This is a hidden gem. The best bistro/cafe of its type in the southern suburbs on our experience today. It's better here than at more fancied places including the famed Leftfield.
We loved the space. It's bright and airy with plenty of room to spread out. A small thing, but I loved that there is seating with decent cushions instead of hard, flat immovable surfaces. Also, whoever chose the music playlist really knows their stuff. The music playing throughout was fabulous.
We were advised that there is a new menu offered here now and that the chef has over 15 years experience overall and has been in Australia 6 years. The menu looked contemporary and very interesting: we quickly selected the corn fritters and the Tunisian baked eggs.
We were knocked out by the sheer quality of both dishes. It's beautiful food. The corn fritters were with smoked salmon and poached eggs. They're lovely fluffy fritters with great flavour including a fascinating hint of spice. Ditto the gorgeous baked eggs. These are the best I've ever had. The previous best were those at Jerry Joy in Thornbury but these topped those to my astonishment. They are rich and substantive again with delicate hints of spice. And, whoever decided to add the slice of lemon is a visionary too. The acidity is just beautiful with the dish.
We finished with coffee and red velvet cake. Both were wonderful again. The coffees were expertly made, a real Melbourne coffee. The cake was excellent too. Lovely, tasty and moist. The perfect finish.
This was an unexpectedly great meal. We loved the place, the food and the service. The world's most stunning woman and I commented to each other that this was a pretty much the near perfect brunch. Put Servery and Spoon in the inner suburbs and they'd be fighting off customers and have lines around the block. It was that good.
Finally, I'm conscious that I'm giving another 5. This is another case of not having the capacity to give a half mark. A 4.5 would have been optimal, but a 4 far too low. In those circumstances, there's no option but to choose the higher mark.
(Our sincere thanks to Nitin and Ritika for the invitation to visit here. Put simply, we loved it. We wish them and their venture the good fortune that it and they deserve.) read more