee drinkers but we have been told on multiple occasions that the coffee is sometimes less than hot. It has actually stopped customers from going to The Corner Shop, which is a shame because as I have mentioned it has so many great qualities. Another quality that Ian and Claire have bought over from Le Chien are the teapots. They are fantastic. Great size, not like those canteen ones that have been mentioned, unfortunately, over and over again. The last couple of times I have been there the tea has been spot on! At $4.00 a pot of tea it is really great value because you can usually get over two cups of tea. They are also extremely generous with the milk, so if you are still thirsty you could always take advantage of their generosity and finish the milk!

Monica

Aqua e Vino

2009-09-04T10:32:00.005+10:00

18a Anderson Street

Yarraville

info@acquaevino.com.au

9687 9006

Hours
Tuesday through Saturday5pm till Late

Sunday2:30pm till Late

Closed Monday

I know this is at the other end of the spectrum for dining experiences but sometimes I like to share the joy of other adventures I have had in SKY and surroundings. Aqua e Vino has been with us for some time now and it never ceases to amaze me. I feel like I am walking into a time warp. A time warp that I would increasingly like to spend more time in. There was an era of time when I could regularly visit a bar like Aqua e Vino, but alas I am now living in a world where that is not possible and I have to make do with just a couple of times a year. (What a bummer!)
So what a treat when I can go! I don’t go for the food (I haven’t had a meal there), I go for the atmosphere, the music and the drinks list. I could spend a whole evening just on reading the drinks list. If I drank while I read I imagine I could get myself into quite a state (Not a good look for a responsible mother). Reading in those lovely chesterfields in front of that fire, with a great big glass of red, wow what a great way to while away an evening, (although I am sure I would look very odd and probably be asked to leave as reading is probably not why you go to Aqua e Vino). You go to Aqua e Vino for drinks and socialising. They do have one of the largest drinks menu in Melbourne and it is award winning.
On the particular night that I went, I went with a friend and we were sort of in between destinations and we thought we could grab a quick drink before moving on. It was delicious! I had a mojito (rum, mint lime, sugar and soda). I watched the bar man make it. By the way, I love how the bar men dress themselves here with the braces which creates an atmosphere of old times gone by. Anyway the drink! I watched the barman load the glass with mint (beautiful fresh and unblemished mint), pour the rum and other ingredients in, then shake it and I thought he was going to serve it, but then he did something that I was totally not expecting, he sprayed it. I was totally intrigued and when he delivered my drink I asked about the spray and he said it was Rose Water. AAhh! Because I could smell it by that stage and it smelt just beautiful and it lingered the whole time I was drinking that drink.
Aqua e Vino is an experience I highly recommend and not just for one drink. One of these nights I would like to be able to stay for more, in fact their Sunday Afternoons with gospel singing sounds so enticing. Alas, what would I do with the children? Any Takers?

Monica

COME BACK!

2009-08-24T14:37:00.012+10:00

Has anyone else noticed that a certain smiley face has been missing from the SKY cafe scene? I am sure that most of the women in the area will be aware that Matt from The Corner Shop has been missing for quite some time now. Matt was a bright spot in the lives of many a bored SKY housewife and he is sorely missed. Formally of Le Chien, Matt moved to The C.S. when the Munroe's opened earlier this year, and spread his joy to the village.

Some of you may not know that Matt is actually very rock and roll - he is the guitarist for BEDFORD, and it turns out this is one of the reasons he has left us - to concentrate more on his music.
So although we miss him we wish him the best of luck and hopefully we'll still see him around the hood when he's not off being famous!

BEDFORD -
WINNER of L.A. Music Awards "Single of the Year" for "I Am Alive"
Awarded Album of the Year on Australian Internet Radio.
Two songs 'Pray' and 'Free Spirit' hit number one on the top 33.3.

Rachael

Le Chien Snippett

2009-08-24T14:15:00.003+10:00

The last time I blogged about Le Chien it was quite lengthy. Everything that I wrote still stands, all in all a very positive experience. A couple of things have changed since we were last there and one of them is that Le Chien has opened for dinner. Very exciting I say, expect to see a snippet about that in the near future. The other change is that the prices have risen. Since we started blogging, two cafes have risen in price. Not surprising really when you consider the cost of food these days.
As I had Bircher Muesli a couple of weeks ago at Haus Frau I thought I may as well stick with that choice as long as I could and Le Chien certainly do offer it. However, and there is a big however, it just wasn’t as good as I was hoping it to be. In fact it was just too sultanary (I think I just created a new word). A few sultanas is nice but when there are too many sultanas it just makes the dish too sickly sweet. Also the kind of oats used (pinhead oatmeal- Scottish) was not what I was expecting and not my first preference.
I must say though that after almost completing my first round of cafes in SKY that Le Chien still stands out as one of the fav’s. It was noted by a friend the other night that when he walked into Le Chien and Andy was there he always acknowledged him and said hello. That made him feel good! Andy certainly gets the vote for best café owner in SKY!

