Where: 318 Sydney Rd Brunswick

When: Mon-Thurs 7.15-5.30, Fri & Sat 7.15-6, Sun 7.15-4.30

Contact: (03) 9380 8680

Pricing: Under $15 mains

Vego :)

Cash only

Brownie ($3)

Chouk-ette

Noun, plural –s

1. A delicious French pastry
2. A delicious French Bakery in Brunswick

If you’re looking for a take-away option on Sydney Rd that isn’t a bland, overpriced focaccia then Choukette is your deal. Flavours are big and authentic in this tiny French find. They have quiches, pastry rolls, sandwiches and pies as well as a full range of croissants, sweet pastries and some serious cakes. 

I stopped in for a beef and vegetable pie, which I had dine-in with a side salad (7.50). I couldn’t have been more pleased that I had opted for the salad as it was as punchy and rich as the lovely pie itself. Nearly overdoing its role as a side, the salad was composed of chopped lettuce with walnuts and blue cheese and drizzled with a thick balsamic dressing. The pie too was impressive, perhaps the pastry being the biggest triumph. Beneath its golden flaked shell was a rich filling with high quality mince and chunks of tomato. There wasn’t much gravy to speak of; it was more like a pastitso than a pie, but definitely delicious. With my meal I had a cappuccino ($3.20) which was a let-down; tasting of withered-away beans swathed in milk.

Apart from the coffee, Choukette’s interior is its main flaw. Tacky brown tiling and gaudy plastic light fittings on the wall make the place resemble a themed family diner, and the harsh glow of the drinks fridge and sandwich cabinet are hard to avoid. The radio was the only sort of musical presence on when I visited, so I didn’t stay long. Yet the food was enough to make me return over and over again. I’m still kicking myself that I didn’t bring my camera, but I did take a brownie home where I was able to get a snap for this review. Said brownie was alright for $3, but it could have been richer. Someone later told me this was my own fault for ordering a brownie in a French Bakery, I can see their point.

Food: 3.5/5

Service: 4/5

Ambience: 1/5

Where: 274 Barkly Street Brunswick

When: Mon-Sat 7:30am-5pm, Sun 8am-5pm

Contact: (03) 9387 6079

Dine in/take-away

Cash Only

Vego :)

A long-standing favourite café of mine (A Minor Place) has spawned another creation in Barkly Street, also in Brunswick. Wide Open Road is all about the coffee; describing itself as a “boutique micro coffee roaster”, they’re hyped about roasting single origin beans to perfection. Decked out in an unassuming ex-industrial shop front, hipsters will get a thrill from finding this un-signed little doozy.

Fortunately they’ve  inherited A Minor Place’s sweet sense of style. A smooth wooden convex awning sits over the registers, with amazing vintage frosted glass coloured lamps hanging low. Up on the side wall are two painted shopping trolleys, perhaps are cute homage to Coles across the road. Functionality has also been considered, with only a little space, it is fitted like a large one. There is an expansive walk-in corridor most likely designed with take-away coffee punters in mind. While you wait for your table or take-away there is cushioned bench seating for you to park your tushy on. It’s a good thing too, as Wide Open Road is already very popular and its small space means limited tables. However it is thanks to the breezy, open layout that you’ll never feel squashed or stifled once you are seated.

The menu here is very limited, and even more so if you’re coming in before 11am, which is prior to when the lunch menu becomes available. I’d shown up for breakfast and being hungry, I had the choice of three hot options; beans, omelette or scrambled eggs with bacon. I decided on E&B, which looked lovely when it arrived; big whirls of bacon and chopped spring onions through the eggs. I expected it to taste fantastic but found it was “just alright”, nothing special. The eggs were watery and the toast was a disappointing supermarket sized slice, not the usual café chunky style. I will admit, breakfasts are getting competitive these days and I’ve probably been spoiled by the legendary eggs at El Mirage, but these just seemed no better than what I could whip up at home half asleep. The real saviour here was the bacon which was just incredible. Wide Open Road use “Istra” organic bacon, and it makes a difference. The strong, smoky flavour made my average eggs worth the $12.00.

On the coffee side of things, they’d delivered pretty well. I was happy with my cappuccino in terms of the structure and the ‘house blend’, but I would’ve preferred it hot. I really would return here for coffee and a cake/muffin/anything in the glass cabinet, but in terms of hot breakfasts, it’s nothing that’s going to blow you away. As my Dining Partner said, “If you lived next door you’d have no reason to go anywhere else”, but this doesn’t mean these are the greatest eggs in Brunswick. What I entices me to return is the staff; they are completely welcoming and lovely, even if it looks as though they really don’t need anymore customers.

Oh, and if you really dig the coffee, they sell their own house blend for $12.00 for a 250gm bag. 

