Showing posts with label Cafes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cafes. Show all posts

6/03/2021

Succulent, Hobart Botanical Gardens

This place is in the middle of the Hobart Botanical Gardens in a killer location, surrounded by wonderful views and greenery. Very close to the exit, it's a perfect place to finish your visit or have a mid-day rest between exploring different areas in the gardens.  
 
This is an all-rounder cafe with everyone's favourite food in the menu. The balcony facing the city is really an spectacular place to sit. The indoors eating area is, on the contrary, poorly arranged, decorated and prepared; it looks more a place proper for a small country town than for a city botanical gardens location. 
 
Service was fast and the staff was courteous but the food was not worth the money. My fish & chips were subpar with a dry tasteless fish, no crunch fries and average salad.
 
Not recommended unless you just want to sit have a sip of wine and some nibbles and enjoy the view and don't mind paying a disproportionate price for average food.  

 

1/03/2021

Jackman & McRoss Bakeries, Battery Point, Tasmania

I wish I had discovered this charming little cafe and bakery earlier during my visit of Hobart. The place is a wonderful location, a few metres away from the Salamanca Markets and the ferry to the MOMA. The space is small but very cozy and cute. The coffee, pastries and pies are wonderful. The service was super friendly. Most recommended.

6/10/2020

Nutrition Station, Niddrie, Melbourne (permanently closed)

Fresh good quality food. The staff is helpful and customize meals without fuss. Friendly atmosphere. I had a veggie burger with sweet potato chips and it was quite lovely. However, the placed lacked ambience or character. Despite the place being semi-empty, the service was unacceptably slow and the staff had limited English. The meal was also a bit tasteless and poorly seasoned. Overall, not worth my money. 
 


 

12/27/2019

The French Salon (Oslo, Norway)

The French Salon 
Norway National Gallery
Universitetsgata 13, Oslo
Phone:    (+47) 21 98 22 70
Email   
Website
Timetable:
    Mon - Closed
    Tue-Fri:    11am-5pm.
    Thu:   11am-6pm.
    Sat-Sun: 11.30am-4pm.

Located beside the National Gallery's gift shop and inside the building of the National Gallery of Norway, the French Salon is a lovely café that surprises for its intimate elegant ambience and its simple but tasty menu.

The premises are very French neoclassic decorated in green marble and white marble busts inserted in walled niches. The tables are simply but elegantly set and the place is very cozy and comfortable. 

Sometimes you are hungry and want to eat wherever the closest place is. This was the case for me when visiting The French Salon. We wanted to continue our visit of the gallery and needed a break, so going outside was a bit pointless and a waste of time. Art Galleries cafés are rarely cheap, so I checked the menu and pricing in advance, and to my surprise it was average price in the city, nothing really overpriced or expensive.  

Their menu was small, but the dishes on offer were yummy, Norwegian inspired, generous in size and nicely plated.  They also have a small selection of cakes and slices displayed in the cabinet, which looked fabulous but we didn't try. 

Their coffee was also good, and they have cortado on offer, something I always appreciate when I am overseas. 

Although I loved this café, there was some issues with the service that would need to be fixed. The main one was that the café was understaffed. The staff were extremely friendly, welcoming and apologetic with some customers who complained about a mishap. Despite the speed and diligence of the waitresses, they couldn't cope with the constant flow of customers, even though they wasn't any group visiting or too many visitors. Two waitresses had to clean the tables, get the orders, usher the people in, serve food, and get the payments. The result was chaos in the service and stressed waitresses.  You cannot enter and sit at will but have to wait to be ushered in and seated, and I had to wait over 5 minutes at the door waiting for that to happen. The cafe needed at least another waiter at the time I visited and perhaps two or three more at rush hour.


Having said this, I really love this place. It has something special that is difficult to explain. The patina of history, perhaps. Pity the chaos in the service. The rest was lovely and I would love to go back. 

12/22/2019

12/09/2019

Biagio's, Niddrie, Melbourne

The place has an amazing vibe, atmosphere and old-European bar-cafe style that attracts patrons like bees to honey. The service is really friendly and accommodating, however, service is extremely slow even when the place is not even half-full and the food was average. I had a burger menu and the burger was burnt, the fries were dreadful and the burger was not really well assembled. I haven't returned since, and the good looks will never satisfy my belly.

