Spatula, Spoon and Saturday

‘How do you like your eggs in the morning? I like mine with a kiss.’

Strangely enough, Snow Pony’s website is the only website whose neverending autoplay music doesn’t piss me off. It’s such a great tune to get you in the mood to visit this awesome little cafe in Balwyn (or as their official address Deepene – seriously does anyone know what Deepene is?) for their brunch.

(Snow Pony Winter 2011 menu)

Because I am your regular Eastern suburb stay-at-home Mum, I find it really hard to battle into the inner suburbs for the awesome cafes frequented by the hip young crowd during brunch hours with a young baby, especially on the weekends. Snow Pony is the perfect answer. It’s not too far from home and I can always get parking just out front.

(Mini Me and her grandmother)

Snow Pony, whose name I can only guess has something to do with the fact that it’s situated on White Horse Road, is brought to you by the same folks who bring you Friends of Mine in Richmond and Porgie and Mr Jones in Hawthorn. They have similar menu with the similar flair in their food. But Snow Pony’s staff has been absolutely outstanding at accommodating Mini Me and just all around very very lovely. And they have been very consistent about it in all the visits we made. Read the rest of this entry »

Min Lokal is a popular cafe with the Fitzroy locals for its charming, quaint little space in the backstreet location, nestling itself on the mostly residential George street.

As all of the write-ups on Min Lokal will tell you, its name is Swedish for ‘my local’. A lovely, non-Swedish but very much Melburnian sentiment. I am one of those people who adore Ikea and its quirky Swedishness, so I get the gist of how something suddenly becomes cool when it is Swedised (see what I did there?)

(Dooba baked eggs – with minced beef, pumpkin and North African spices – $17.00)

The menu itself is hardly Swedish. Min Lokal serves a typical brunch menu – eggs, toasts, muesli, muffins, salads, sandwiches – with its own interesting twists. I visited there one Friday afternoon with a local, Joyce (of Melbourne Hot or Not) for our regular mum & bub catch up session. Joyce had been previously and didn’t think the world of it but she chose it for its proximity and its lovely spacious communal table to accommodate her gorgeous little bub.

As it was well past lunch time on a Friday, the cafe, rather uncharacteristically from what I heard, was not busy and we got ourselves a corner of the large communal table. The space was indeed lovely and uncluttered with large wooden communal table and comfortable wooden stools. Our waiter was nice and appropriately clucky (note to waitstaff: we mums love it when you pay attention to our bubs) and brought us water as neither of us had ordered drinks as I only had half hour to spend on lunch.

As I have heard good things about their baked eggs, I decided on the Dooba – baked eggs with minced beef and pumpkin sauce with North African spices served with rye toasts. Starving, I tucked straight into the baked eggs. The very first bite of the meat was very pleasant – rich and warm from its spices. The egg yolk was runny but the white was slightly rubbery as I progressed in the dish. Although it was the first time I ever had baked egg, I suspect that it wasn’t at all bad for a baked egg dish and Min Lokal deserved its reputation for its baked eggs.

As lovely as it was though, I was less thrilled with the portion size versus the price comparison.

(Haloumi salad with radicchio, chorizo and chickpeas – $16.00)

Joyce had opted for the haloumi salad with radicchio, chorizo and chickpeas. She let me have a bite and it was also a good solid dish. The composition of the warm salad ingredients was perfect for a brunch dish. Unfortunately, I think it portion, again, was disappointingly small for its price.

Overall, while I found the food, service and space at Min Lokal to be very pleasant for a leisurely lunching spot, I found it to be overpriced, poor value and possibly not worth all the raves about it.

But if it were min lokal, maybe I’d give it another go.

Min Lokal
Address: 422 George St., Fitzroy VIC 3065 [ Google Map ]
Phone number: (03) 9417 0333

Read what other bloggers thought of Min Lokal:

1. “… it pleases us”
2. Addictive & Consuming
3. Where’s the Beef
4. Fitzroyalty
5. Melbourne Coffee Review

This time last year I ate at: Syracuse Wine Bar and Restaurant, Melbourne CBD

It was not without trepidation when we decided to brave our little family in our first brunch out adventure since Mini Me was born. You may have found out from the previous posts that I am generally not a fan of having breakfast food because I find that most Melbourne cafes serve the same breakfast food. Eggs on toasts, pancakes, French toasts, Bircher muesli… not  hard to make at home, right?

