Food story: Proud Mary

Apparently the best cafes in Melbourne! So we went to check it out.

Proud Mary

Chai, chai, chai

The Potato Hash :)

The cafe space

Lovely flowers and coffee distiller 

A homely little corner with lamp, pot plant and records!

Coffee beans and fat little distillers

Pork Belly

Cafe: No particular themes as such at Proud Mary's, but there was a large comfortable space with the usual homey bits and piece: flowers adorning the communal table, plants lined up on window sills etc. etc. There was an emphasis on the good coffee it sells with coffee distillers and beans everywhere. There was also a corner which looks like it could have been taken out of someone's lounge room with seats placed next to a lamp, a tiny pot plant and lots of cool records.

Customer service: Lovely smiling girl, fairly quick, everything came out right....but as we stayed to chat there was a not-so-subtle prompt to give us more menus and make us order more. But maybe they urgently needed the tables?

Food: I liked the actual hash. It was a nice solid patty of grated potato, though it could have been crunchier on the outside. Spinach and bacon were good sides, as was the egg (though I could still taste some vinegar on mine :S). It was served with some sort of creamy sauce, which gave it a nice finish. I think it would have also gone well if there'd been Aioli and/or lemon. But Proud Mary's has some other really lovely looking dishes. I also really wanted to try the hotcakes with fruit and chocolate fudge. Will let you know if I get some for breakfast one day!

With thanks to: China buds, yeah!

Price: Around the $15-$20 mark, though there may be a few cheaper dishes.

Address: 172 Oxford Place, Collingwood

Website: Have a view of its urbanspoon ratings: http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/71/1495711/restaurant/Melbourne/Proud-Mary-Collingwood

Food story: Circa

As I was in Sydney over the weekend for a concert , I decided to go check out Circa cafe, a joint that is topping the cafe rankings on Urbanspoon for Parramatta. It was such a lovely place, with nice waiting staff and the best French toast I've had so far in my life. Pictures and Full review down below...

Circa

The cafe was set in a tiny little garage

The grand entrance :D

From where I sat

A cool teapot of Chai

The BEST french toast I've ever had

And another one before I ate it.

This is what I saw from my table while I ate :)

The table next to me

An awesome interior!

Mirror menu...

And cow print couch, yeah!

Graffiti walls

I really liked these hats...

But these coolest things were definitely this comic wall

And this window and sky corner! :)

Cafe: When I think Sydney, I usually think big cafes (and usually spaces that lack the personality that Melbourne cafes do...Can you tell that I'm a Melbourne snob? :P) But I was pleasantly surprised when I found Circa, a tiny little cafe converted from the garage of an old building, off a hidden street in Parramatta. Circa was lovely and reminded me of all the places we have at home. It was a very little, narrow space, but had exhibited wonderful personality from the graffiti walls and roller-doors to the actual people working inside (Or outside. You could sit on mismatching little chairs outside if you wanted more space). The place was super cool with lots of quirky and whimsical bits and pieces. My favourite things were: The mirror menu, the fake deer's head, the penny-farthing bicycles mounted on the walls, the Elvis Presley street sign and comic wall at the back and finally, the 'sky' corner - with faux windows and walls painted like the sky and whimsical flying toys and mobiles hanging from the ceiling. All very cool.


Customer Service: Was really good, actually! The guy who came out to greet me was very helpful with introducing the menu and was pretty attentive to orders and questions. And he was friendly,  conversational and super nice about my tourist habit of taking photos of every little corner of the cafe. The food came out quite quickly with no problems at all. All the other waiters/ chefs/staff I encountered were also very polite.


Food: I had a Chai tea and a French toast with labne (yoghurt), rhubarb and pistachios....and I wanted to eat more because everything I got was so delicious and everything I didn't get looked just as good, but I was so full that it just wasn't possible! The Chai tea was perfect, not too bitter or spicy and not too sweet. And it was served in a lovely Asian teapot. The French toast with labne, rhubarb and pistachios was the BEST French toast I have ever had, hands down. The bread was thick and soft, with a slightly crunchier surface. It was coated with the right amount of egg mixture, so it wasn't soggy or overly battered. It was sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon, which gave it that lovely, sweet taste and scent. The labne, a creamy, thick yoghurt and rhubarb, a very sweet, tangy and pulpy sauce gave the dish wonderful contrasting flavours and textures. The pistachios gave the toast crunch. I really enjoyed this brunch, especially after a 10 hour bus trip. As I said before, if I could, I would have eaten more. I'm hoping I'll get the chance to try the Portobello mushroom on toast next time. And I'd recommend anything from here, not just for the wonderful taste of the food, but because everything, from memory, was only around the $7 mark!!! Which is super cheap compared to the brunch stuff we have at a lot of cafes in Melbourne! I'm definitely coming back, for sure.


Anyway, information if you make the trip...


Price: $5-$15 (I think there were some pricier lunch stuff, but most of the food only costs as much as the drinks!)


Address: 21 Wentworth Street, Parramatta, Sydney


Website: No actual site, but check out its Urbanspoon page:
http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/70/1581529/restaurant/Sydney/Circa-Parramatta

Food story: L'atelier de Monsieur Truffe

L'atelier de Monsieur Truffe

Hot chocolates and Coffees :)

Delicious dark chocolate on toast: Tartine au chocolate!

With salt...so goood...

