November 28, 2009: Chef's Edge/The Knife Shop

Edit 15/02/2021: This cafe is long gone; the address now hosts Chotto Motto.

A while back, Brian at Fitzroyalty lamented the lack of blog attention for The Chef's Edge in Collingwood, so Cindy and I dutifully trekked off to try it out this morning. First things first, I can't figure out why everyone is calling it The Chef's Edge - the menus have "The Knife Shop - Breakfast Menu' emblazoned across the top. I didn't see the phrase "Chef's Edge" anywhere. Weird. Still, the basic premise is still as described by Brian (and by Matt Preston among others). A kitchen shop, knife sharpener and cafe rolled into one little shop at the northern end of Wellington Street.

The decor is old-school, with formica tables, a 1960s refrigerator and a general diner-style vibe. There's plenty of light streaming in, and there was no shortage of tables on this Saturday morning. The breakfast menu doesn't spring any surprises: a few sweet options and a wide range of eggy-based delights (all using local free-range eggs!). Cindy and I split things the usual way: me pigging on savoury, and she preferring sweet. Somehow she resisted the lure of breakfast crepes and went for the semi-healthy bircher muesli with yoghurt, honey and summer fruit ($8.50).

It's served up with a generous mix of fruit, and slathered in yoghurt. Often phrases like 'summer fruits' means a couple of slivers of apple, or half a strawberry, so the stone-fruit and berries were an impressive accompaniment. If anything, it was a bit sweeter than Cindy would have liked, but it was still a fairly satisfactory muesli-alternative.

I ordered the 'Herbivore' ($14), poached eggs with avocado, fetta, beans, tomato, potato rosti and spinach on toast. The eggs were well-poached and the beans were a nice flavoursome mix. The rosti was more of a hash-brown but fried potato is always a winner at breakfast. Throw in some ripe avocado, a sprinkle of salty fetta and some fresh spinach leaves and you've got a pretty solid savoury brekkie. The thick-white toast fits in with the old-fashioned setting, but was a little much for me (I've been spoiled by all these inner-north Dench-serving cafes).

So, a solid and satisfying breakfast, refreshingly free of pretention and hipster-ness, but correspondingly lacking a bit in surprises. Still, sometimes a generous, straightforward brekkie is just what's required. They do lunch and dinner as well, but a quick scan of the menu suggested that after breakfast, this place is basically for meat-eaters.

The Chef's Edge has also been reviewed by Three Thousand and Do You Want to Stay for Breakfast?

Address: 287 Wellington Street, Collingwood
Ph: 9415 1488
Licensed
Price: $7.50 - $14