The interior has been given a complete refit, and takes advantage of the expansive windows on two sides to provide excellent natural light. Light coloured furnishings adds to the airy feel. You can get a good idea from the great photos in Jetsetting Joyce’s review.

We were there for breakfast, and that menu is short but interesting. I was torn between the son in law eggs and the shakshuka, but settled on the latter option. As you can see from the photo, Eat Drink Man Woman commits the breakfast sin of providing just a single piece of ‘toast’. I guess at least it was a thick slice of toast, and had nice flavour from being charred on the grill rather than toasted.

The tomato sauce contained capsicum, preserved lemons, olives and various herbs, but despite this, was a little bland and underseasoned. Even the feta on top failed to lift it. The other issue was that some of the olives were unpitted, which wouldn’t be a problem except that some of them were quite small, meaning you didn’t necessarily know when you were about to bite into one. On the plus side, the eggs were perfectly cooked.

My girlfriend had the poached quinces with couscous (or was it quinoa?), nuts and yoghurt. It’s a nice idea, but she thought the poaching liquid had given them an unidentifiable, and slightly unpleasant, taste.

The coffee was very good, especially for a cafe that appears to be focusing more on the food. And the service was professional and friendly, which is what you want at breakfast time.

It had only been open for just over a week, and I’ve got no doubt that once the kinks with some of the dishes are ironed out, it’s going to be a deservedly popular addition to Brunswick Street.

Wide Open Road is located on the very same street that I used to live in the early noughties, although back then it was a NQR supermarket, and the nearest decent cafe was in Fitzroy.

It’s run by a couple of the pioneers of the Brunswick cafe scene, so it’s no surprise that it ticks certain boxes. Tasteful interior – check; well made coffee – check; friendly service – check; good food – check; house-roasted coffee; reclaimed timber furniture – check; single-speed bikes parked out front – check.

Nice filling, shame about the 'bread'

The menu is somewhat limited, and features some smaller offerings, such as the BLT. It’s only $6, which is a fair price, even given its diminutive size.

The mayonnaise they use is particularly good, although I was less impressed by the pide bread used. I’m not overly fond of pide at the best of times, but this was also a bit stale. I’d much prefer the casa linga used at Babka for their sensational BLTs.

My coffee looked terrible, the overly dark crema a tell-tale sign of over extraction. Surprisingly though, it tasted very good, so no complaints there.

Update (02/04/11): The price of the BLT has increased to $8, without an increase in size, which takes it into rip-off territory. The coffee was great today though.

There are not that many tables, as the space is divided into a number of small areas, and the main section up the front is dominated by a long display cabinet full of cakes and pastries. Despite this, we managed to score the last available table.

The menu covers all the standards, including some French classics, croque madame and l’oeuf et croûtons aux hollandaise, which is what my girlfriend and I ordered respectively.

The largest crouton I've ever seen

Both are very rich dishes, which suited us fine as we were quite hungry. My eggs were truly poached to perfection, and the crouton was a nice change from a muffin or standard piece of toast. It was made from soft white bread, toasted and with the crust removed. The hollandaise had a bit of a zing to cut through the richness. I also ordered a side of bacon, which was a bit greasier than I would have liked.

It’s hard to mess up a croque madame, and by all accounts they didn’t.

Neither of us had high hopes for the coffee, given the obvious food-focus of the place, but we were pleasantly surprised. My long black was reasonably full bodied, had nice layer of crema and had been extracted for just the right amount of time.

All up the bill totalled $34 from memory, which was reasonable value given the quality of the food. The service is efficient and friendly, with our meals arriving quickly and our water glasses continually topped up. I felt that the staff probably tried to push pastries and extra coffees on us a bit too much though.

Still, Depot de Pain is a welcome addition to the area, and given the demographic of the area should do well.

While it looks like a run of the mill cafe, the standard of the dishes at dinnertime is certainly restaurant quality, with prices to match. When we visited for dinner my girlfriend ordered the fish of the day – a generous serving of perfectly cooked rockling fillets, which came with brocoli. I had lamb rump, roasted medium rare and served with mint peas and potatoes. It had been cooked slightly beyond rare, but was delicious nonetheless.

A side of broccoli with almond butter was cooked well, retaining just the right amount of crispness, although the waiter probably should have warned us that the rockling also came with brocoli. In another service glitch, the waiter neglected to mention the $18 burger and cider special. A few people of nearby tables ordered this, and the burgers looked fantastic.

Nonetheless, the service has certainly improved, with our orders arriving quickly on each occasion. I always feel a bit weird using Zoupon vouchers when eating out, as we did on a couple of occasions, but the staff here make you feel comfortable doing so.

I hope the Zoupon deal is working out for Provenance, and it attracts repeat business. The standard of the food certainly warrants it.

They got points for using a few different bean varieties, which provided a range of textures. And a good coriander pesto ensured the dish wasn’t too stodgy. However, the dish was woefully under-seasoned, even with the ras el hanout and chunks of feta mixed in. Also lacking was value ($13.50), despite the inclusion of at least three (small) pieces of bread.