11/30/2019

Oliver's Patisserie & Cafe Niddrie, Melbourne

This is an unpretentious place, a typical neighborhood decent bakery and cafe. Their coffee is smooth. They have a great variety of gourmet breads baked on site every day, as well as what I call 'tradies lunches', and a good selection of freshly baked cakes, which are lovely. The cruffin in the photo is delicious. The place has no character and the sitting arrangements inside are not very inviting or cozy. Not a remarkable place or gourmet place, but very good every day hangout. 

11/11/2019

Parisian Baker, Essendon Vic, Melbourne

This is one of the most popular bakeries on Keilor Rd Essendon for many reasons. The wonderful location and European vibe to start with. But, most importantly due to the quality of the breads, pastries, croissants and cakes they bake on site. Their coffee is a good smooth coffee. I have been going to this place for many months, and I love their pistachio and raspberry croissants, pain a chocolate, and some of the smooth cheese cakes on sale. The staff is friendly and efficient. and I have barely had any issue with them. The bakery is packed during weekends. A very pricey place.

1/27/2019

The Bakers Wife, Camberwell, Melbourne

Out of the beaten track, this vibrant full-of-character cafe in Camberwell matched my expectation.
The place is really charming, modern and accommodating.

The staff are a bunch of good-looking genuinely friendly hard-working chaps, and they made my experience something really enjoyable.

The menu had a mix of classics and innovative dishes, and they have specials of the week. Plus a large selection of baked sweets.
 
I had one of the specials, the octopus dish, which had a very tender flavorsome octopus, not chewy at all, on a bed of lentils, fennel and citrus mayo. The dish was generous in size and fully satisfying regarding flavour. However, I missed a bit of more texture in the dish, and a bit of more citrus anything, as the wedge of lemon and mayo were not enough, at least to me.

As a dessert I had one of their wonderful apricot tartlets. It was uber-fresh, fluffy, moist and full of flavor. However, I was disappointed that, despite apricots being in season, the tartlet had a compote of apricot not full pieces of the fruit. I think that would have got the tartlet to the next level. 

My iced latte was very good and a great size!

I loved the cafe, the staff and their food options. A bit of more finesse and they would get a five star from me.
  

Axil Coffee Roasters, Hawthorn Vic

The visit to the mother house didn't disappoint, and Axil Coffee Roasters delivers good coffee, great food and a genuinely-friendly fast service in very modern and stylish settings. I liked their coffee, but I really enjoyed the croquette dish I had. It was well balanced, a good-sized portion and with a great mix of textures and flavors and eggs perfectly poached. Menu was a bit disappointing regards variety and lack of specials, but beyond that, I really enjoyed my visit. 

 

12/15/2018

Noughts and Crosses Cafe, Flemington Vic, Melbourne

I've visited this place endless times, since they first opened in Flemington, and it is one of my fav cafes in the area. It has very chill-out premises and staff, and an always interesting menu. To be fair, they used to have more interesting dishes at the beginning, but everything I've eaten at this cafe has always been satisfying, with dishes well cooked and interesting. The last one I had, the pork shoulder was a great meal with the potatoes cooked to perfection. Patrons are always chill-out people of all ages. Not a hipster place, but a modern fav of mine. Nothing flashy, just consistently good food.  Coffee is good.

Short Black (Camberwell Vic)

3.5/5 
This a all-round Italian cafe, with ample premises and comfortable seating area, patrons of all ages and a large Italian and Australian classics menu, with generous servings. I had their hand-made chicken gnocchi with wine sauce and they were lovely, perhaps lacked a bit of finesse and were on the pricey side. Their earl-grey tea was great. I enjoyed my visit.

Port Of Call (Sandringham Vic)

This is really a great cafe, at a walking distance from the railway station. The place itself is very trendy, spacious, comfortable and has many different seating areas.

They have a large menu appealing menu, something that really excites me.

I ordered the chermullah chicken warm salad, and wow! Fabulous, really. Great mix of flavours, textures and overall a yummy dish. I thought the baked chicken was a tiny-bit drier than it should, but not really dry. Nicely plated, and the portion was generous, too.

