Howdy my beautiful readers! How are we feeling today?

Do you get the feeling that sometimes life goes by so quickly that it all becomes one big whirlwind and a blur?

In the past year, the Boy and I have gone through several life changing experiences. From up high with our engagement, to down low with the passing of a father, to another high of our first holiday alone together in Thailand, and now to my very first nephew born in the family. (Holy Moly, I’m an Aunty!)

One thing the Boy and I do every week (we are creatures of habit) is to make certain that we have at least one brunch outside on the weekend.

Seemingly, we have accumulated quite a lot of brunch posts that have been stuck in the “to-be-blogged-about” phase. Some we have blogged about, and some have just been quietly collecting virtual dust patiently waiting to be remembered on their virtual bookshelf.

So as not to forget about them, and to record every moment of my life whilst I still have adequate memory space (I have the memory of a fish), we shall be compiling a few of our visits to one blog post.

Please forgive me for dawdling on, and I’m happy for you to just skip to the relevant bits (say, what?!) that interest you 🙂 I’m an understanding kinda gal!

 

Coin Laundry (Armadale)

First cab of the ranks, is Coin Laundry at Armadale. If you are a breakfast aficionado, then you would know this place well. Named after what the original space used to be, the cafe is not only super cute, it has all the right buttons to lift you up to the level you need to be (forgive me, I’m feeling in the mood for puns)!

It’s not a very big cafe (seeing as it used to be a Laundromat), and there usually is a line of people waiting to get in.

Service is smart and prompt, great traits for a small busy cafe.

Also, Bryan Boo reckons there’s a lot of eye candy going on here 🙂

It has been a while since we last paid this humble joint a visit, so I’m not putting the prices up!

When we were there, the Boy had the rather huge serving of, Coin Laundry Breakfast of smashed avocado, Roma tomatoes, bacon, beetroot relish, baby spinach & poached eggs.

All ingredients used are locally sourced and thus you can be assured of fresh food (and not frozen items) when you choose to dine here.

Whilst the Boy got caught up capturing a fab shot of his eggporn/yolkporn, I quietly enjoyed my Corn and Manchengo Fritters. Mmmm, give me more please!

Location wise, it’s in a very good spot (at an intersection). Armadale station is right in front, so if you’re worried about hitching a ride, Melbourne’s fabulous (oh, no she didn’t!) public transport can deliver you there. Off-street parking is available but it may require you doing a couple of rounds within the housing area 🙂

*Disclaimer: All food ratings & review are purely based on my own experiences and how I feel about the service, food and quality at the time of visit

Food/ Cuisine: Breakfast, Lunch, Coffee
Dining Style: Cafe
Overall Food Rating (Based on the Dining style): 7.75/10
Restaurant ambiance: 7/10
Service/ Attitude: 7/10
Value for money: 7/10

Opening Hours:
Monday to Sunday, 7:00am to 4:00pm

Address:
61 Armadale St
Armadale VIC 3143

Tel: (03) 9500 1888

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Coin-Laundry/150020241694129

How to get there:

 

Jones the Grocer (Chadstone Shopping Centre, Chadstone)

Next to hit it up (I’m on a roll, can you tell?), is Jones the Grocer located within the maze that is Chadstone Shopping Centre.

Not your typical grocer, Jones the Grocer stocks up fancy and gourmet ingredients (like Persian fairy floss, orange blossom water, a variety of cheeses, etc… you get the drift) as well as proffers a cafe on the side.

Living in such close proximity to the shopping behemoth, we often find ourselves there on the weekends and Jones the Grocer is one of the places we visit (the others being Cafe Sapore, Tender Trap and Oriental Tea House).

Service tends to get a bit lacklustre here, which is a bit disappointing, but in terms of filling the belly, Jones the Grocer does a relatively good job.

It can get pretty busy and crowded here with tired shoppers taking a break for breakfast, brunch, lunch or tea.

Pictured above is the delicious Lamb Kofta and Chickpea Salad with Minted Yoghurt and the Wagyu Beef Pie.

Coffees? Pretty mediocre for the price they charge, and not quite on par as some of my favourite coffee haunts (Proud Mary, Patricia Coffee Brewers, Brother Baba Budan, Seven Seeds, just to name a few and you should know ’em all by now!).

Overall, still worth a visit when you are at the Fashion Capital.

*Disclaimer: All food ratings & review are purely based on my own experiences and how I feel about the service, food and quality at the time of visit

Food/ Cuisine: Modern Australian
Dining Style: Cafe
Overall Food Rating (Based on the Dining style): 6.75/10
Restaurant ambiance: 7.25/10
Service/ Attitude: 6.75/10
Value for money: 7/10

Opening Hours:
Monday to Wednesday, 8:30am to 5:30pm
Thursday & Friday, 8:30am to 9:00pm
Saturday, 9:00am to 5:00pm
Sunday, 10:00am to 5:00pm

Address:
Shop F032 Chadstone Shopping Centre
Dandenong Road
Chadstone VIC 3148

Tel: (03) 9530 4823

Website: http://www.jonesthegrocer.com/

How to get there:

 

Loco Coffee (Elsternwick)

Nestled at Elsternwick is the crazy cafe known as Loco Coffee (:P).