Kensington is going to be home to a lot more cafes in coming years, and I think if The Premises is going to win its share of the locals’ wallet, it’s going to have to improve their value or lift the food up at least half a notch.

Chair 14 (167 Darebin Road, Thornbury, ph 03 9484 0767) is a Polish and Austrian inspired cafe occupying a huge space on this this otherwise barren strip of shops. We visited for breakfast, although Polish and Austrian cuisine probably lends itself better to a lunch visit – what, with the menu featuring spaetzle, pierogi and other heavier dishes.

I chose the Austrian-inspired poached eggs with speck, caramelised onion and chat potatoes. It didn’t come with toast, although with the potatoes providing the carbohydrates it was filling enough. The eggs were slightly under-poached (better than over-poached) and the diced speck and onion didn’t provide the richness I was expecting. Nonetheless, it was nice to see somewhere trying something a little different.

My girlfriend had a fried egg and bacon roll, which was a good example of a fried egg and bacon roll – nothing more, nothing less.

Others have commented on the quality of the coffee. It wasn’t bad, but nor was it great, and I was a little disappointed not to have it served on a tray with a glass of water, as is the custom in Europe. Instead the staff brought a bottle and a couple of glasses, which is probably more practical.

Austrian and Polish ex-pats, or just fans of the cuisine, will be pleased to know that Chair 14 also sells a range of grocery items from those countries, including dumpling mixes, biscuits and cordials. In addition, you can choose from a range of Austrian and Polish beers, including some from one of my favourites breweries, Edelweiss.

The owners, who previously worked at Small Block apparently, have done their best to dress up a pretty tired looking space by bringing in some cool furniture and knick knacks, and they’re only partly successful.

It’s the food that’s what really matters though, and on this count Jackson Dodds is a winner. I had the pea and haloumi fritters, based on some Foursquare recommendations, and they lived up to their billing. There were three, along with some silverbeet and some bacon, which wasn’t as crisp as I’d like, but was delicious nonetheless.

My girlfriend had poached eggs and bacon, which is a simple dish that doesn’t leave a cafe anywhere to hide. The eggs were very fresh, with a brilliant yellow yolk, and were poached perfectly, and the bacon, which again, wasn’t quite crisp enough. It lost marks for exhibiting the classic breakfast faux pas – only serving one piece of toast for two eggs.

They also do a decent coffee. No doubt I’ll be heading to Thomastown or Lalor for breakfast within the next few years.

When a cafe has the word ‘espresso’ in its name, you expect it to serve pretty great coffee, which unfortunately wasn’t the case on our visit. My girlfriend’s espresso was very good, but my long black was very ordinary.

The small food preparation space limits the type of dishes they can serve to things like muesli, toast and baked eggs. I had the baked eggs, pesto and smoked ham, which came with toasted Turkish bread. The eggs and toast were a little overdone, but otherwise it was very tasty, particularly the thickly sliced ham and quality pesto.

My girlfriend ordered toast with avocado and lime, which again used Turkish bread for the toast. The serving size was very generous, and overall it was a decent dish. There’s a range of cakes on offer, and we ordered a take away lamington, which was very good.

Although the owners are taking a bit of a risk opening up in this area, they were doing very good trade, and despite my lukewarm review, I’d definitely come back. The service was genuinely friendly, and once they iron out a few issues and perhaps expand the menu, Boundary Espresso could become a really good cafe.

Gypsy Hideout (68 High St, Northcote), a newcomer to Westgarth, and tipped off by a solitary review, we decided to pay a visit.

It’s an enterprise that brings equal parts old school Northcote and new school Northcote, although I suspect it’s aiming more for the latter. The space is light and airy, with nice big windows looking out on to High Street, and is sparsely furnished with plywood furniture. A large gap under the back door let a cold draft in on this cool Spring morning.

The menu offers some twists on the stock standard breakfast offerings, and I chose poached eggs on toast with cream cheese, fresh chilli, red onion, kaffir lime leaves and coriander. It’s an interesting, and successful, combination of ingredients, with the chilli and coriander lifting the flavour of the cream cheese. Unfortunately the bread was slices too thinly, and the egg yolks were an unappetisingly dull colour, but otherwise it was a good dish.

My girlfriend ordered baked eggs with beans. The actual description on the menu was a little more tempting, and it was a tasty dish, despite the eggs being overcooked and the whole thing generally seeming a little on the dry side.

I had my usual long black, and it wasn’t a particularly good example.

Yes, Gypsy Hideout has a bit of work to do. But it is trying to offer something beyond the usual breakfast fare, and for that, and the fact that it’s probably still finding its feet, I have to give it the thumbs up.

We tried a blueberry danish and a citrus cake. Both were a bit dry, suggesting they may have been made the previous day. The coffee was good, without being great.

The sandwiches on the other hand look very tasty, so perhaps breakfast isn’t the time to visit Johnston Street Foodstore, and it’s more of a lunch spot.