I ordered one of their cold teas, the sparkly Toddy, and at 7 bucks the glass I thought it was a waste of my money, as it tasked basically of carbonated water, not much flavour. I thought it would be better with just ice cubes or the hot version, because this sparkly one is totally forgettable.

I loved their ambience, colour scheme, and upbeat music. I'll be back.
 

 

12/03/2018

Legacy (Camberwell, Vic)

I went out of my way to visit this place due to the high ratings. Based on what I got, the food is mediocre, portions small and my eggs were badly poached, almost hard inside, not runny at all. The kimchi hash was really good, nothing I have tried before and I really enjoyed it. The chorizo was just a thin slice of it, one. Overall, forgettable.

Good coffee.

The staff were genuinely friendly, accommodating and very attentive. In fact the staff were the best thing of my visit

The place is really vibrant and comfortable, with a great seating common area

Juno & May (Camberwell, Vic)

I had a pleasant visit for brunch recently. 

Juno & May's menu is large, varied and interesting. I had the sweet potato hash dish, and it was wonderfully presented, colourful and really generous in size. Overall was very nice, but lacking finesse. The hash was too dense to be a sweet potato hash, more like a gnocchi mix used as hash and with little sweet potato (or so it felt to me) and it was burned outside. There was a lot of thought about the mix of flavours put on the plate, but a bit of more thought on the textures of the different elements would have made the experience more enjoyable.

Nice coffee.

The place is really lovely, spacious and full of greenery. The ambience is quiet , relaxed and chatty, and, at least when I visited. Mum, grandma and family friendly. Perfect for a quiet pleasant catch-up during the week.

BurGround (Moonee Ponds, Vic)

I visited this place when they first opened and their burgers are really good, large and yummy! Their aioli, made in the house, is excellent. Their chips aren't crunchy enough for me, and forgettable. The staff were the kindest most loving people, really eager to please and very welcoming. The premises are ugly, sorry!, a bit too large, like a recycled shop that hasn't been properly furnished, so it lacked ambience.

11/17/2018

MOB (Camberwell, Vic)

Located in front of the Camberwell Sunday Market, this is a very vibrant large modern cafe serving healthy yummy food.

My smashed pumpkin (avocado is dead Melbourne!) with beetroot pure, goats cheese, crispy kale and poached egg on toast was fabulous. The serving portion was generous as well.

My coffee was also fab re taste and preparation; good body, strong flavour minus the bitterness. Hurrah!

Two main faults, there was a tiny egg in my breakky. If it had been a jumbo egg, I would understand, but this wasn't a jumbo egg, so why not adding two small eggs? I thought there wasn't enough animal protein in my dish. Of course, this is just my preference, and it might not be yours. The second downside was the size of the coffee cups, one of those I call doll-house-cups.

Service was fast and uber-friendly.
 
Standard prices.

Hash Specialty Coffee (Camberwell, Vic)

The CBD Hash is one of my fav cafes in Melbourne, so I had great expectations about this cafe. Unfortunately, it falls short in all fronts if compared to the other Hash. As a stand alone cafe, this is a lovely place. The staff are really welcoming and genuinely friendly, the premises are very cool, and the menu is nice enough. My pumpkin croquettes on salsa were really lovely, as it was the coffee I had.

Rococo (Hawthorn, Vic)

This is a family-friendly, all-rounder Italian restaurant that does well everything. They have a large menu with things you don't usually find in average Italian restaurants. Their food is tasty and their portions big -- size does matter to me. Even if you order just one dish, you won't leave hungry. My duck risotto was stupendous regarding flavour and the rice was perfectly cooked, not too chewy not too soft. Very friendly, attentive staff. Service can be on the slow side on weekends. A bit pricey.

Muharam Cafe (Hawthorn, Vic)

I had a great experience at this Middle-Eastern influenced cafe. I ordered one of their breakfast boards, which has a few samplings of everything. Everything was good, especially the fritter with avo, poached egg and accompanying capsicum salsa. The granola was yummy, too. The mini-croissant was average. Good coffee. The place is modern, clean lines and decor, and very vibrant. Some of the staff were really friendly, but others were totally the opposite. I visited late in the day, so it might be tiredness.