Some Brunches Worth Looking At

Toby’s Estate: Charlie the Brunswick head barista’s macchiatos using full-bodied, rich Mexican Organic beans have become our benchmark by which all single origin short macs are to be judged on. This Sydney ambassador serves a pretty good breakfast menu including some funky fruit smoothies too. While I really like the baked eggs with beans, the French toast with bacon and blackberry sauce was not bad either – il Fornaio’s is still the best we have tasted in Melbourne so far but hey when one looks this good…

Kappaya: this place was once reviewed as being “on the wrong side of Hoddle Street”. I am not sure the locals had cause to complain about that. The lack of a conspicuous shopfront and distance from tramlines meant this quirky Japanese café managed to retain its grunginess in the form of op-shop mismatched furniture and 1930s smoky jazz while serving high-quality Japanese green tea and ten-dollar rice ball bentos.

On the eve of its moving to Abbotsford Convent and become part of the slightly-left-of-centre cafe scene there, I found myself there once again lugging green bags full of vegetables and fruits from the monthly Abbotsford Farmers’ Market. The irony of reading Matt Preston’s take on the top five restaurants in the world, all in Europe, was not lost on me as I munched on an exquisitely shaped rice ball with prawn & seaweed and sipped early-spring Japanese tea. The enticing aroma of miso soup and teriyaki chicken floated from tables around me, but alas I had had the usual coffee and parma + parmesan croissant at Handsome Steve’s House of Refreshment beforehand.

For dessert, the little sign on the glass cabinet indicated "special of the day - green tea mousse cake". Ah the understatement of the week. Green tea mousse cake with a cream cheese base and a crunchy biscuit topping, served with an intense green tea sauce and brandy-soaked raisins, seems pretty out there but if the biscuit layer were just a tad softer and a tad more combined with the mousse and cream cheese layers, it will be easily in the list of Must Have Desserts for me.

Pardon the artistic blur effect on the photo - the lighting of the day was against me but I promise the 15-inch screensaver version does due justice to the dessert.

Food: 4.5 out of 5 stars - you cannot get this kind of stuff at better prices anywhere else near the city.

Atmosphere: 4.5 out of 5 stars - creaky furniture, quirky wall art, smoky jazz, free papers, what is not to like?

Service: 5 out of 5 stars - love places that make sure you have many refills of hot water for your tea and do not seem to care that you have only spent a few bucks there.

Dukes Coffee Roasters - After an alert from FH, the full Foodie team turned out to try this new cafe in Windsor (two doors down from Borsch Vodka and Tears, another great place for brunch if you like your Polish food served with a morning cocktail). The Melbourne Coffee Review had turned up in July to review this place and gave it a bean, always a good sign.

The usual Melburnian wood panelling was in abundance here, and we could spot the industrial-sized roaster sitting at the back of the cafe. I have to admit I got rather excited seeing six single origin coffee varietals, complete with geographical origin and tasting notes, listed in chalk on the long blackboard hung above the bar. However, as with most (if not all) current cafes on the market, the house blend and one single origin was available for drinking on site for the day.

The plan had been to have a quick coffee to test the barista's skills and maybe a morning snack, but plans went awry when I took a cursory glance at the menu and my stomach flipped at "sweet potato and corn fritters with harissa mayo". SY similarly settled in for a decent stay when she saw pancakes on the menu. The waitress was thrown by our enquiries regarding the single origin coffee of the day (we must have been the first to ask, or she had just got on duty) but happily took our food orders.

FH and SY took to discussing the Guatemalan caffe lattes they had ordered and other single origin beans they preferred in comparison - we are all for strong roasts, none of the wimpy weak stuff for us thank you very much. Then the scent of curry powder wafted onto the table as my soft fritters fell apart by the cut of a butter knife. Harissa mayo decently spread between layers of roast sweet potatos shredded and mixed with sweet corn, served with bacon and spinach...I got right into them but FH could not determine whether she actually liked them. I have to admit I would have preferred my fritters browned on the surfaces and edges to give that crispy edge to the otherwise tasty dish. SY found her pancakes "light but not fluffy, but nice citrus sauce". Ah, another case of batter not standing long enough.

As I had enjoyed the house blend latte - strong, nutty, milk at the right temperature - I decided to test the single origin in a short macchiato. By now the barista must have tweaked that we were serious coffee drinkers and so decided to personally serve my cup. Either that or he could not find any of the waiting staff at the last minute, which would seem strange given how many there were.

Ah, the crowd-pleasing latte heart. The only thing is, short macchiatos do not usually have sufficient milk froth to be able to execute such latte art...nonetheless, the silky chocolate bourbon tones of the Guatemalan bean were fully expressed in this cup, leading me to proclaim to SY and FH that I, unlike them, did think that this bean created "not a bad drop".

Food: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Atmosphere: 3 to 3.5 out of 5 stars; we do get a bit tired of coffee places = brown wood, especially since Windsor is meant to be about more creative interior designs.

Service: 3 to 3.5 out of 5 stars; bit slow on the serving side, bit too quick on the dish collecting side.

Coffee: 4 out of 5 stars; I would go again for the house blend that is for sure, and maybe a piccolo or an espresso for the single origins.