Archive for the ‘Breakfast’ Category

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Red Door Corner Store

Saturday, March 28th, 2009

Located at the bottom of Northcote hill to the east of High Street, Red Door Corner Store (70 Mitchell St, Northcote) is charting new territory for good cafes. There’s really nothing like it that I know of within a 2km radius.

What ‘it’ is, is a converted milk bar serving really good food and coffee. We tried the avocado, basil, cottage cheese, spinach and poached egg with fresh lemon on toast. While that sounds like one ingredient too many, it’s actually perfect, particularly the delicious cottage cheese. And despite only coming with a single egg, it’s reasonably filling and great value at just $11. The bread comes from Hawthorn’s Knead Bakery, and is has great texture thanks to the walnuts in it.

There are a couple of things that could be improved, such as the the coffee, which is just okay (not great). And like a lot of places that have enjoyed quick success, the service can be a bit slow. Our coffees arrived well after our meals. With food as good as this though, these faults are easily ignored.

Posted in Breakfast, Melbourne (CBD), Northcote, Thai | No Comments »

Provenance Food & Wine

Wednesday, March 18th, 2009

Another day, another review of somewhere recommended by Fitzroyalty. And another place I can recommend with qualifiers. Provence Food & Wine (288 Smith St, Collingwood) is a newish cafe occupying the former home of Delish, on the Collingwood side of Smith Street.

The decor is neither particularly modern or particularly traditional, with a beautiful pressed metal ceiling, and the same could be said of the food. Fitzroyalty praised the French Toast, and it is very good, topped with hazelnuts for beautiful texture. The Eggs Benedict were of an equally high standard, with the free range eggs cooked to perfection, and sitting atop spinach and crispy bacon, on a single piece of bread (two would have been better). The hollandaise was a little unusual, but not unpleasant. And the coffee is well made.

Now to the qualifier. The service is extremely slow. Maybe we just caught them on a bad day, but we had to wait too long for our coffees, and it didn’t seem to be for a lack of staff. Still, I’d certainly go back.

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Posted in Breakfast, Collingwood | 2 Comments »

Mitte

Sunday, March 1st, 2009

I first noticed Mitte (76 Michael St, North Fitzroy) spring up late last year in the sleepy streets behind the Clifton Hill shopping strip, and have been meaning to drop in ever since. A rave review in the Cheap Eats prompted me to actually pay a visit. I’ll get the negative out the way first, since there isn’t much. Even on a cool-ish Melbourne day, the small space is too hot and stuff.

Now onto the good. The coffee is excellent. My long black had a thick head of crema, and was served at a perfect temperature. They do an equally good latte.

Aside from Bircher Muesli, the breakfast menu doesn’t offer much in the way of straight-down-the-line dishes, with most dishes offering some variation on the traditional. The fantastic omelette has chorizo and comes served with a zingy salad. Similarly, poached eggs on toast are served with a chick pea bake with goats fetta and a zingy salad.

Prices are a couple of dollars higher than a lot of places, with a lot of dishes around the $15 mark, but the quality and serving sizes more than warrant this.

Mitte on Urbanspoon

Posted in Breakfast, North Fitzroy | No Comments »

Breakfast Club

Sunday, September 7th, 2008

Pretty much any sort of space can be turned into a cafe these days. This seems to have fostered a false assumption amongst some people that running a cafe is easy. A case in point is The Breakfast Club (206 St Georges Road, Northcote), which ticks a number of boxes, but misses a few. The major issue is slow service, which may be a result of trying to squeeze too many tables into too small a place, with too small a kitchen.

Perhaps they could reduce the number of choices from the varied, and interesting, menu. There’s only so many variations on baked eggs you need to offer. That said, the food, and the coffee for that matter, is pretty good. My ‘red eggs’  were tasty, and good value for $14, arriving with a couple of generous slices of toast, butter, a side salad of rocket and pecorino, and a small dish of very good pesto. The passata that makes the eggs red could have been a little richer though. Overall, it’s worth a visit, just not if you’re in a hurry.

Posted in Breakfast, Northcote | No Comments »

Brunetti

Saturday, September 6th, 2008

Brunetti (194-204 Faraday Street, Carlton) is known primarily for its cakes and coffee, so perhaps ordering bacon and eggs wasn’t the best idea. The eggs had been ‘poached’ in those little plastic cups and the unbuttered white bread looked suspiciously like it was from the supermarket. Thankfully the bacon was fried to a good level of crispness, and there was plenty of it.

Posted in Breakfast, Carlton | No Comments »

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