Las Chicas

The only time I ever venture over to Balaclava is for food. There is really no other reason for me to travel this far across town....unless I am rewarded for my efforts with a trip to somewhere like Las Chicas.

I have been to Las Chicas at least four times now, and every visit it manages to take me an unreasonable amount of time to choose my meal. There is just SO much on the menu. There's about three different flavoured porridges and french toast's, tons of bagel flavours, a whole section dedicated to vegetarian options and a big load of stuff for the meat lovers....(and thats ONLY the breakfast menu).
The lunch menu offers plenty of sandwich and salad options too.

Now, prior to this visit I had ordered the baked bean breaky- house baked pumpkin and polenta loaf topped with baked beans, spinach & a poached egg ($16.50). I was so tempted to order this again...it was pretty much my ideal breakfast. Las Chicas also offers half servings- so you can imagine how big the meals actually are. Heres a little sneak peak of what the baked bean breaky looks like...

Anyway, today I decided I felt like something eggy and went for the breakfast bruschetta- sourdough, folded eggs, spinach, basil pesto & pine nuts ($14). I couldn't believe the size of this whopper. The eggs were dreamy creamy and perfectly cooked- and also went so well with the rich pesto.

Breakfast bruschetta ($14)

My lovely gal pal ordered the breakfast burrito ($17). I suffered a little bit of food envy and died a little inside when her dish arrived. Creamy scrambled eggs, extra crispy bacon, aioli and rocket, wrapped in a soft tortilla bread & topped with avocado, tomato & coriander salsa. I would do bad, bad things to have this dish sitting in front of me right now. Luckily for me she isn't a fan of bacon, so piggy little me got to eat it all :)

Breakfast Burrito ($17)

Just a cheeky champagne for brunch. It would be rude not to.

I always make the mistake of eating too much and being too full to order from the sweet cabinet afterwards... 

This place is a steal. You absolutely get your pennies worth, and I can guarantee the breakfast feeds will keep you satisfied until the late arvo. If you cbf driving all the way here- the cafe is conveniently located underneath the Balaclava train station. You can be sure I'll be coming back and trying more of the 1000 options on the menu...

Las Chicas,
203 Carlisle Street, Balaclava

Cumulus Inc.

Cumulus Inc. has been one destination on my list of places to visit for some time now. I wasn't sure on whether to blog about a wining/dining dinner experience here, or avoiding the sleep in and snagging an early morning table for a breakfast bloggin'. A friend and I decided on the latter.

Inside you'll find a big industrial style room, complete with open kitchen so you can watch the chefs at work.

Breakfast fare ranged from your standard muesli to the full english breakfast. The menu was limited but we eventually decided what we wanted to munch on.

I opted for the baked eggs with roasted peppers and shanklish ($16). I had no idea what shanklish was whilst I was eating it, but did the old google search and apparently its a type of Lebanese cows or sheeps milk cheese. So there you go.

The dish came with two mini pieces of turkish bread- and this was the only criticism I could make. I don't know about anyone else but  I really need more than two little pieces of bread in order to mop up that eggy and tomatoey goodness. I felt like I had to ration the bread due to the stingy bread to egg ratio.

.......I have thought way to much into that.

Shakshouka- baked eggs with roasted peppers and shanklish ($16)

My friend isn't a fan of eggs, so decided to go with the toasted honey granola. There was SO much granola packed into that little bowl. It came with a pot a vanilla yoghurt with poached fruit too. Definitely one of those dishes that makes you feel healthier just by looking at it.

Toasted honey granola & poached fruit with vanilla yoghurt ($10)

At the counter were some delectable goodies, including a chocolate & sea salt brownie. ANY dish featuring salt (within reason) has my vote. I even put salt all over pizza... (theres absolutely no hope for my arteries). I believe the lemon curd madeleines are made to order (give 15 minutes), and are apparently a hit.

English breaky tea

A very popular fancy smansy place at any time of day. Next time I return it will be for a dinner feast. Complete with lots of salt.

Cumulus Inc.

45 Flinders Lane, Melbourne CBD

Pillar of Salt

This is one place I had been wanting to go for a feed, but somehow always ended up ordering just coffee. Well not today my friends. 'Twas a sunny Wednesday morning in Richmond when I first had breakfast at Pillar of Salt.

A met up with a good friend whom I travelled around parts of South America with. It wasn't until we had a look at the menu that she announced that she "didn't like anything on the menu" and that she "didn't even like this place that much". Well. Ya big dickhead, you could have told me that before I suggested we go there and you willingly accepted. Love yoooou.

Lots of breaky goodies (I thought). The lunch menu looked good too.

Regardless of her hatred towards the menu, she did infact order eggs. She loves eggs.