Hot cakes

Pan fried carrot cake with carrot gel and dust, carrots and ...cheese

I was intrigued with the carrot dust and carrot gel

Pretty chocolate related stuff 

A few chocolate posters

Chocolate postcards and such!

At the counter :)

The space

Where the masses eat

lovely plants :)

lovely pastries

lovely chocolate rooster!

The greenery on our table

The little red door

Cafe: What a nice cafe/shop! I'm pretty sure I once heard that L'atelier had taken over an old warehouse space (that probably explains the suburb we were in - it looked like a place for warehouses and clearance departments!) It was relatively easy to find - no sign, but the red door was a good giveaway. The cafe had plenty of open space and good natural lighting from having a clear ceiling. There were minimal decorations, so it had a nice natural feel to it - but what it did have was lots of plants and chocolate, both of which I liked. Look out for the giant chocolate rooster! :D

Customer service: We had a nice waitress. She was attentive enough to come back and take our orders without our flagging her down after we sent her away because we were having trouble deciding. The only odd thing was that they didn't have enough menus. It was a busy day for brunch (Sunday morning when I went with my friends) so I guess that makes sense, but I've always gotten a menu for brunch, no matter how busy the place...

Food: My favourite brunch pick was definately the Tartine au chocolate! We'd all decided our own dishes, but we were tempted to try the chocolate stuff as L'atelier is well known for its chocolate (...it's brother store being the famous collingwood chocolate place, Monsieur Truffe!) We had our Tartine with dark chocolate, which was delicious (It was probably a good choice too, given how much chocolate was on the toast. You wouldn't want to OD on that stuff :D) The toast was hot and crunchy, the chocolate creamy and soft and the salt brought out the sweetness in our little treat. My friends picked nice dishes - the Croque-monsieur (no pictures, sorry) was nice and crunchy, with lots of cheese, ham and served with salad - it was also massive! The hot cakes also looked awesome with fruit (but they forgot the lemon sauce? :S) And me? I picked the strangest dish on the menu. Pan fried carrot cake with carrot dust, carrot gel, dutch carrots and some sort of cheese...I enjoy trying new things and I get tempted when I see weird combinations? The carrot cake was really good. The carrot gel was tangy and sweet :) But the dutch carrots, although honey-gazed, and the savory cheese just felt weird with the cake...like it should have been a separate dish. I think if they wanted to make it work better, the carrots should have been sweeter (more honey) and the cheese should have been Mascarpone cheese rather than what I had (sorry, the name has slipped me at the moment, will update if I remember!) Nonetheless, it plated up well. All in all, lovely place - You must try their chocolate dishes!


Price range: $6-$20


With thanks to: My brunching buddies Harini and Kate for a nice morning out!


Address: 351 Lygon Street, Brunswick East


Website: http://monsieurtruffe.wordpress.com/

Food story: Provence Artisan Bakers

Not so long ago, I met up with my China crew for another one of our famous food adventure. (As you can tell, we all love good food, cool little brunch spots and photo-taking :D). We were going to go check out Madame Mango, but that turned out to be closed, so we ended up at this little Parisian joint.

Provence Artisan Bakers

Nice looking bread loafs and cakes

From where I sat

Mediterranean eggs with bread and herb mayonnaise 

A closer look :D

Veggie breakfast!

Mushrooms :)

Drooling at breads once again :D

Plants and coffee

Lights that remind me of lamp posts

Just another Parisian cafe

Pretty droopy pot plant!

Such nice decorations everywhere!

From the front

Cafe: This is one of those blink-and-you'll-miss-it cafes on Burke St in Camberwell. From the outside, it looks like an ordinary little coffee shop...but when you walk it, it becomes a quaint little French-inspired bakery, complete with Parisian styled decor and rows of pastries, breads, muffins and vanilla slice :D There are lots of little pot plants, lovely framed pictures and fancy little bits and pieces to look at. The cafe is small and doesn't seat many, but you're welcome to sit outside or by the window, where its easier to join a couple of tables.

Customer Service: The cafe was rather busy when we were in, so the waitresses were busy with their jobs and our breakfast orders were late. But as it was really busy and there were several of us (some who had missed their alarms and were on their way :P), we didn't really mind. The service was pretty ok.

Food: All the pasteries and bread looked sooo good! I'm sad to say that I didn't get to try any on the day I was there, but I'll update you if I ever get my hands on that vanilla slice. For brunch, I had the Mediterranean breakfast, which was Provence Artisan Bakers' specialty dish. This was pretty much eggs scrambled in a tomato sauce with feta cheese sprinkled on the top and a serving of rye bread and herbed mayo on the side. The dish was nice - cooked well and presented well - but not the best brunch dish I've picked. It was a matter of personal taste- I think I'm just not much of a tomato paste person. But it did add a nice, sweet tomato flavour to the eggs and I really liked the way they were served in a cute little red pan. The bread and herb mayo were delicious too. Personally, I really liked the look of the Vegetarian big breakfast and the mushroom and avocado on toast. Those looked tasty. All in all, try the breads and pastries...and try the breakfasts - they're all very good vegetarian/ healthy options!

Price range: $12-$20

With thanks to: My China crew :)

Address: 919 Burke Rd, Melbourne, Vic , 3123

Website: None of its own, but check out its urbanspoon rating! http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/71/1510641/restaurant/Camberwell/Provence-Artisan-Bakers-Melbourne