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 »

I am not a big coffee drinker. Don’t get me wrong, I love coffee but I try not to indulge my coffee habit because I just know that it will get out of hand. The problem is also that I am absolutely dead against disposable coffee cups. There’s one thing I really hate about Melbourne is that their coffee habit is killing the environment. Sure, everyone thinks they look cool with their little disposal coffee cups on the way to work and it’s oh-so-cosmopolitan. No. I am sorry.

No.

Because I rather like coffee a lot, I save it for special occasion. If you have it everyday, it loses its meaning right?

Anyway, one Saturday morning I woke up and thought I really could do with a nice cup of coffee. So I stole Josh’s phone and had a dig around the Urbanspoon app and it recommended Santucci’s. It’s not very far from home and it had a few nice reviews from the coffee drinking crowd so we upped and went.

The dining room was handsomely decorated. Nice wooden and with retro Italian paraphernalia and it was a rather nice space for a cafe. However, for someone who rarely eats breakfast out and spend Saturdays sleeping in, I find it strange to be surrounded by so many people so early on a Saturday. It was full of family brunching out, groups of girlfriends catching up over breakkie, parents, kids, babies. They were all there. Just weird for me. I am a breakfast-out noob.

(Pancake with berry compote and vanilla ice cream – $12)

Josh rarely ever eats fry-up for breakfast. The only time I have ever seen him eating poached eggs were when I made them for dinner despite him making me poached eggs for breakfast quite often. So pancakes are his usual choice. I had a bite and well, they were kinda terrible. The pancakes weren’t cooked through in the middle and there wasn’t enough syrup. Josh didn’t complain though so I guess they weren’t that bad. 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 »