But Liar Liar, of course, is a special little gem within our neighbourhood so we decided to take our little two-and-a-half-month-old baby for her first cafe visit. I was very impressed with the lovely modern decor but most of all the incredible amount of space in the dining room that would have fit prams with not a lot of problems at all.

(potato rosti with smoked salmon, red onion and rocket leaves)

The breakfast menu didn’t disappoint – while you can have your usual eggs on toasts with all the trimmings, there were other more interesting options. Josh opted for the potato rosti with smoked salmon. The rosti was perfectly cooked and went perfectly with the salty smoked salmon, onion and peppery rocket leaves. His only complaint was that he wish there were more food! Read the rest of this entry »

(Antipasto plate – $18 as of ’09)

Note: pictures are from various visits over the years. So I might be a bit hazy with the description.

Be prepared for the upcoming gushing. The Cellar Bar is probably one of my all-time favourite Melbourne haunts. Sure, I’ve been to its big brothers Grossi Florentino: the Restaurant (where Josh proposed, now everyone, go awww) and the Grill but neither of them impressed me the way the Cellar Bar does and continues to do so over the years.

It’s a place we go back to when we find ourselves wandering in the CBD and want a nice meal for not a lot of money. It’s the place we go to for dessert and coffee at 11pm at night.

(Complimentary bread and dipping olive oil)

The menu at the Cellar Bar seems rotate itself around with a few pasta dishes and meat. I am yet to have a horrid dish from there and believe me, as much as I am against visiting the same restaurant over and over, we still manage to end up there 5-6 times a year. Read the rest of this entry »

(Porridge with poached pear $8)

I am not a morning person. Oh, no. To be at work at 8.30am (yes, bummer), I literally hop out of bed at about 7.30 before rushing through everything to get to work on time. When you see a very heavily-pregnant chick running for a tram on Collins St. heading west-end, give way to her please, otherwise she will bitch about you on Twitter. And for god’s sake, if you’re sitting in the special seat and there’s nothing wrong with you, give her the damn seat.

So it follows to say that I rarely eat breakfast out. Also the fact that every time I eat breakfast out, I feel ‘why did I just pay $15 for something I can just wait in bed for Josh to make at home?’

(Big Breakfast – $16?)

So when Maya said, ‘dude, let’s do breakfast some time.’ I grudgingly obliged. But my second worst mistake of all was to let her pick. We got there at about 7:45am. Empty except for one person who was sipping her latte and reading newspaper.

Empty. And still the menu took a while to even appear. As Maya ran late, we didn’t really get to order until about 8.00am. Maya decided on porridge and coffee. I, on the Big Breakfast and Josh on the Mediterranean omelet.

Our food took a while to arrive. When I say a while, I’m talking about a good 20-minute wait for the dishes to stagger their arrival. We were basically so short for time that we had to just gobble up everything and go due all of us being quite late for work. In fact, we even have time to come with a lame comment about how the service is hardly ‘brisq.’

(Spanish omelet with chorizo and red pepper – $14?)

My Big Breakfast was consisted of plenty of fried mushrooms (decent), scrambled eggs (overcooked), spinach (slightly oily), roasted tomato halves (decent), potato rosti (oily), bacon (average), avocado and toast (horrid). It was plentiful and I suppose decent enough. But nothing to write home about.

Josh’s chorizo and capsicum omelet was… welll… he said it was okay. He was so late for work that he didn’t say much and I didn’t have time to steal any because he gobbled it down that fast. At least my work is only 300 metres away. He had no such luck.

Can’t say I was too thoroughly impressed with the food or the service. But then again, I rarely get impressed by breakfast. It was a while before I ate breakfast out since. I certainly never let Maya pick a breakfast spot again.

Brisq [ Website ]
Address: 396 Little Collins St., Melbourne VIC 3000 [ Google Map]
Phone: 03 9642 3633

This time last year I ate at: Café No 5, Centre Place, City

(Josh taking over the last bits of my breakfast)

We were in Sydney for an impromptu ‘just because’ trip in April. Yes, I am well aware at how behind I am but you do realise I still have our honeymoon to cover right? I mean, our first is due in December so a post from April this year  is practically on time!