Monica

Snippet

2009-08-13T21:26:00.003+10:00

A couple of weeks ago I ate at Café Terroni for dinner. Another Gem that opened in Yarraville village around xmas last year. It is one of those places where you think and feel that it has been around forever. It just slipped in and made itself at home and the people of SKY generally love it.
I don’t know anybody who hasn’t been there and the feedback has all been good. It was about my third time of eating there and I hate to say it but I have to burst the bubble. I had a disappointing experience! Now let me tell you, this will not stop me from going back but I think it needs to be put out there. I ordered the gnocchi with the pork ragu and meatballs. The gnocchi was fine and the few meatballs that I tasted were nice and the sauce was really nice but, and it is a big BUT The pork had not been cooked in a ragu. The pork was either left over pork chop or pork roast thrown into the sauce at the end. So disappointing! Were they using up leftovers this is my question?
In a ragu the raw meat of choice, beef, pork or veal (traditionally ground but cubes acceptable) is cooked in the sauce(usually tomato based) until it is tender and melts in your mouth. It is simmered for hours so the meat absorbs the flavour as well as being tender.
This is a reminder that cafes and restaurants are only as good as their last meal. when you have a bad experience you probably will do a lot more talking about it than you would a good experience. Don’t let high standards slip because word of mouth is a powerful tool!
Monica

Java

2009-08-13T20:54:00.007+10:00

12 Ballarat St

Yarraville VIC 3013

(03) 9687 3300

Open Daily 7am-11pm

Java Java Java.

I call Java the “lucky café”! It has the best position in Yarraville Village and it has had a captive audience. Until the corner shop opened up it’s doors earlier this year, that is. It has the obvious advantage of being next door to the Sun Bookshop and then the Sun Theatre. Coffee, books and movies. What more could you ask for?

To be perfectly honest Java is not my favourite place. It just doesn’t have the ingredients that go into making a great café in my eyes. First of all the cakes are brought in (understandably, have you seen the size of the kitchen) and they are nothing out of the ordinary. Secondly, even though it is always busy it just doesn’t have the atmosphere. After thinking about it and wondering why, I may have come up with an answer. There does not seem to be a person who is consistently there and that I can identify with. In all other café’s in Sky I can identify with an owner or a waiting person, someone who I recognise who will know my name or even just my face. It is nice to walk into a café and be recognised and said a warm hello to. Having said that, I know that Rachael visits Java on a more regular basis and she assures me that one or two of the girls are always friendly and go out of their way to chat to her kids which I was very pleased to hear. I am not saying that the staff at Java are unfriendly but I do believe that the staff in there are generally still in high school or fresh out and don’t have a lot of experience and that shows.

The poached eggs, tomato, spinach and mushrooms are extremely generous. The eggs are served on thick white toast and are of a smaller size (60) but nicely cooked. Again it is nothing out of the ordinary. It could have had more seasoning, especially in the spinach. You know a little squeeze of lemon on mushrooms and spinach can make all the difference! The tea came in those teapots that I am sick of mentioning. The tea was T2 and the cup was a bit on the thick side with a thick handle making it awkward for any chubby fingers (mainly mine). The cost $20.50! Their prices have been raised! Some sides are $3 and some are $3.50. If you read last weeks blog you would haved noticed for this price I also got a hot chocolate at Pistachio in Seddon. But at Pistachio you are not next to the bookshop and the cinema and I guess that’s the price you pay for location.

Monica

Rachael's note - One of the advantages of Java is it's hours of business. Being a bit of a night owl I am often in the Village in the evening, be it at the movies or just working late and Java is the only cafe that is consistantly open until a late hour. Thank god for Java because there is nothing worse than coming out of the movies at 10pm and finding no where to go to chat about the movie.

Pistachio

2009-08-13T20:36:00.006+10:00

86a Charles Street

Seddon - (03) 9687 1374

What a lovely breakfast! Beautifully poached eggs, a whole baked tomato (looked gorgeous), lots of mushies and the spinach (soooo good for you!). Lightly toasted sour dough, perfect thickness for toast, but HARD butter. Frustration! However this seems to be the only problem and I guess it can be forgiven because everything else tasted so yummy. Up there with the best of the breakfast’s in SKY! I had the egg brekkie, my cup of tea and today I treated myself to a hot chocolate, $20. The Big Breakfast with a cup of coffee advertised on the door $12! Great Value for money!

