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If you’d told me a few years ago that I’d be heading out for breakfast in Preston, I would have laughed. Yet, this is what I’ve done the past two weeks. This time around it was at Jackson Dodds (611 Gilbert Rd, West Preston), which opened its doors earlier in the year.

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.

Real estate prices in Preston have been rising steadily over the past few years, and with new cafes starting to appear it’s unlikely this growth will stop any time soon. Boundary Espresso (107 Plenty Rd, Preston) is a newcomer that has opened up on an otherwise ‘dead’ part of Plenty Road.

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.