Cumbé

October 24, 2025

   

The bright orange panels at Cumbé caught my eye on Sydney Rd before they'd even opened, and I was excited to see that this would be another sandwich shop. (It's a trend I'm firmly in favour of.) More specifically, Cumbé is focused on Mexican tortas, offering a compact list of tortas/bowls alongside pies and sausage rolls. There's a lot of pork going on but also one vegetarian option in each category - a pie of roast pumpkin and lentils ($10) and chilaquiles con huevo ($16 as torta/$15 as bowl). 

Michael and I snuck in for a work-from-home day lunch and both sampled the torta. It is immense, and immensely messy! A long roll barely containing a mostly-gooey cacophony of fried egg, ricotta-like cheese, black beans, corn chips, spicy pickled onions, coriander and fresh chilli. I enjoyed the ride but got off early; Michael saw through his and the rest of mine. This situation clearly isn't built for vegans and I'm not sure that I'm built for it. I bet Michael will be back for another round, though.

   

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Cumbé

551 Sydney Rd, Brunswick

menu

instagram page

Accessibility: Cumbé has a flat entry to a low counter. There's a mix of high benches with backless stools by the window, and regular height tables with backless stools and bench seats. We ordered and paid at the low counter, and received food at our table. We didn't visit the toilets.

 

Chickpea & artichoke salad

October 6, 2025

   

Michael was away for work, and I wanted to stock the fridge with a couple of durable salads to rely on across the week. This one was so deep in my bookmarks that I needed the Internet Archive Wayback Machine to retrieve it! It's a natural and appealing mix of artichoke hearts and chickpeas, both browned in a pan, then dressed with lemon juice, olive oil and some green herbs, finished with almonds.

This fit the brief perfectly. I first ate it alongside beetroot and rhubarb salad and vegetarian sausage rolls, and in a few other configurations as the week went on.

Chickpea & artichoke salad

(slightly adapted from a recipe by Ricki Heller)

5 tablespoons olive oil, and/or oil from the jar of artichoke hearts

juice of 1 lemon

2 teaspoons dried or 2 tablespoons fresh basil

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1/4 cup fresh parsley, finely chopped

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup flaked almonds

1 x 400g can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1 x 280g jar artichoke hearts, drained and quartered (reserve oil, if included)

2 cloves garlic, minced

In a medium-large bowl, whisk together 3 tablespoons of oil, lemon juice, basil, oregano, parsley and salt. Set aside.

Set a frypan over medium heat and gently toast the flaked almonds until they're starting to brown and they smell great. Remove them from the pan.

Pour 1 tablespoon of olive oil into the frypan. Add the chickpeas to the oil and cook them for about 10 minutes, until they start to brown. Transfer the chickpeas from the pan to the bowl.

Add 1 more tablespoon of olive oil to the frypan. Place the artichoke hearts in the pan and cook until they're well browned on that side, then turn them to brown them on another side. Add the garlic and stir it all together for a minute, then transfer the artichoke hearts and garlic to the bowl. Stir everything together well, then sprinkle over the flaked almonds.

Kariton Sorbetes II

October 5, 2025

   

Even since before my first visit, I've been coveting the sundaes at Kariton Sorbetes and waiting for the time and place to try one. I made the time after a Sunday rally in the city and pounced on a small Taho ($11) - it's a still-generous swirl of silken tofu soft serve, a decent spoonful of soy milk pannacotta, and a drip of small tapioca pearls in oolong tea syrup. After years of resistance, I think I'm finally getting the hang of soy milk as a dessert - and this is a fine way to do it without any masking of the flavour. Even so, I would have liked a little more of that dark tea syrup to distribute across the cup.

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You can read about our first visit to Kariton here. You can also read about the various Kariton outlets on Sweet & Sour Fork, Mamma Knows East, Mamma Knows West and The Resolved Wanderer.

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Kariton Sorbetes 

177 Russell St, Melbourne CBD 

menu 

https://www.karitonsorbetes.com/ 

Accessibility: Kariton Sorbetes has a flat entry and somewhat narrow, roped queuing system. There are few seats, mostly low backless stools. I ordered, paid, and picked up our icecreams at a low counter. I didn't visit the toilets.

Walrus

September 29, 2025

   

We've not paid much attention to Walrus and its diner style in the couple of years it's been on Sydney Rd. It's clearly popular, though, with people often spilling onto the street on weekends. A couple of recommendations from friends filtered in and I decided to visit for a quiet solo lunch on a weekday. A staff member offered me a seat at the counter top and the booths rapidly filled up behind me.