The English Breakfast (Brodies) was great and served in a plunger. However I didn’t like the cup at all. Too thick around the rim and I would hate to have a chubby finger because it would be difficult to put your finger through the handle.

Pistachio needs more people in there to help create an atmosphere. It is a little bit bare and spacious. I’m not quite sure why there isn’t more people in there because it has a lot of good ingredients to make a groovy café. Great food, great prices for breakfasts, plenty of room to sit( a lot of our other local café’s you have to wait for a seat) music in the background, art on the wall and a communal table . What are you waiting for? Get yourselves down there!

As I am not a coffee expert I do like to get other people’s feedback on coffee, and generally you hear people talk about where to get the best coffee, however I have never heard any talk about the coffee from pistachio, so I asked a friend to check it out for me, and unfortunately the feedback wasn’t great. Apparently the barista put too much sugar in the take away coffee and it was undrinkable. I would really like to hear from other people about their experiences with coffee here, if you have had a great experience here please make a comment. Believe it or not we really want all cafes in SKY to have great press! Its good for all of us!

Monica

Hausfrau Bakery and Cakes

2009-08-13T19:41:00.008+10:00

32A Ballarat St

Yarraville VIC 3013

Hours

Tue-Sat 8am-5pm,

Sun 10am-5pm

courtesy - The Age

When I think of Haus Frau I think of my childhood. I think of one particular auntie who was very clever at making delicious cakes, and cakes is what they do best here. The display cabinet is filled with beautiful temptations - Sacher Torte, Hummingbird Cake, Madeleines, miniature orange and poppy seed cake, I could go on and on. But as you know we are not here to sample the cakes, (today anyway, that could come at a later date) we are here for breakfast. They don’t do eggs! Those of you who know the area would know that Sally and Christian (owners of Haus Frau) were the original owners of the Gravy Train and in my opinion would do the best breakfast in Melbourne. When they moved to Haus Frau they left the breakfast trade behind. They do have a few items on offer, so I won’t write them off as a breakfast venue and will endeavour to eventually try and review everything on their breakfast board.

What tempted me first? Bircher Muesli! If done correctly it is one of my favourite breakfast indulgences. If you don’t know what bircher muesli is, it is a traditional Swiss breakfast dish. It is a mixture of rolled oats, apple or orange juice, yoghurt, chopped fresh, dried, or stewed fruit, grated apple, sultanas and chopped almonds. It is left overnight and served chilled. (for extra indulgence some people fold whipped cream through it). Yummo!

Was Hausfrau’s up to scratch? It sure was. It was excellent! It had beautiful poached fruit on top and was sweet as well as refreshing, exactly how it should be.
All the above ingredients were there and of a fine quality. I highly recommend it.

courtesy - food intuition

The tea came in nice little white teapots and was of a fine quality. (It has to be noted that Christian (part owner) has won barista of the year in the past and is renowned for making a great coffee.

I also just wanted to add a part on the service. I have read other reviews on the web. I’m not sure about what has been said, I guess everyone has their own personal experience, but when I go to a café I like the waiting staff to be pleasant but not over the top. I don’t my mind if they are friendly, I don’t really mind if they are not. I certainly wouldn’t let it bother me. One of the words used in one of the other reviews, was surly. Surly means to be arrogant or bad tempered or angry. I don’t think Christian or any of the other staff are any of these things. They are just very busy and sometimes it is hard to smile when you are waiting on so many customers. Some people are smilers and some aren’t, we shouldn't take it personally. I have never had to wait too long to be served. I have always been served excellent food and my experiences in their café have always left me with a warm fuzzy feeling in my tummy. No better way to be!

Monica.

Dancing Dog Cafe

2009-06-29T13:00:00.008+10:00

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

2009-06-29T10:52:00.007+10:00

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

2009-06-16T13:27:00.008+10:00

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

2009-06-03T22:34:00.002+10:00

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

The Alpha Bakehouse

2009-05-22T16:02:00.005+10:00

42 Anderson St

Yarraville, VIC

Tel: 03 9687 6483

My first memory of the Yarraville Village is the Yarraville Festival and Hot Alpha Bakehouse Doughnuts. Enough to help with my decision to move to Yarraville from the ‘other side of the bridge’.