We didn’t really set out to Sydney to eat but rather to see because neither of us had really been to Sydney as a tourist before so we did all the touristy thing we could manage over a long weekend and unfortunately, that didn’t leave a lot of room for checking out all the great Sydney restaurants. Plus I noticed this silly Sydney trend of queuing up for food (Billy Kwong, Chat Thai, etc.) I am a Melburnian, damnit! We do not queue for food as a principle since there are so many fabulous restaurants out there where we come from.

(Sunrise drink of orange juice, banana, yoghurt and berries – $6.50)

So let’s get to bills – the famous Bill Granger’s chain of restaurants. bills (what’s with the no cap and apostrophe?) was possibly the only food place of any distinction that we visited. We rocked up there at about 10.45am (because we are never early people when we travel. Or ever.) and the place was still packed with the breakfast crowd! I mean, it was a non-public holiday Monday!

Sydney-siders are strange.

The joint was so popular that we literally snagged the last two seats at the main communal table. The two people arriving after us literally stood there for about 15 minutes before they got any attention from the waitstaff. Couldn’t blame them either, it wasn’t like there was any space left. If this were Melbourne, I would have just left and went next door and it would have been likely to be just as fabulous. But we were in Sydney. They didn’t have too many choices, I guess.

(Sweet corn fritters with roast tomato, spinach and bacon – $18.50)

Upon Jacqui’s suggestion/command, I reluctantly forwent the famous bills scrambled eggs and ordered the sweet corn fritters. It was a dish of perfect food of course. The bacon was smokey and lovely as bacon should be (I have been stoked that my local Safeway had actually begun to stock relatively decent bacon), the corn fritter held together nicely without being to greasy and the roast tomato was gorgeous. I did think the spinach would have been better cooked, but there you go. Maya recently went to Sydney and bills on my recommendation and said that the scrambled eggs were the best she ever had. I really should have just had the second breakfast or something. Read the rest of this entry »

(Scrambled eggs with extra mushrooms – $7.5+ $2.5)

This was the morning after Cafe Vue Cocktail Night - believe it or not, no hang over. Jacqui (the champ who consumed 10 about cocktails, was not the least bit drunk, and to prove it drove home got breathalysed and passed) had theorised that that is the difference good quality vodka and the nasty cheap crap that gives you hang over.

Because KJ only had two more days in Melbourne, we decided to take her to a cafe for brunch, very relaxing Saturday brunch, Melbourne style. Because it was on the way to the Queen Vic Market (let’s face it, all tourist road leads the Queen Vic), Maya had chosen this place.

(Chicken and avocado salad – $?) Read the rest of this entry »

This was back during the awful hay fever episode. I remember it distinctly as the night I barely slept and woke up at 6am and couldn’t go back to sleep. Generally, I would pick myself out of bed and go for a morning walk/run but because I barely slept I was just too tired so I figured let’s just hit Degraves St. for breakfast. So I pulled poor Josh out of a bed with a promise of breakfast treat.

(eggs florentine, poached eggs with spinach and hallandaise sauce – $12.00)

It was a lovely warm day and the day was heating up already (loves it) but we went in and sat in the booth at the back anyway. Unfortunately, I was grouchy to the max from lack of sleep and the fact that I had to be at work soonish didn’t help either.

The cafe was warmly decorated with interesting black and white photographs and while it was quite warm at the back, I didn’t mind. I am a tropical girl, after all. The breakfast options weren’t large with a few daily specials. Read the rest of this entry »

Maya had just come back from Raya at home in Singapore and she was desperate for a good cup of Melbourne coffee. So during a lunch time (she had an extra day off the lucky thing).

We decided on Centre Place/Degraves St. area since it’s the closest place where there is the most number of cafés in small areas. We landed at Cafe No. 5 because it looked nice and cosy.

(sorry about the picture, it’s the only one I have of the wall)

The shop itself was rather funky. We plonked ourselves on the communal table. The walls were adorn with paintings and other interesting artwork. Maya promptly ordered a coffee. I believe it was her second one in about 3 hours of landing in Melbourne and since I spent 13 months in Singapore, I can vouch that Starbucks is considered good coffee in Singapore. So enough said about the state of coffee affairs in the little island nation. Read the rest of this entry »