The menu is very firmly grounded in diner traditions - sunny side up eggs with Texas toast, blueberry pancakes, biscuits and gravy, steak and eggs, hash browns, Denver omelettes - but there are a few nods to the present-day brunch scene, like avocado as an add-on, and apple porridge flavoured with miso and lemon balm. There are no indicators of what fits dietary requirements, and it took a chat with the staff to officially rule out the biscuit and gravy as not vegetarian. 

Instead I chose a bodega roll with hash, egg and cheese ($14) and a huge, ice-filled orange juice ($6). The roll was wrapped, steamy and comforting, with a tangy tomato sauce that cut through the richness of the triple-yellow filling.

   

The specials board right next to me announced the pies of the day, and I had to try the key lime ($11). It was exceptional, with a buttery crumb and smooth filling that was equal parts creamy, sweet and sour. The frill of aerosol cream added to the retro look, but I could take or leave it, really.

The staff were welcoming and sufficiently available. I had a great little time at Walrus, but it's not as inclusive as what I'm usually looking for - the fixed booths and high, backless stools won't suit all bodies, and the menu doesn't have vegans or coeliacs in mind. They've successfully found their crowd, regardless.

   

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Walrus has also received a positive review on Around Melbourne.

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Walrus

312 Sydney Rd, Brunswick

7071 2596

food, drinks

instagram

Accessibility: There's a small lip on the door and a clear, flat corridor through the centre of the café. Seating is mostly fixed booths at regular height; there's also a high counter with fixed backless stools for individual customers. I ordered and paid at the high counter. I didn't visit the toilets.

Omelette roll sushi rice bowl

September 26, 2025

   

This is a fun little Meera Sodha recipe that we'd never think to compose ourselves, but we love on sight! So much so that we repeated it one night later with our remaining eggs, and again perhaps a month after that. The hook is the mirin-sweetened omelette roll. It's teamed with sushi rice, quick-pickled carrots and wasabi mayo. 

We've made some minor adjustments. We prefer less rice in the ratio and sprinkle a little shichimi togarashi over it for extra spice. We add a scoop of microwaved edamame for some extra greens and a novel texture. That's it! If there's a downside, it's that this meal isn't particularly leftover or lunchbox friendly. But it's a level of effort that we're willing to make on a weeknight, and it feels like a treat.

Omelette roll sushi rice bowl

(slightly adapted from a recipe by Meera Sodha in The Guardian)

200g sushi rice (this was too much for us, and we reduced by a third the second time)

2 teaspoons salt

1/2 cup sushi rice vinegar, or 1 tablespoon caster sugar dissolved in 1/2 cup rice vinegar

1 large carrot, peeled and cut into matchsticks

1-2 teaspoons wasabi paste

3 tablespoons mayonnaise

1 cup frozen edamame

6 medium eggs

1 tablespoon mirin

1 1/2 tablespoons tamari

2 1/2 tablespoons sesame oil

shichimi togarashi

1/2 teaspoon black sesame seeds

Place the rice in a saucepan and cover it with 280ml water. Bring it all to the boil, cover it with a lid, turn down the heat to low and cook for a further 10 minutes. Turn off the heat but keep the lid on for another 10 minutes.

In a small bowl, stir together half of the salt and half of the sushi rice vinegar. Set it aside. 

Place the carrot matchsticks in a medium bowl, pour over the remaining sushi rice vinegar and salt. Stir it all together and set it aside.

In a small bowl, mix together the wasabi paste and mayonnaise. Set it aside too.

Place the edamame in a microwave-safe bowl and cover them generously in water. Microwave for 2 minutes, until hot, and set aside.

Now, the main event. Crack the eggs into a medium bowl and beat them well. Add the mirin, tamari, and half a tablespoon of sesame oil. Set a frypan over medium heat and add a tablespoon of the sesame oil. When it's hot, pour in half of the egg mixture and cook until golden on the bottom and just barely set on top. You can take the omelette out now, or flip it to fully set the other side if you prefer. When the omelette is done, transfer it to a plate and repeat with the remaining sesame oil and egg mixture.

To serve, divide the rice between two shallow bowls and sprinkle it with shichimi togarashi. Roll up each omelette, slice them into inch-thick spirals and arrange them next to the rice. Add the edamame and pickled carrot to the bowl, then spoon in the wasabi mayonnaise and sprinkle it with black sesame seeds.