When we go out for a cooked brekkie we don’t generally go to the bakery. We go to a café. We go to the bakery for bread, rolls and sweet baked treats. The Alpha Bakehouse offers both and more. As well as the board breakfast menu, it has a few items in the bain marie which actually look really good. The croque monsieur looks great and apparently is, while the foccacia with mushroom, spinach and cheese looked very tempting and I look forward to trying it at some point on my rounds. Ok, so I had the usual - runny poached eggs (free range), on two big thick slices of simple white bread (what a treat), tomatoes, mushrooms and spinach. A very, very generous serving of brekkie. Quite nice and very filling. Gritty Spinach. Spinach always needs to be thoroughly washed and this wasn’t. Most unpleasant and had to leave the spinach on the side.

Over the years I have watched the Alpha Bakehouse change from a continental bakery to a more sophisticated bakery. I like the way it looks now. I like the tables in a row along the wall and how you can sit and look directly at the counter with the display of beautiful cakes. I even like the colours. I like the heating, very slimline hanging from the ceiling and very effective. I’m not the only person who likes all of this. The place was packed. So busy! Why aren’t all these people at work I asked. It’s after 9am!
Perhaps I have not mentioned this before but all the cafes we go to for breakfast are busy, it’s amazing. No recession at breakfast time in SKY! ( hope you haven’t forgotten that SKY means Seddon Kingsville and Yarraville). I really didn’t expect much of the Alpha Bakehouse but I have to admit, it has surpassed my expectations. It’s a happening place in the mornings at least.

Tea. Can’t say much, it was a generic teapot with a tea bag (Harris's). Not happy Jan! Don’t they know the water goes cold really quickly in these things. Could do much better!

Snippets

2009-05-14T15:00:00.001+10:00

How good is this!!!! It is the Tea&Toaster and I want one!! Apparently you can do both at the same time. The mind boggles.
Rachael

SNIPPETS From S.K.Y.

2009-05-14T14:49:00.006+10:00

We made an executive decision to include Footscray into our SKY breakfast club. Although it does not fit under our banner we thought it was close enough to home. We also decided in our snippets of information we could include topics other than breakfast. Hope you enjoy!

My first snippet is from The Station Hotel in Footscray.

Yes! The pub of the year (2008) according to 3AW.

We have been going for quite some time and decided that would be one of my Mothers Day treats. I Soooooo looked forward to that big juicy steak all week. Mothers day was a 3 course deal for $70. Not cheap, but not too badly priced. The entrée was sensational, with snippets of charcuterie (The preparation of pork and other meat items, such as hams, terrines, sausages, pâtés, and other forcemeats.), fresh oysters and other seafood..

The main course was the steak and it was really disappointing. The meat was tough! Diaster in the kitchen! What will Sean Donavan (Chef and part owner) think of this. However the vegetables were delicious.

The dessert, a very, very, very, sweet upside down pineapple cake was loved by my husband and daughter but for me it was just too much.
Luckily, for the Station Hotel, I will still go back and encourage people to keep going just because every other time I have been it has been sensational.
If I was Sean Donavan I would probably interview new suppliers for the steaks for his bistro.

MONICA

Photo - The Age

Happy River Cafe

2009-05-14T14:33:00.006+10:00

45 Moreland St
Footscray, VIC 3011
(03) 9689 3244
Open Tue-Sun 8am-6pm

Last week we ate at Feedback which was once owned by the lovely ladies of Happy River, so it felt only right to have our breakfast at their latest venture, (although they have been here for some time now).

My previous experiences at Happy River have mainly been morning or afternoon tea out the front. On sunny days it is a lovely spot to hang out, providing toys and of course lots of grass for the kids to run around on. Space is always a bonus with toddlers.
Going inside to sit was a first for me and being a cool morning I was very interested to see how it would feel. It was bigger than what I thought it would be and I really didn’t know what to make of it and I’m not sure if I do now.
One of the things that put me off were the tablecloths, they just didn’t do it for me, however for R they reminded her of her childhood with lots of warm fuzzies. Maybe I would call them cute, maybe!
I love the open kitchen mainly because I can watch what is happening by the stove but also because I can see the hot boy (in his early 20’s) quietly doing the dishes, nothing like some eye candy to keep you coming back to a place!
Table service starts well but falls behind as the hours slip by, (yes again it was 12.00 before we left). Unfortunately their selection of tea is limited and was not overly appealing and can you believe it, those damned tea pots again. (see picture at the gravy train review) . I’m sorry if my usage of words is a bit harsh but I just don’t get it. Why can’t people see through these teapots and use their imagination a bit. A café is not just all about coffee, put some thought into the Tea!