Food: 3/5

Service: 4/5

Ambience: 5/5

Location: 184 Sydney Rd Brunswick

Contact: (03) 9381 2374 

Licensed & BYO

When: Weds-Sun 8am- 11pm

Dine In

Pricing: Mains under $20

CC & EFTPOS

Vego & Vegan :)

“Asian-inspired” menus don’t exactly inspire me, they bring to mind misinterpreted Asian flavours like curry powder and deep fried satay sticks. Australians, and plenty of other nations alike have been presenting Asian meals fairly embarrassingly for years. I’m sick of weak, mono-flavoured dishes which have no inkling of the East except that they’re served with rice and a few prawn crackers. An ex-boyfriend of mine had a great story about a time when he saw a very bizarre Nasi Goreng in a Berwick Pub for thirty-five smackers. 

Now perhaps finally the era of bad Asian-inspired cuisine is coming to an end. Tom Phat on Sydney Road in Brunswick is run by non-Asian people (not in a racist way or anything) and it manages to deliver some kick-ass food without dampening it’s influences. This Asian-inspired café isn’t exactly trying to replicate Balinese street food but it is taking it’s favourite Asian flavours and putting them to good work in a new way. You’ll find spicy Vietnamese mint muddled with palm sugar, chilli and fennel in many of their dishes, and no hint of lame-ass curry powder (as far as I can tell). 

So what did your friendly neighbourhood reviewer eat for lunch? The Sticky Soy Wrap with tofu and tempeh, salad leaves and roti for $10.90. The serve is perfect and doesn’t mess you about with a few token salad leaves on the side. There’s a generous side of zingy carrot, sprout, fennel and herb salad that’s both dense and refreshing. The sticky roti is a little sweet but the wholesomeness of the tofu and burnt sesame tempeh makes you feel like you’re eating lunch, not dessert.

Next up, Minced Beef Stir Fry with Basil which like the roti, is dark and sticky but deliciously smoky as well. Plenty of juicy Pak Choy is mixed through to balance a bitter, green flavour to the sweet richness of the dish. Everything comes together well in a generous serve presented on soft white rice and topped with crisp cucumber sticks. Although I didn’t get to dessert, the menu offers more than tinned fruit with ice-cream. Roti banana pancake with palm sugar and coconut jam, I’ve got my eye on you baby.

Sticky Soy Wrap $10.90

In terms of a dining environment, Tom Phat works it’s space well. At lunch time only the narrow room is open, with the bar and registers taking up almost the entire left side. Sturdy polished wooden tables run down the right side, single file while a communal table and some casual drink couches look out the open front wall into Brunswick’s main hipster shopping district. The restaurant/cafe sets it’s casual-cool tone immediately with large warehouse-fashion hanging lights, rugged wooden furniture glossed to a shine and a cutsey mural on it’s left wall of cherry blossoms, mountains and clouds. Lighting is low and the music is consistently good, ranging from The Strokes to Bright Eyes.

With plenty of smoothies, juices, coffees and cocktails on offer you could easily stay the whole day at Tom Phat. Fortunately it’s open for breakfast, lunch and dinner most days so you’ll rarely be kicked out. Service isn’t overly friendly but the food arrives on time and water is provided as you sit down, not when you ask for it.

Food: 4/5

Service: 2.5/5

Ambience: 4/5

There’s no point posting reviews if their information is not completely relevant. Two months ago when I reviewed Kulture in Brunswick it had barely found it’s feet. Now after coming back for seconds, Kulture has a lot more going for it and I feel it’s only right to share these new observations with you.

Location: Corner of Glenlyon and Blair Streets, Brunswick

Cash Only

Open weekends and during the week

Unlicensed 

Vego :)

Fresh breads ($5-6) and organic honey ($10) for sale

At Breakfast peak-hour on Saturday morning, it’s hard to get a table in most cafe’s. Kulture isn’t big but it takes advantage of it’s outside space with several tables jotted round it’s corner front, most under cover. There are also two small rooms for the sun-sensitive.

For $9.50 you can have eggs and sourdough toast with two sides. Finally you can stop relenting over how your bill is creeping up on you with each indulgence. We ordered one scrambled eggs with bacon + mushrooms and another poached with bacon + spinach. Sea salt and cracked pepper were available on the table and the water was there as soon as we sat down, awesome. We read the newspapers provided while we waited for our meals, a good 20 minutes. 

Orange, pineapple and apple juice- $5

There’s a decent sized juice menu and they aren’t diluted or full of ice. It would’ve been nice if they were a little colder though, being slightly above room temperature. Coffee was unfortunately just as weak as last time, but none-the-less well put together with nicely blended, foamy swirls. If you aren’t fussy about strong coffee this won’t bother you at all.

