Java

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

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

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

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

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


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

Cafe Urbano

43 Anderson St,

Yarraville 3013.

Ph: (03) 9687 1198

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Famous Blue Raincoat

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

All in all a lovely morning out. Monica.

Snippets

Which Vietnamese restaurant to choose in Footscray?

We choose HUY HUY!

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

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