The breakfast was fine but I’m afraid to say I think they left the better chef at Feedback. Last week I raved about the breakfast at Feedback and I had very good reason to. This week the breakfast at Happy River has gone back to the middle of the road breakfast that I have been getting around town. Just a couple of points, when poaching an egg has anyone heard about the whirlpool method. You make a whirlpool in the water by swirling it with a spoon and in the middle you gently crack the egg in. This method produces a very presentable and professional poached egg. The eggs I received today were not whirlpool eggs, they were feral poached eggs(and while some of you may prefer feral) they just don’t look that good. The other thing to remember when serving poached eggs is that the customer prefers you to leave the poaching water in the pot and not add it to their toast. Soggy toast is extremely unappetising. On a good note, they served lemon with the spinach which was lovely.

As I said earlier, to get our second pot of tea, it took quite a while. Every time the waitress came by I thought at any moment she is going to stop at our table and see if we want anything else. She didn’t, so we had to stop her . The café had a lot of staff, all seemingly busy but as far as I could tell not achieving much (the café was by no means full). From a business point of view I would think that selling food/drink would be a part of the waiting staff’s job, in the time that we were sitting there we could have had 3 pots of tea.

The Happy River café’s breakfast falls within the average price range of other cafes reviewed and it is certainly worth a visit.

MONICA

OUR RATING
Atmosphere - 7/10
Food - 6/10
Service - 7/10
Tea/Coffee - 6/10
Price - 8/10
34/50

FEEDBACK!

2009-05-13T11:29:00.004+10:00

31 Ballarat St,
Yarraville
(03) 9689 1955

Short and Sweet!!

Amazingly this was the best breakfast I have had yet in Sky!

Although we were on limited time this morning I still managed to eat my usual (yes the poached eggs, tomato, spinach and mushrooms) and enjoy it more than I have in weeks. Until last week I would have said “oh please can we move onto something else on the menu”. Now I know that this dish has just been benchmarked! This is the best, and this is what the rest of the cafés have to live up to.
This is what I have been looking for! It’s funny how most of my reviews have not started off talking about the food but today when I walked away that was all I could think of. 30 minutes later the cherry tomato flavour is still lingering in my mouth. That’s when you know you have had a fantastic feed!

The simplicity of a dish! Perfectly Poached free range eggs, I didn’t even have to ask for them to be runny. Beautifully steamed spinach containing all that goodness and mushrooms mingling with whole roasted cherry tomatoes.
The eggs were on slightly undercooked ciabatta bread and guess what, it wasn’t too hard to cut. There is our answer to a previous week’s question about using ciabatta - Ciabatta bread toasted too much is too hard to cut.

So did I have time to take in the rest of feedback while I was indulging in the food?
Of course I did. I can eat, talk, listen and observe what’s going on around me, very well actually. Feedback is probably the smallest café in SKY. It has laminated tables and seats about 20 people at any given time. It has a showcase of quiches, lasagne's, spinach and ricotta rolls etc. It has local art on the walls and local advertisements for things going on around town. At the moment it appears that Trivia nights are all the go and a poster of Myf Warhurst and Alan Brough doing the St Augustine's Primary School Trivia night stands out.

This is also a very popular place for take away coffees. They use Genovese coffee but as you know I don’t indulge so can’t tell you about it. But please be my guest to leave a comment on the coffee. That would be very helpful, actually. Our tea was fine, nothing spectacular. Regular little white china pots, with a regular cup. R had a muffin and I have to say that I was very tempted to have one because they look sensational. Very rustic looking and filled to the brim with berries, R says they are the best in the village.

It feels like a hip place to be with the staff giving off this relaxed and peaceful vibe. $18 for the best breakfast in town (tea included), great value. Next time I go I will hang out longer, and try that muffin.

OUR RATING

Atmosphere - 8/10
Service- 7/10
Food - 9/10
Tea/Coffee - 7/10
Price - 9/10
40/50

The Gravy Train

2009-05-04T16:05:00.005+10:00

83 Gamon St
Yarraville, VIC 3013
(03) 9687 9866

I remember the Gravy Train when it first opened. It was about the same time I moved into the area. S.K.Y. had a few cafes and the area was still finding it’s feet. The original Gravy Train was in the building that now houses Gourmet on Gamon. This is where the foundation of their business was laid. The original owners then moved across the road to their current address. They had already built up a fabulous business with sensational food and coffee and when they moved (into the old stables restaurant) they showed a flair for creating a wonderful space to eat in. Using fantastic furniture, red walls with original art work for sale and an open fire place it was always a pleasure to visit.

The Gravy Trainhas new owners and the Façade has had a facelift. Like a lot of Facelifts it has not been done well. This is unfortunate and I keep hoping it’s not finished and it’s just an undercoat but if there is another coat to go on then it is taking an awfully long time! Disappointing. However, there is a saving grace and that is the lovely herbs planted out the front. This is encouraging and perhaps suggests not is all lost at the Gravy Train.

