Cafe Alto, Armadale

Place: Cafe Alto, Armadale

Time, Date: Sunday 29th July, 10.30am (and yes, this report is a little late, my apologies go out to our regular readers!)
What we ordered: Scrambled eggs with Italian sausages, on two slices of wholemeal toast for me and another veggie breakfast. The usual two lattes to begin with (we really should try something else occassionally) and then two mixed fruit juices to finish.

Ambience

A nice, friendly little place, with a strange arrangements of tables (you'll have to go there yourself to see what I mean!), papers and magazines to read and friendly staff. One slight problem was we saw the guy running the place chew out the waiters a couple of times, which we don't really like seeing.

Rating: 3 coffee cups out of 5




Service

We originally planned on eating at a place about fifty metres down the road, we chose a seat outside, sat down and waited. Then waited some more. And then we left and found somewhere else instead. At the first place, no-one even bothered to talk to us - couldn't have been more different at Cafe Alto, we were greeted at the door, shown to a convenient table for the pusher and looked after properly right through the meal. It's just so easy to do!

Rating: 4 coffee cups out of 5





Quality of Food

GREAT Italian sausage! The whole dish was nice but you know when you have a meal where you want to eat all of one thing first? Well that was me with the scrambled eggs, the eggs were good to, but they had to wait their turn! Great toast too! And another good veggie breakfast as well, we're starting to think Melbourne doesn't do a bad one - will the next place we visit prove us wrong?


Rating: 4 coffee cups out of 5




Extra Touches

The Sunday papers are always nice to have when you're eating, it's something that not every place does. They serve REAL coffee here as well, they have a great big complicated looking machine and have one guy doing nothing but make coffee (he was called a Barristo, I learnt this morning!) and I could have sat and watched him work for hours, he knew really his stuff. No-one told us our baby was cute though, so they lose coffee cups for that - arbitrary, I agree, but this is our blog so it's our rules..!





Value for Money

Pretty decent, although I lost the bill on the way home so I can't give any accurate figures! But the lattes were the standard 3 dollars (is there is law in Melbourne?) and we certainly didn't come away feeling ripped off.





Conclusion

Definitely worth walking an extra fifty metres for, Cafe Alto is a friendly relaxed place that serves good food, though the guy who runs the place could take a chill pill.

Berth

Place: Berth, New Quay, Docklands
Time, Date: Sunday 22nd July, 10.30am
What we ordered: OK, anyone who read last week would have seen me promise to have something healthy this week - but the Big Breakfast here just looked so good! Ah what the hell, you only live once! so yeah, Big Breakfast for me and we also went for the Vegie Breakfast as well. We had an orange juice and a latte to start with as well, plus another two lattes to round off.

Ambience

Berth is one of the many new eateries on the docklands, it's clean and modern and has huge windows which let the morning sun stream through. Even just sitting here is a pleasure.

Rating: 4 coffee cups out of 5




Service

Brisk and friendly, there almost seemed to be more staff than people at some points, and the place was packed. We were given water which was filled three times without any prompting from us, the person who served us was personable and efficent and the whole thing was just too easy!


Rating: 4 coffee cups out of 5





Quality of Food

No complaints at all, it was all excellent! I even quite liked the mushrooms, which I'm not usually a big fan of but which always seem to be served with your breakfast whether you want them or not! Great sausages and bacon, really good hash browns, a nice spicy tomato relish on the side. The veggie breakfast was also first rate, nice and tasty and cooked to perfection.


Rating: 4 coffee cups out of 5




Extra Touches

We had a nice little fire in front of our table and we had a couple of friends to chat with so we couldn't ask for more!

Rating: 3 coffee cups out of 5




Value for Money


Really good considering the location, the breakfasts were 13 dollars each for plenty of food, the lattes 3 bucks each which seems to be pretty much standard.


Rating: 4 coffee cups out of 5




Conclusion

We've been to Berth a few times before but in the evenings, having breakfast there was fun and we will definitely do it again soon. Maybe in the summer though, walking down past the docks in July can get a bit nippy!

Cafe Sapore

Place: Cafe Sapore, Chadstone Shopping Centre
Time, Date: Sunday 15th July, 11.10am
What we ordered: Ricotta pancakes with blueberries (I was planning on going healthy this week, but I'm just a sucker for Sunday morning pancakes!) with maple syrup and ice cream and then chorizo, red pepper, olive and feta omelette for my wife. I'll have a healthy option next week, scout's honour!
To drink we had two Italian hot chocolates.

Ambience

Cafe Sapore is in Chadstone mall so really ambience doesn't really come into it, through no fault of it's own. A bit hard to know what else to say really - it certainly wasn't an unpleasant place to eat, just a little sterile

Rating: 2 coffee cup out of 5




Service

Service was great, a waitress appeared within a couple of minutes and asked us if we wanted a drink and were ready to order, we weren't and asked for a couple more minutes. She didn't hover but the second we had both closed our menus she reappeared.
Both the girls who served us were friendly and efficient.


Rating: 4 coffee cups out of 5





Quality of Food

Very good indeed, the pancakes were nice and dense and very tasty and the omlette was cooked to perfection. This week however we need to talk about the drinks - the Italian hot chocolates we had were just to die for, thick as a brick with a marshmallow on top. They were melted chocolate with a swirl of milk in them - great for chocoholics! We then had two fantastic fruit juices to finish off, both freshly squeezed.