Poached eggs on sourdough with red wine marinated mushrooms & avocado + persian fetta puree

I was tossing up between: 1) organic porridge with sticky apple and date compote & a quinoa flake crumble ($12) (I swear I will order porridge someday),  2) the red chilli scrambled eggs with julienne bacon, spring onion, parsley and a hint of parmesan on toast ($16.50) or 3) homemade smokey beans with avocado and persian fetta puree, a poached egg, parsley dressing + shaved parmesan ($16.50). After confirmation from my buddy that the red chilli scrambled eggs were a fail, I went with the schmokey beans.

Beans beans good for the heart

The bread was still toasty underneath and the beans were rich and tomato-ey. Avocado and egg are always a good marriage and the fetta mixed in made it more cheeeesy. A very filling but delicious breakfast dish.

At the front counter there was even more to choose from. The rolls were HUGE- one with slow cooked lamb in an olive baguette took my fancy, as did the chicken schnitzel wrap (there is something wrong with people who don't like schnitzel).

A huge variety of cakes and sweets to choose from

Look at that sky!

A great little cafe to visit. Probably best to come on a weekday- word on the street is that it's loco on a weekend.

Pillar of Salt

541 Church Street, Richmond

Pillar of Salt on Urbanspoon

Axil Coffee Roasters

Last week a friend and I met for breakfast at Axil. I had been once before, but had always wanted to try more of the menu. This place is huge and industrial looking, with those funky hanging light bulbs we seem to see so often in the Melbourne cafe scene these days.

The breakfast menu offering isn't extensive, but you'll find the usual suspects- baked eggs, bircher muesli, banana bread, corn and haloumi fritters, french toast & smashed avocado. 

The waitress informed us of the specials- which included some kind of french toast, as well as a baked egg dish with mushroom ragu and taleggio. I thought I'd give the baked eggs a whirl. However, once the dish came out, I realised the waitress wrote down my order as the regular baked eggs found on the menu, not the special ones. But I'm a whimp and am not that type of person who sends food back...so I sat and ate the eggs I didn't actually order...

                                        

Spicy baked eggs w/goats cheese feta, dukkah and pepperonata sauce w/ a side of toast ($16.50)

And lemmme tell ya. They were amazing! I'm not a lover of spicy food, but this wasn't too intense and the goats cheese fetta + the eggs on toast was just a perfect combo. Thank you waitress for stuffing up my order :)

My friend ordered the corn and haloumi fritters with avocado, spinach, poached egg and salsa rosso ($17).

Corn + haloumi fritters with avocado, spinach, poached egg and salsa rosso ($17)

Yeah, you can't really see the fritters but they are nestled beneath the giant mountain of salsa. They might have gone a little OTT with the salsa, and the egg on top was a little unnecessary as it was such a filling dish- however the fritters were so tasty!

 

Soy chai latte

Sandwich cabinet

I also noticed they had a variety of little treasures at the counter. The foccacias and sandwiches sounded very exotic and gourmet (slow roasted lamb shoulder...)

Blueberry and lime macaron, please get in my belly

I was drooling over the sweets. A friend has tried the apple and rhubarb crumble tart and said it was a winner.

More sweeties. Check out the brownie. Anything that combines chocolate and peanut butter can't fail (it just can't)

Mini bacon and egg burgers! 

The also roast their own coffee and sell their own merch.

A great place that has a bit to offer any type of customer. You like eggs? They got em. You like smoked trout and scrambled egg wraps? Guess what, they have that too. All at a very good price.

Axil Coffee Roasters

322 Burwood Road, Hawthorn

Replete Providore

Before work this morning, I thought it would be a nice idea to head out for breakfast and make the most of a beautiful sunny saturday. I managed to drag my sleepy ass out of bed by 8:30, and nagged my breakfast companion to hurry up and to do the same so we could get food in our bellies before I had to go to work (yep, I'm that annoying). The spot for breakfast was a toss up between Snow Pony or Replete Providore, and as I hadn't been before, we I ended up choosing Replete Providore.

There was a nice selection of breakfast dishes to choose from, with some nice lunch options too.

I decided on the replete "florentine" ($15)- simply because I had actually never tried eggs with hollandaise before. I also liked the sound of the pea and fetta fritters that also comes with the dish.

Eggs florentine with pea and fetta fritters, spinach, poached eggs + hollandaise on english muffins.

I devoured the meal, it was so so so yummy. I also ordered a side of istra bacon, just because I'm a piglet. I think the english muffins underneath were a little unnecessary and could have just been replaced by the fritters. But still a delicious breakfast.

My tired eyed breakfast companion ordered the smashed avocado. I'd love to find out which cafe actually gave birth to the legendary smashed avocado dish, because I recon they'd be pretty shitty that almost every cafe in Melbourne has followed their lead. The huge mountain of avocado came with danish fetta, poached eggs, basil, mint, chilli + dark rye bread ($15).

Smashed avocado with danish fetta, poached egg, basil, mint, chilli + dark rye bread.

               

They also had a huge selection of sweet pastries and tarts to choose from at the counter.

Mini carrot cakes!

A very lovely breakfast cafe with plenty of dishes to choose from. I was a happy (but full) camper :)

Replete Providore

302, Barkers Road, Hawthorn