On walking inside, the previous owner’s flair is still in place. Thank God. The walls are still red and the furniture etc is still the same. There is a function on in the backroom and a few other patrons. There’s plenty of choice as far as sitting is concerned. Shall we sit on Gamon St or should we sit in the front courtyard, or inside by the fire or perhaps towards the back room. Wherever you choose to sit you get a good view of the goings on in the café. There is one familiar face in the café and another staff member. They must have been busy with the function because it took quite a while before our table was approached and an order taken.

On delivery of the food I was not given the relish that I ordered. In the good old days of the Gravy Train I thought their breakfast was the best in Melbourne and part of that breakfast was the relish. Although it is not part of my weekly regular order I could not resit it. It did not appear and I did not chase it.

There is something that is lack lustre and although the décor is there the atmosphere just isn’t. I can’t put my finger on it and it made me feel like I couldn’t be bothered. My breakfast was nice but I really did miss that relish! R had some toast and showed me a corner which could have had mould on it, she put it to the side and we discussed whether or not it was mould. It was questionable but it could have been discoloured flour. Funnily enough the girl sitting just opposite us had the same problem and she spoke to the waiting staff about it. The waitress dealt with this extremely professionally and was quick to quell the myth of mould and brought out the loaf of bread to show her that this type of bread had that appearance. She had a very effective argument finishing with the bread comes in fresh everyday.

Have we discussed tea in those teapots that are so generic. Is that the right word? These teapots are in some cafes, but they are also in canteens, in hospitals in pokie joints, you get the picture. Why would you use them in a café??? They are horrible and should be banned from all local cafes at least.

At the end of the day though the Gravy Train serves a good breakfast and is among the cafes that are good value for money. Personal taste does account for a lot and you may not feel as I do, so check it out for yourself .

OUR RATING

Atmosphere - 6/10
Service- 5.5/10
Food - 7/10
Tea/Coffee - 6/10
Price - 7.5/10
32/50

Le Chien

2009-05-04T15:33:00.013+10:00

5 Gamon St Seddon

Phone: (03) 9362 7333

What a great place to watch the day go by! And that’s what we almost did! Before we knew it the morning was turning into lunch. I was supposed to be on my way home not still drinking tea at 12pm. As it turned out I would not return home for another couple of hours as I was lured to another café by a girlfriend who hadn’t made it for breakfast but managed to get out by lunchtime(she has twins!) Fancy that! But that’s another story.

Why is it so easy to NOT leave Le Chien? Regularly we sit at the bar that looks onto Gamon St, and beyond to the half modern, half 80’s Sabrosso building. Not really a great view. So what keeps bringing us back to Le Chien?

Is it the owner, Andy, the other staff, the clientele, the Food, the Tea or the Coffee?

Let’s start with what is most talked about, THE COFFEE! I cannot tell you how many times I have heard that The Best Coffee in “S.K.Y.” comes from Le Chien. Over and over again I hear this! It is almost driving me to drink coffee, but alas I just don’t get the coffee thing! I know, shame on me! But Hey do you get the Tea thing? I know R does!

So there is no doubt that Andy makes a great coffee and, yes, his new Barista (whose name I am yet to discover) apparently does too. The coffee attracts people from far and wide. Just on the morning I was there Mick from Chalk and Mary from Lacquer stopped here to grab their morning coffee’s to take to work. They have about half a dozen cafes in Yarraville Village to choose from and yet they come out of their way to Seddon pick up their coffee. Nothing else needs to be said.

Not only does Andy make a great coffee, but he is such a likable chap. He always offers a warm welcome when you enter and immediately you feel at home. Perhaps that’s what attracts the clientele that he has. One morning the Western Bulldogs are taking up all seats and the next morning an actress or an actor from recent television are rushing in for their caffeine hit. Mum’s with prams line up outside while one delegated mum runs in orders and collects the coffees and muffins to take down to the park.

They play fantastic music here as well, always at just the right volume but enough to notice who it is. On one occasion I had to ask what album they were playing and I promptly went out and bought it I liked it so much. If anyone is interested it is the soundtrack to Garden State. Brilliant. Simply put, Le Chien has atmosphere plus!

We have talked a lot about the coffee but what about the tea? We love it! Probably the best cup of tea to be poured in S.K.Y. and the best value. Reason being, they give you the biggest pot of freshly brewed tea! They give you a lovely cup that does not have a rim as thick as a small novel,(one of R's pet peeves) and the tea seems to go on forever.