Choosing a table next to the open-kitchen was better for enjoying the music provided, assuming you can listen to Triple J. It would’ve been much worse if it was a commercial station, but Kulture really should invest in a proper sound system and put some effort into their music selection. Sounds aside, the general vibe of the place seemed to be more complete. Eastern paraphernalia adorns the walls alongside fresh organic produce for sale. I was tempted by the honeycomb but decided against it for the hefty $10 price tag. A selection of great-looking was bread is on sale but also expensive (about $6 a loaf). This might have something to do with it coming all the way from Pure Bread Bakery in Surrey Hills. It might well be worth it, but I didn’t buy any this time.

The toast which arrived with the eggs was excellent, perhaps from Pure Bread? Bacon and mushrooms were generous but like the spinach, did not include any sort of dressing. The scrambled eggs were luxuriously creamy and had a golden butter-rich glow. Each of the dishes come with a dish of butter on the side so you could muster some control over your diet, if you are so inclined.

Scrambled eggs with shrooms and bacon $9.50

Kulture’s service has shown enormous growth; what used to feel like a one-man-show now has plenty of staff, all friendly and efficient. The food prices have also remained pleasingly low, the lowest I’ve seen in a long time. The word seems to have caught on amongst the locals because the place was buzzing. Grab a seat while you still can.

Food: 3/5

Service: 4/5

Ambience: 2/5

Location: 349 Lygon Street Brunswick East

Contact: 9388 0966

Hours: Mon-Fri 7.30-5pm, Sat-Sun 8.30-5pm

Dine in/Take-away

Cash Only

Vego :)

This review was originally written for and published by Aduki Independent Press.

El Mirage is one of very few cafés I have come across that has a decent proportion of it’s menu devoted to our herbivore friends’ tastes but doesn’t have that vego-restaurant vibe. This is great for herbivores and omnivores to put their differences aside and hang out in neutral territory. So I’m assuming you’re starting to get a warm fuzzy vibe for El Mirage, and you should; it’s lovely. Being a regular here on a Sunday morning, I know that there’s always a table available, the staff are always nice and that it’s always the right temperature. I can’t stand café’s that have an inconsistent front door which intermittently blows cold drafts at it’s diners. So if you’re a fan of good-old reliable consistency and not-a-fan of suddenly varying degrees of temperature then you’ll be a fan of El Mirage.

I suppose it’s important for me to mention here that El Mirage has a weird Rockabilly thing going which thankfully is controlled enough not to turn the place into a tacky 50’s diner. So apart from the hotrod parked outside and a bit of low-volume Roy Orbison crooning in the background, it isn’t that noticeable. I’m assuming the middle-aged waiter with the 50’s-style tattoo sleeves is the owner, and isn’t that nice that he’s out there waiting his own tables? Décor-wise, there’s no sign of a jukebox or retro Coca-cola advertisements but there is a couch running along the entire length of the wall in pea green leather, or Pleather, I don’t know. Green and beige geometric wallpaper picks up the green of the couch and runs all the way up to an amazing curved wooden roof. The best way to describe it all would be something like a space-station bachelor pad. Space-station aside, El Mirage borders between slick minimal design and kitch clutter. The most pertinent example of this would have to be the long, polished, wooden shelf stacked with dozens of retro plastic cups.

Coffee-wise the Barista is very artful but I have always found the coffee too milky here. This time I ordered the Slim Jim for $13 (pictured) which is described briefly and non-pretentiously as “poached eggs, ricotta, fig chutney, avocado”. The result was very fresh and vibrant. The whole thing is the opposite to their buttery scrambled eggs and bacon; it just glows ‘healthy‘. This could annoy you if you were hung-over but it could also please you if you had convinced yourself that you were on some sort of health kick. So it’s really up to you if this is going to be your thing or not.

Slim Jim is a mostly refrigerated dish; what with the avocado, chutney and ricotta all chilled thus robbing the poached eggs quickly of what little heat they can retain. It would be nice if they had settled a few of the ingredients down to room temperature and possibly thrown in another piece of toast but it was otherwise acceptable. The fig chutney was unbelievable, forget any regrets you may have about fig jam (I know I have some) and get into it, it was easily my favourite part of the dish.

I’ll definitely be back to El Mirage for breakfast, but I might stick with the hot options for a few more weeks. It might be worth mentioning, for those who like dessert for breakfast, the pancakes with lemon curd, mascarpone and maple syrup give you more sugar than you bargain for. The lemon curd is impossibly creamy and does amazing things muddled with the syrup. Eat with a friend to avoid that dreaded spoonful-too-many. Oh and someone should try a lamington from the elegant glass cabinet, they look incredible.

Food: 3/5

Service: 5/5

Ambience: 4/5