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Walking past South Yarra Square every morning on my way to work and seeing the gushing fountain, umbrellas, chairs and tables always makes me long for the piazzas in Rome. When the sun is shining in Melbourne (a rare occurrence these days), I wish I could stop and have breakfast and pretend that I was in Europe.
With the sun shining on Saturday morning, I wondered where I could go and sit and relax and I recalled the cafe in the square.
With a somewhat limited breakfast menu, I settled on the Spanish omelette. I rarely order omelette, although I was thinking that the sound of chorizo, tomato and goats cheese would be suitable with the Mediterranean atmosphere and just what I felt like for brunch.
 My dish wasn’t what I was anticipating. In what was akin to a savoury pancake, the omelette arrived on top of a dry piece of toasted sourdough and a handful of baby spinach dropped in the corner. The omelette was edible but was similar to a frittata. My breakfast was okay but like the presentation, nothing special. |
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Cafes and restaurants to visit
Cafe Domain, South Yarra
How do I choose what cafe I go to on a Saturday morning? I have a list of “to do” cafes on my iPhone from things I have seen in newspapers or magazines, or even while on a tram. Sometimes my cafe choice is driven by necessity. I need to be in a certain location at a particular time so I try to combine breakfast with the activities of the day.
Last Saturday, I had to be at work to finish off a few things and then a hair appointment, and looking at my options I thought I would try to go to “The Botanical” near the Domain Interchange, as it was along my tram route. Well, that was the intention …
I had a general idea of where I needed to be and got off at the right tram stop and headed down the street. Seeing a busy cafe, I assumed I was at the right place. Walking inside, I found a place at a communal table and sat down and thought that the place looked more like a cafeteria than a cafe/restaurant, but thought no more of it.
Looking at the menu, my eyes honed in on the French toast and I scoured the description. Sold! Looking around for someone to take my order, I waited and re-read the menu where I saw that I needed to order and pay at the counter … and then I saw the “Cafe Domain” logo … ok, I wasn’t where I wanted to be (put that down to lack of coffee) but nothing was standing between me and the French toast!
I can honestly say that I’m glad that I walked into the wrong place. My breakfast looked amazing when it arrived and I tucked in with gusto after taking the obligatory photo and posting on Facebook. The brioche was thick and I think homemade or locally sourced. The grilled egg mixture was only on the surface of the brioche, which meant that the rest of the dry bread could be used to soak up the delicious thin maple syrup mixture that covered the bottom of the plate. The poached pears were cold were almost an affront to my palate due to the cool weather, but at the speed that I was devouring my breakfast, it didn’t matter.
But the star attraction was undoubtedly the mascarpone and pistachio. Thick creamy texture of the mascarpone and the crunch of the pistachio nuts mixed with the thick sweet brioche was almost too much to bear. As one of my friends commented on Facebook, “Yum!”.
Turned out that I was in the right place at the right time!
Pepper, Flemington
My priority on Saturday was to attend the Royal Melbourne Wine Show at the Melbourne Showgrounds, which meant that I needed a BIG breakfast to help me “taste” over 3,000 wine entries!
I’m not geographically familiar with the West side of Melbourne, so I relied on Google maps to help me locate the nearest train station to the showgrounds. Leaving Newmarket station and heading under the underpass, I saw a cafe in a beautiful old building with an old sign above the door, advertising the “Girdwood Hygienic Library” and full of people and so I knew I had found my breakfast spot.
When I walked inside it was quite busy and I couldn’t see a spare table and then I saw that there was additional seating towards the back of the building but still very busy. I was about to leave when someone behind the counter quickly called out to me and found me a table towards the back. There was French toast on the menu but the description didn’t appeal and after several re-reads I landed on the zucchini fritters with the works – poached egg, roast tomato, bacon, rocket, aioli and … mango chutney!
I think I chose wisely from the menu and I did enjoy all of the different components of the dish. However as the zucchini fritters were gluten free, there didn’t seem to be a binding agent which meant that they fell off the fork and needed to be strategically manoevered towards my mouth without ruining my clothes. At one point I thought that there was too much rocket but with the aioli and the mango chutney merging together, it was sufficient to soak up the deliciously sweet sauce.
It tasted great but I couldn’t help think I needed a slice of toast as well but that just might be me thinking I needed to load up on carbs to survive the impending wine tasting extravaganza that I was heading off to. The service was great and I even received very helpful directions to the Showgrounds and so Pepper was a great start to a wonderful day.
bonjourchickie 