And now the actual Breakfast. This was a really hard one for me because I have been here heaps for breakfast and I have to admit, I have a fave. I LOVE the promite special. What is that you ask? Well it is two runny poached eggs on promite ciabbata toast with avocado, tomato and parsley. It really is fantastic so for me not to be able to order that was so hard. So I ordered the norm! Runny poached eggs, tomato, spinach and mushrooms. And it was great! However I do think the tomatoes could have been a bit riper. A question I would like to send out to all our readers is - Does anybody else struggle with cutting ciabatta toast? I do love it but it is so awkward to cut sometimes I feel like I’m going to lose all the food onto the floor. Any suggestions! (we thought it might need a steak knife!!)

Earlier on I asked why is it not so easy to leave Le Chien. Above are all the reasons I think that keep you coming back and keep you from leaving but maybe the obvious reason is the door. How long does it take to get used to that door? As you sit there watching customers come and go it is quite amusing to watch people trying to work it out however it should be noted that is has probably been put there for our own comfort so persevere (push the big red button on the wall) because the rest is worth it.

OUR RATING
Atmosphere - 9/10

Service- 8/10

Food - 8.5/10

Tea/Coffee - 9.5/10

Price - 8/10

43/50

Seddon Deadly Sins

2009-04-16T21:52:00.013+10:00

148 Victoria Street
Seddon
03 9689 3092

An old fav!! Used to come to Seddon Deadly Sins once a week on the way to New Mothers Gym. Who remembers the new mothers gym at Footscray swimming centre?? Wasn’t it fantastic. Somewhere to exercise with your babe by your side. But I digress!
Going into this local after an absence of lets say a couple of years I wondered if there had been any changes. On first impression all seemed pretty much the same. R and I walked straight out the back into what has to be the best courtyard in S.K.Y. An inner city courtyard on a beautiful day with church bells ringing, grape vines hanging and the sun shining through the tips of the big trees. The walls are painted in that colour that makes you feel you are on the mediteranean, possibly Greece. Are you there yet?
What a lovely atmosphere to have your brekky in. But this is just one of the spaces where you can eat at Seddon Deadly Sins. If you walk your way back to the front of the shop, you have to walk through the fire place room. Another great space particulary in winter with the fire going. Very cosy. The front of the shop is where you sit and watch the traffic go by, pedestrian and car. It’s also where from a tiny space Simon and his staff administer the café fare. The great music that plays through out the café sets the scene.

(Upstairs in the Good Room)

The staff at Seddon Deadly Sins is consistently excellent. Simon (owner) and Partner (do you know his name R) (No, sorry M, but I'll get on it) is always there. I don’t think I have been there and he was not there. That is how to run a business! As soon as you reach a table you are handed a menu . I love the way the menu is presented. (Hadn’t seen that before) Menus in Little Golden Books! How Clever! How Cute!
Our drinks order is taken straight away while we peruse the menu. The first thing I noticed was that there is weekday menu and a weekend menu. Is this a good or a bad thing? I’m not sure! As I was able to order what I wanted (and we all know what I had to order, yes that’s right, poached runny eggs, tomato, spinach and mushrooms) it did not effect me. But if you had come for pancakes, sorry you would have to wait till Saturday. Mmmmmmmmmmm. Another Brekky staple missing off both the weekday and weekend menu, was porridge. Is that sacrilege?? My daughter thinks so!!
Serving Tea! R and I have discussed and pretty much agree that we do need to do a segment on the serving of tea. How should it be served, what sort of cup, what sort of Pot. How should the milk be served? Don’t know that I have found the perfect cup of tea yet , but will keep searching.
On arrival my breakfast is pretty much stock standard, but I would have to say that it probably had too much seasoning on it. The most annoying thing is, and Seddon Deadly Sins is not the only guilty party, hard butter. How are you to spread it on your toast?
The fare is fine but it’s definitely the atmosphere that I love here. It just feels good. I don’t think a lot has changed over the years, but there’s not much to change except perhaps soften the butter?

Reviewed by Monica

OUR RATING

Atmosphere - 8.5/10
Service- 8.5/10
Food - 6/10
Tea/Coffee - 7/10
Price - 9/10
39/50

Gourmet On Gamon

2009-04-03T22:26:00.016+11:00

84 Gamon Street
Yarraville 3013
PH - 9396 1916

You would think that reviewing breakfast would be all about the eggs. But it is so much more! This being our second review couldn't be more different than the 1st.

Gourmet On Gamon Gourmet On Gamon
Gourmet On Gamon is not right in the centre of the Yarraville village, but it is lucky enough to be on the street that connects Seddon and Yarraville. This cafe does not get the village shoppers but it does attract loyal locals and lots of mother's groups. The owner has dedicated the back room to the kids and she keeps it stocked with big boxes of toys, with heaps of magazines and papers for the adults. This serves the double purpose of allowing the parents to relax and keeps the front room free for those customers who don't want toddlers underfoot.

Gourmet On Gamon
On arrival I ordered my cup of tea which was pretty standard, however I did see a local lady order her cup of tea and ask for her mug! The front of house guy knew exactly who she was and which was her mug. It's always a plus to know your customers by name and Gourmet On Gamon obviously has a lovely rapport with it's regulars.

My order was taken by a friendly waitress who seemed lovely and relaxed. There is nothing worse than grumpy waiting staff.

I ordered the usual (the one in the picture) and after a reasonable amount of time the food came out. It was like a home cooked brekky!! This is a good thing, because as we all know there is nothing like home cooking, especially if you haven't cooked it yourself. The eggs were runny and the tomato, spinach and mushrooms were all very nicely seasoned. I do like my golden toast with butter even if my waistline doesn't and that was all that was missing.

As I ate it was fairly quiet in the cafe and I thought this would be a great place to read my book or the paper. As already mentioned we know it is a place for local mums and kids but obviously I was there early enough to miss that trade.

The price was perfect! $16.00 Almost $10 cheaper than last week's breakfast. I know money shouldn't dictate your lifestyle but the reality is that it does.

So I guess if I'm looking for a belly full of eggs in the morning on a budget Gourmet On Gamon would be the place to go.

Reviewed by Monica

OUR RATING

Atmosphere - 6.5/10
Service- 7.5/10
Food - 7/10
Tea/Coffee - 7/10
Price - 9/10
37/50

The Corner Shop

2009-03-26T11:55:00.015+11:00

9 Ballarat Street
Yarraville
9689 0052

As we waited in anticipation for the new cafe in the Yarraville Village to open, it was hard to imagine what could be done with the tiny space they had. Was there room for another cafe in Yarraville? Of course there was and now it's hard to imagine the Village with out this particular cafe. We knew that the owners had been successful before and the talk was that they would be again.

Since opening I have been to The Corner Shop a few times, for lunch or a cuppa. I love the decor, the table, the courtyard with pram access and the feel of the place. It is buzzy! It always has customers and the staff are very relaxed and welcoming.

My most recent visit to The Corner Shop was to try the breakfast. I was really looking forward to it as all other food consumed there had been fabulous, especially the semolina rhubarb cake.

This particular day The Corner Shop was in fine 'buzzy' motion. In fact it was a beautiful day and not easy to get a seat in the courtyard but we managed to squeeze in.

Our order was taken by the lovely Matt (more about him later) and delivered in good time. The thing is with this cafe, even if you have to wait, you just don't mind. Plenty seems to be happening around you and if you are a 'people watcher' you are in a prime location to do so.

Breakfast was not disappointing! Runny eggs (perfect), grilled tomato, tomato relish, mushrooms and spinach, all delicious. My pot of tea was a bit weak but even that did not seem to worry me. I was having a delightful time, chatting away with two lovely ladies. I thought - what a fantastic way to start my life as a reviewer. Very positive!!

The Corner Shop The Corner Shop

But all good things must come to an end. It was time to wrap up the relaxing part of the morning and move on to some chores. Time to pay up. So, as is the procedure in The Corner Shop, I went to the counter to pay. Yes, bonus, they do take credit cards (a big plus in my books).
However, when the waitress asked for $25.00 I thought there must have been a mistake. I asked her to check with the owner and she came back and said that there had been no mistake! The tea had been $4.00 (English Breakfast) and the sides were around $3.50 each. It was the most expensive breakfast I have had so far.

As I left The Corner Shop (another problem is that I can't seem to remember the name - I've been calling it The Corner Store until recently!) my mouth must have emptied the shop of all flies. Too expensive. I don't feel the meal was worth that amount of money. Sooooo disappointed. My principles dictate not to visit again but my stomach cries out for the Semolina Rhubarb Cake. That must be the solution.... cake and coffee but not breakfast!

Reviewed by Monica. The Corner Shop Yarraville

OUR RATING
Atmosphere - 8.5/10 The Corner Shop
Service - 8/10
Food - 8.5/10
Coffee/tea - 7.5/10
Price - 5.5/10
38/50

Welcome

2009-03-24T11:50:00.002+11:00

Stay tuned for our breakfast reviews. We hope you enjoy them.
Not long now....breakfast breakfast yarraville west west