Rating: 4 coffee cups out of 5




Extra Touches

Nothing much in the way of extra touches really, though it was nice to sit under the big windows with the sun streaming in. And one of the waitresses said how cute our baby boy was, which is always going to improve your haul of coffee cups!

Rating: 3 coffee cups out of 5




Value for Money


Very good value for money, the omlette was 12.90, the pancakes 9.90 and freshly squeezed juice came in at just under five dollars, the hot chocolate four.


Rating: 4 coffee cups out of 5




Conclusion

Probably not a place we'd normally go to but we were in Chadstone on Sunday morning anyway and couldn't be bothered going anywhere else. And if you find yourself in Chadstone and fancy trying a lovely gooey hot chocolate, we can fully recommend Cafe Sapore!

The Groove Lounge

Place: The Groove Lounge, 179 Nelson Place, Williamstown
Time, Date: Sunday 8st July, 11.00am
What we ordered: We ordered the Groove Lounge Whole Hog (two eggs, sausage, bacon, spinach, mushroom and tomato on two pieces of toasted ciabatta) and I rather nervously ordered Canadian pancakes, three pancakes with bacon and two eggs covered in maple syrup. I'm never sure about mixing sweet with savoury..! We also had a hot chocolate and two chai lattes.

Ambience

With a name like Groove Lounge you're not going to get a genteel establishment, it's a funky place with a view of the bay, music posters on the wall and very informally dressed staff. We thought the place was slightly too loud, we sometimes couldn't hear ourselves talk but that's like going to the G and complaining about all the footy. A cool place and a solid score of...

Rating: 4 coffee cups out of 5




Service

Service was very good, as soon as we walked to the door one of the guys opened the door for us to help us in with our pram and he was more than happy to help us out with seating. We asked for a bottle of water and it came straight away and then when we had finished it a refill appeared as if by magic - nice touch! All drinks and extras were on the menu and priced so we knew exactly what we were going to spend.


Rating: 4 coffee cups out of 5





Quality of Food

Who would have thought that maple syrup on bacon and eggs would work so well? OK, probably half of Melbourne but I'm not a big city slicker so it was a surprise for me! The pancakes were great, big and fluffy without being full of air. We weren't quite so happy with the Whole Hog, the spinach and onions were a bit greasy, but still tasted good and went down well. Great chai lattes as well, nice big glasses!

Rating: 4 coffee cups out of 5




Extra Touches

It's nice to see which bands are playing in Melbourne in the next few weeks. And The Groove Bar is about 50 metres away from a great lolly shop that is well worth a visit - try the honeycomb!

Rating: 3 coffee cups out of 5




Value for Money

Two full bellies and coffees afterwards for less than 40 bucks is pretty good value we reckon


Rating: 3 coffee cups out of 5




Conclusion

Well worth a visit, The Groove Lounge is informal without being slack and does great pancakes!

Spargos Sidewalk Cafe

Place: Spargos Sidewalk Cafe, 288 Bridge Road, Richmond, 3121
Time, Date: Sunday 1st July, 11.15am
What we ordered: We started off with two skinny chocolate milkshakes, then we ordered scrambled eggs with sausage and tomato, on toast, and scrambled eggs and scallops on grain toast. We then had three lattes and a cappuccino.

Ambience

Spargos is a spacious, contemporary setting set on Bridge Road with plenty of natural light. There is a selection of paintings on the wall, nothing too challenging just cheerful bright designs which add a nice touch. There is a log fire in the back room (which was not on when we visited but I have seen it being used in the past). There are also newspapers and magazines to browse through.

Rating: 4 coffee cups out of 5




Service

The service was pretty good, we were led to a table straight away. Two or three people waited our table, all of them were polite and friendly. We didn't have to wait too long for anything to arrive although we were a bit annoyed that the menu said the scrambled eggs and sausages were served with tomato relish and we didn't get any relish. We were also shown a breakfast menu but no drinks menu so when we ordered coffees and milkshakes we had no idea how much we were going to pay.

Rating: 3 coffee cups out of 5




Quality of Food

The food has always been good at Spargos when we've been in the past but we were both slightly disappointed today. First off the milkshakes were a bit small - it could be argued that this is a value for money issue rather than a quality one but it was also served in a warm glass - milkshakes just HAVE to be in those big metal beakers! We also found the eggs to be a bit salty, in my case this may have been because of the scallops (of which there were plenty, and they were well cooked!) but they actually tasted less salty than the eggs. The sausages, tomato and toast were all well cooked.

Rating: 3 coffee cups out of 5




Extra Touches

We have a small baby so it is vital that a place is baby friendly and Spargos is, having a pram was no problem at all. I also quite liked the fact that that there were more than a dozen very subdued Kiwi rugby fans there!

Rating: 3 coffee cups out of 5




Value for Money

The cost of eating out in Melbourne is always going to depend on the postcode but we still found over 50 dollars for two smallish breakfasts, four coffees and couple of small milkshakes a bit on the steep side.

Rating: 2 coffee cups out of 5




Conclusion

We had a nice relaxing couple of hours at Spargos, it was an interesting beginning to our culinary journey around Melbourne and we'll see you next week!