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.
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.