I love the deco used here, as I’m into all things vintage at the moment (crazy bridezilla!), and particularly love their bookshelves, soft armchairs with mismatched old hard chairs!

Big sister to Manchester Press in the city, Loco Coffee uses the same beans (8 Oz Coffee). However, we didn’t get the same coffee art quality to that of Manchester Press which was disappointing as we were hoping for fun coffee art!

Not withstanding, their coffees were of the good but as with their little sister in the city, I think I’m just not a fan of the beans used here.

But it’s a personal preference as I prefer smoother blends with less burnt/deep flavour.

Again, this is a rather backlogged post, so forgive me with my memory (and failed note-taking) of the menu items and pricing.

I had the Chicken Sandwich with mixed leaves, avocado, cheddar, caramelised onions and seeded mayo. The Boy on the other hand, had a rather large Beef Burger with caramelised onions, lettuce, tomato, mayo and a side of salad.

Do take note that the serves are amazeballs large and I had to pack half my sandwich back for dinner! The Boy finished his burger and absolutely loved it.

*Disclaimer: All food ratings & review are purely based on my own experiences and how I feel about the service, food and quality at the time of visit

Food/ Cuisine: Breakfast, Lunch, Coffee
Dining Style: Cafe
Overall Food Rating (Based on the Dining style): 7/10
Restaurant ambiance: 7.25/10
Service/ Attitude: 7.25/10
Value for money: 7/10

Address:
436 Glen Huntly Rd
Elsternwick VIC 3185

Tel: (03) 9532 4455

Website: http://www.lococoffee.com/

How to get there:

 

Platform 3 (Carnegie)

Last but not least is a little newbie close to home. Recently opened (we visited on their second week of operation), Platform 3 is located at an amazing spot on Koornang Road’s famous strip of Korean BBQ restaurants.

Situated right across the Carnegie train station (hence the name), Platform 3 is cute, beautifully decorated, and seems to have quite the right theme going on. The menu is simple, clean and easy. Nothing too complicated.

Upon walking in, you are greeted by cute tiny stools and pots of herbs lining the ground. There’s even a tiny children’s corner at the back of the cafe (complete with butchers paper and colour pencils to keep your little ones occupied as you are enjoying your meal).

We ordered a couple of Lattes to start our day as we always do. Unfortunately for the most part, the latte had more foam in it than I’d ever had.

Despite that however, it was a pretty decent cup of coffee. Certainly not on par with the ones I’m used to, but it did the trick that morning.

What was less accepting was that when I placed my order for Eggs Benedict, the waiter came back explaining to me that they had run out of poached eggs.

Baffled and slightly confused, I answered “fried?” when he asked how would I like my eggs done instead.

How do you run out of poached eggs? Sadly, I got the feeling the kitchen was still in its infant-hood and hadn’t quite graduated to being able to serve poached eggs (which leads me to, why have Eggs Benedict on the menu?).

*Sigh* When my dish finally arrived, I was delighted (at this stage, I was having mostly disastrous thoughts about eggs in general), that my “fried” eggs were beautifully cooked and very light on the fried side of things.

The Hollandaise sauce was perfect and not too heavy which I loved. The thick cut bacon was quite tasty too. So all in all, it wasn’t too disastrous a dish (stilldon’tunderstandhowyouselloutofpoachedeggs).

The Boy on the other hand decided to order a Do or Die item on the menu for breakfast.

He had the Platform 3 Big Breakfast which included Wagyu minute steak, bacon, scrambled eggs, grilled onions, grilled tomato, mushroom and avocado.

He quite liked it but would prefer if the beef was seasoned with a touch more salt.

I really really want to like Platform 3 despite its hiccups. Perhaps we visited too soon and hadn’t allowed it time to settle and find its feet, which means we will return again to see if things have improved.

There’s so so so much potential with this cafe, and it’d be really sad to see it fail!

*Disclaimer: All food ratings & review are purely based on my own experiences and how I feel about the service, food and quality at the time of visit

Food/ Cuisine: Breakfast, Lunch, Coffee
Dining Style: Cafe
Overall Food Rating (Based on the Dining style): 6/10
Restaurant ambiance: 8/10
Service/ Attitude: 7/10
Value for money: 6.75/10

Opening Hours:
Monday to Sunday, 7:00am to 4:00pm

Address:
5/23 Koornang Road
Carnegie VIC 3163

Tel: (03) 9572 4605

How to get there: