Bundjalung Country

July 13-14, 2026

 

   

 

As we often do, we visited south-east Queensland mid-winter to catch up with family and friends (and see a bit of sun). This year we added a new adventure to the itinerary, hiring a car and heading south across Bundjalung Country for a few days. We wandered up hills, by the beach, and through towns; visited op shops, art galleries and a beach-side book fair; saw whales, elevated views across the landscape, and a pretty sunrise. And, of course, we ate - here's what we liked best. 

____________ 

 

   

 

Our first breakfast, at Woods, really set the tone for the 'wellness' angle on so much of the cafe food in the region. I caught myself dodging and weaving dishes containing Beauty Chef and mushroom powders but found more than enough to enjoy in the banana bread ($15, pictured below left), which was piled with miso maple butter, blueberries, and macadamia-coconut streusel. Michael was delighted by the Mexican Shakshuka ($28, pictured below right), with its base of braised black beans and poached eggs, layered with tomatillo salsa, chilli butter, fried curry leaves and a side of roti. Woods' outdoor seating was lovely, and I enjoyed browsing the surrounding Lumberyard Creative Precinct.

 

   

____________

   

 

As the special meal of the trip, Michael booked us a table at Byron Bay's all-vegan No Bones in advance. We visited on $20 carbonara night and were happy to work that into our meal - it was both the best savoury dish we ordered that night, and an all-time top-ranking vegan carbonara alongside Green Man's Arms' version. We ate heartily, with mushroom ragu ($38), dips, chat potatoes ($15) and Brussels sprouts on lemon cream ($17). For me, the other high point was the chocolate cremeux ($16), a scoop of chocolate ganache hollowed out to hold a gooey miso caramel, with a side of hazelnut praline. We took advantage of the original cocktail list too.

 

   

____________

 

   

 

Shelter was Michael's breakfast pick in Lennox Head, and a set of wide-open windows facing the beach established its relaxed and positive atmosphere. He loved the local avo toast ($22) covered in chilli crunch, with two poached eggs ($7), pickled onions and a herb salad. They were out of the porridge that I was eyeing off so I happily made do with crumpets and a juice.

____________

 

   

 

After hopping all along the coast, we finished the day back in Bangalow for a meal at Ciao, Mate!. The focaccia ($6, served with butter) and veg supreme pizza ($30) were on point, and the tiramisu ($17) was as big as a brick. They had their own distinct specials, too: a cute little brie custard tart ($20, pictured above left) crowned with endive, chervil and candied walnuts; and a fancy almond whey tart ($17, pictured below left) accompanied by spiced figs and Davidson plum.

 

   

 ____________

 

   

 

Byron Bay's Folk had a lovely, rambling garden setting but the weather kept us indoors. This menu swapped Woods' Beauty Chef powder for a house-blend nettle tea, hemp seeds and bee pollen, and held on to the reishi. Their chai-spiced buckwheat porridge special ($20+) was exactly what I needed, served with half a poached pear, labne, a generous streak of almond butter, crunchy buckwheat sprinklings, and a pink edible flower garnish to break up the brown. Michael made quick and messy work of the double egg roll ($19.50) - the standard cheddar, pickles and barbecue sauce added plenty of flavour and he wasn't inclined to add on avo, halloumi or mushies as the menu invited.

 

   

____________

 

   

 

We turned around, had a cute little moment (but no food) at the Murwillumbah Farmers' Market, and set off back towards Brisbane. Happily Izakaya Midori was right on our path and I steered Michael into the strip mall it inhabits for a vegan Japanese lunch. He was just as charmed as I was on my first visit: it's cordoned off and thoughtfully decorated to transport your senses well away from the Pacific Motorway, and the staff are just lovely. We both ordered from the slightly discounted lunch menu (a rice bowl and iced tea for $26.50): a saucy mock-chicken curry karaage for Michael, and a bright, vege-heavy mock-chicken karaage don for me.

____________ 

 

With that, we were refreshed and ready to return to our second home of Kurilpa/West End. This wasn't a food-first holiday, but it was definitely one of the joys of the trip. 

Galleon Cafe IV

June 27, 2026 

 

   

Well, the Galleon Cafe has endured in a way this blog can still only aspire to. Established in 1984, it's gone two decades longer, changed hands several times, escaped at least one impending closure, and most recently recovered from a neighbourhood fire... all the while being celebrated for its consistency.

I was immediately utterly charmed by it one our first visit, returned a good few times in those early Melbourne years, but trailed off as my inner-north inertia took hold. Now firmly in our middle age and with a Saturday morning free, we were up early enough to cross town for breakfast and still beat the queue! Once again, I was immediately awash with affection for the place - the laminex tables, the community pinboard, and the very vegetarian-friendly menu. (There are no dietary markings and it looks like markedly less for vegans: I spied mushrooms and avocado on pide, and scrambled tofu with mushrooms and spinach on toast.) Almost everything I noted in those early posts remained on the menu: no more bagels but, yes, three kinds of porridge, savoury scones, bubble'n'squeak ($10 in 2007, $17 in 2026), pikelets/pancakes with strawberries and lemon curd ($8.50 in 2008, $18.50 in 2026) and, of course, the dishes we returned to this day.

   

 

For Michael, it was the sweet potato, basil and feta hash ($11.50 in 2007, $18 in 2026), served with a poached egg, wilted spinach, and house made chutney. What once looked enormous on the plate was now arranged upon one side, but it still tasted good and was filling enough.

 

   

 

After umming and ahhing a good while, I went back to the rice pudding ($5.75 in 2008, $9.50 in 2026). It looked even tinier than Michael's meal (have we both grown since 2006?!) but proved to be exactly the right quantity and exactly what I'd wished for: creamy (almost custardy!), topped with plentiful toasted almonds, and concealing a sweet poached-rhubarb base. Just gorgeous.

 

   

 

While the staff remain youthful and energetic (and dressed in the Y2K retro fashions that could have me believing it really was 2006), the clientele seem to have aged along with us. Perhaps the Galleon Cafe is a nostalgia pick but this is still precisely the kind of breakfast and atmosphere I like best now in 2026.

 

   

 

____________

 

You can read about one, two, three of our previous visits to the Galleon Cafe. Here's a classic review on the breakfast blog from the same era. (Just barely) more recently, there are positive posts on Eat & Be Merry, The Chommery, KayB's Cakes, The Lazy Afternoon, Millie's Food Symposium and Tales of a Confectionist. 

____________ 

 

Galleon Cafe

9 Carlisle St, St Kilda  

9534 8934 

food, drinks 

instagram

 

Accessibility: There's a step up on entry. The interior is densely packed with regular-height tables and backed chairs. There is a high bench along the window with fixed backless stools. Outdoor seating is also densely arranged, of regular height with backed chairs and benches. There is one narrow unisex toilet. We ordered at our table and paid at a low counter.

Patris

June 26, 2026 

 

   

 

Patris is an eastern Mediterranean restaurant that opened in Brunswick earlier this year, in a spot that we've known best as Lucy Lockett cafe, although it's been home to a few other businesses in the years we've lived close by. Patris offers just dinner, Thursday through Saturday, and it took us some months to plan ahead and book ourselves a table.

 

The indoor dining area has previously felt a little sparse and this crew have done the best job yet of creating a warm and homely atmosphere with pre-loved furniture, unique pictures on the walls, indoor plants, and a well-stocked bookcase. It's a welcome break from the white/grey/blonde wood cafe culture that pervades! 

 

   

 

The menu sets the restaurant's intentions up front - it's a celebration of the migrant and restaurant histories of its owners, drawing from sustainable, family-centred ingredients and practices, and named after the ship that transported the co-owner's mother from Lefkáda, Greece to Melbourne/Naarm in the 1960s. Dishes across the menu come in a range of sizes (including 3 meaty mains) and there are untranslated codes that I expect mark vegan and vegetarian, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free and pescatarian foods, with most dishes ticking off three-to-four of these features. There's a helpful glossary of ingredients tucked at the bottom, too.

 

It was a Friday and we were ready to start with a drink! Michael sampled the KEO pale lager ($12) from Cyprus, and I splashed out on a Hibiscus Sour mocktail ($18), which seemed to use aquafaba rather than egg white. 

 

   

 

To eat, we ordered broadly and enthusiastically across the menu. The Yíyantes ($20) arrived first, a vegan-friendly shallow dish of giant white runner beans cooked in tomato yiahní (slow cooked sauce). They were closely followed by zucchini and cabbage fritters ($18) with whipped féta and mint - one of Michael's highlights.

 

   

 

Later came the piláfi ($18), where the seasonal greens, sultanas and rice were barely visible beneath a cloak of flaked almonds and a sprinkling of rose petals. Another favourite was the puffy Ladénia ($16), a house-made bread topped with caramelised tomato and onion. 

 

   

 

Even richer foods were still to come! We had to have the roasted lemon potatoes ($16), and I most enjoyed alternating the grilled haloúmi and commandaría poached figs ($18) with the piláfi.

 

   

 

Honestly, we were full, but I found the dessert menu irresistible. We agreed that the tahini brownie would have to wait for another day so that we could try the completely new-to-us Ekmék Kataîfi ($16). It was impeccably piped and garnished with rose petals and crushed pistachios, and we had to dig deep beneath the cream and custard layers to reach the sweet shredded pastry. The overall effect was a bit too creamy for us both after such a feast, but we were glad we'd tried it and grateful for the care with which it was made.

   

 

As vegetarians, there was more than enough to enjoy in the Patris menu; vegans would have a pleasant but less varied time with the beans, bread and side dishes (and probably seek dessert elsewhere). The staff were welcoming, and it's just lovely to see a new local restaurant with a sense of self that runs so much deeper than social media branding.

___________

 

Patris 

140 Barkly St, Brunswick

menu 

https://www.patris.au/

 

Accessibility: Patris has a flat entry and clear corridor through the middle. Regular-height tables and backed chairs are arranged somewhat densely. We ordered at our table and paid at a low counter. We didn't visit the toilets this time, but back in Lucy Lockett days it was unisex with a big cubicle and a change table, though access required negotiating a small flight of steps.

Gujju's Cafe & Chaat House

Sadly between our visit in June and this post getting written, it seems Gujju's has permanently closed. 20+ years still a very impressive innings.

June 13, 2026

 

   

Unfortunately, since we visited in June it seems as though Gujju's has closed down. It was a real gem, offering something different and this visit had me excited to go back and try more of the menu. Alas. This post is now just a record of how they were travelling in 2026.

Our Cheap Eats 2006/2026 project has us acting like we did when we first moved to Melbourne, heading out to far-flung suburbs to visit restaurants instead of just wandering around a narrow Brunswick/Northcote radius. This week it was time to revisit Gujju's Cafe and Chaat House in Malvern. We first visited back in 2008, and Cindy revisited a few years later - both visits were huge successes, with the Gujarati menu offering something pretty different to the standard suburban Indian restaurant we were most familiar with. We invited friend-of-the-blog Hayley to join us and see how things looked a few years down the road. 

More than a decade since our last visit, Gujju's seemed to be still going strong, offering an impressive range of chaat dishes, a few Indo-Chinese dishes and the thalis that won me over so completely 18 years ago. The vibes are pretty basic - paper tablecloths and slightly harsh lighting - but we were there for food not vibes.

Cindy and Hayley split some chaat plates and left me to my thali. They started with a serve of Mumbai sev puri ($12.90), a spicy mix of chutneys, yoghurt, veggies and tiny little crispy noodles. 

 

   

They added in a gobi manchurian ($15.90) from the Indo-Chinese menu as well. This is a plate of crispy cauliflower just bursting with flavours - chilli, ginger, green onions and soy sauce combine to make the cauliflower florets basically irresistable. 

   

   

The final dish was a Hyderabadi tikki chaat ($12.90), a base of deep-fried potato, topped with yoghurt and chutneys and little chickpea flour balls (boondi). The flavour of this wasn't wildly different to the first dish, with the yoghurt and tangy chutneys doing a lot of the heavy lifting, but there was some fun textural variation. The chaats were $8-10 when Cindy visited in 2013, so prices have stayed pretty reasonable given the inflation of the past decade.

   

I had the Gujarati thali ($21.90), which comes with rice, roti, a dal soup and another beany dish (kathol), a veggie curry (undhiyu), a potato-y curry, some sort of cabbage pickle, a chilli pickle, a glass of buttermilk and a slightly disturbing looking pink dessert. 

   

The prices have gone up since 2008, but only by $5, and the range of quantity of food is still very, very impressive. None of the curries were especially spicy, but they all had their own flavours and textures and it was a lot of fun to sample them all with my breads and rice. The dessert wasn't as sickly sweet as it looked, more yoghurty than creamy, but it wasn't really a huge highlight. 

Gujju's was a pretty functional experience, the staff were efficient and the fit-out was pretty simple, but the menu was fantastic: all vegetarian, all delicious and with lots of stuff you won't get at your local Indian. It was definitely worth the trip! Fantastic that an unassuming place like this thrives for more than 20 years. 

____________

 

Read about our earlier visits to Gujju's here and here. Since we last visited, Gujju's received a rave review on UrbanDuniya.

____________ 

 

Gujju's Cafe & Chaat House
1/141 Waverley Road, Malvern East

9571 1188

appetisers; chaat & Indo Chinese; dessert & drinks; thali, extras & tiffins 

 

Accessibility: Gujju's had several steps down from the entry to most of the seating. Tables and backed chairs were regular height and spaced densely throughout the restaurant. We ordered at our table and paid at a high counter. We didn't visit the toilets.

Ela Ada

May 23, 2026

 

   

 

When we agreed to the potluck theme of 'dumplings of the world' with friends, we were sharing pics and thinking up dishes for weeks in advance. As usual I wanted to make something sweet, and this time something especially cosy for winter. The dilemma was that for me this objective brings up puffy, cakey, flour-based recipes like custard-filled bao and European doughs stuffed with berries... yet I was mindful that there'd be at least one gluten-free guest. 

 

Mochi can be gluten-free, but I don't think of it as a winter warmer, and I could see myself getting stressed out while making it. The better alternative was the completely new-to-me ela ada. Originating around Kerala, it's also a rice-based dough, stuffed with something sweet (often jaggery-sweetened coconut) and steamed in a banana leaf. 

 

   

 

I bought frozen coconut from an Indian grocer (and probably could have just used dessicated, in the absence of fresh). The minimum quantity of jaggery available was upwards of a kilo, so I decided to make do with the palm sugar blocks I had at home. I found frozen banana leaves at Lunar Mart and spent quite some time washing them carefully.

 

Preparation took care but progressed nicely: kneading a smooth rice flour dough, frying together the coconut and sugar with a little cardamom. Then the most challenging part! Applying a little coconut oil to a banana leaf rectangle, rolling and pressing flat a circle of dough using wet hands, spooning in some filling and then firmly pressing the banana leaf in half to seal up the semi-circular dumpling. I arranged all the parcels in my steamer and hoped for the best, giving them a second steam to reheat once we were ready for dessert on the night.  

 

   

My ela ada weren't beauties but they were successful - a little chewy, with caramel sweetness, and plenty of warmth. They didn't always tear easily away from their banana leaf wrapping. I'm so glad I got to know them and could share them with friends.

 

 

 

Ela Ada 

(slightly adapted from a recipe on The Tastes of India) 

 

filling

1 teaspoon ghee, coconut oil or margarine

2/3 cup grated jaggery (I used palm sugar)

1 cup grated coconut

1/4 teaspoon cardamom

 

dough

1 cup fine rice flour  

1 cup water

1 teaspoon ghee, coconut oil or margarine

1/2 teaspoon salt

 

banana leaves, washed 

extra ghee, coconut oil or margarine 

 

 

For the dough, lightly roast the rice flour in a frypan, and transfer it to a heat-proof mixing bowl. Boil the water, stir in the ghee/oil/margarine, and pour the liquid over the rice flour. Stir it together to form a dough. When the dough is cool enough to handle, knead it until it's as smooth as possible. Set the dough aside.

 

For the filling, melt the ghee/oil/margarine in a frypan and stir through the coconut. Add the jaggery and stir until it melts. Sprinkle over the cardamom, and turn off the heat. 

 

If the banana leaves are brittle, hold them over an open flame until they become pliable. Cut the leaves into medium-sized squares and lightly grease them with ghee/coconut oil/margarine.

 

Pick up 1/4 cup of the dough and flatten it out into a circle on a banana leaf, using wet hands. Place a generous spoonful of coconut mixture in a semi-circle on the dough circle, leaving a outside border of 1 cm without filling. Use the banana leaf to fold the dough into a semi-circle and seal the edges together and encase the coconut filling. Repeat with the remaining banana leaves, dough and filling.

 

Steam the parcels for 10-12 minutes. Peel off the banana leaf and serve warm. 

20 years of...

   

 

Today marks 20 years since we published the first post on where's the beef?. The format has aged, we have aged, our posting frequency has slowed and our readership has declined, AND YET - in this obscurity we still find food blogging meaningful and useful, and occasionally we continue to get messages that some of you do too.

 

where's the beef? is a document of the 20 years we've lived in Melbourne, the people we've spent time with, the things we've done, the ways we've changed. Early on we lived very close to our workplaces: we were often home with groceries by 6pm with energy to cook something new; on the weekends we'd get on the train or tram and visit a new-to-us suburb to eat new-to-us food. Twenty years later our habits have narrowed a bit: I tend to seek out simpler new recipes and happily refer to old favourites that we've saved up here; there barely seem enough chances to support the restaurants I already know and love, and we're completely out of the loop on what's hot in the city. (Meanwhile Michael visits Iris the Bakery several times a week and has never written a post about them!) In between, we've made some of the firmest friends of our adult lives through blogging and we're having many of them over for a vegan potluck tomorrow.

 

In the past few years, my computer-based workload and bouts of vestibular migraine have put me off opening the laptop in the evenings, and one day they might do this blog in entirely (if Google doesn't do Blogger in first). For now where's the beef? is still here, celebrating vegetarian food at its own pace. 

Manzé

May 21, 2026

 

   

 

This year we celebrated Michael's birthday early, with dinner at Manzé. This Mauritian restaurant is best known for its seafood, but it's actually got a seasonal vegan set menu ($105 per person) on offer too. (Another bonus - they have a bar called Boire across the street, where we met up first and I had a stunning plum daiquiri.) Contrary to the end-of-evening photo above, Manzé was crowded with furniture, people and music, with most dining couples seated at a central communal table.

   

 

The first wave of our set menu was served across three plates: vegetable fritters were served with hot sauce, cabbage was pickled vindaye-style (a technique usually applied to fish), and pickled fruits were teamed with a blob of salted feijoa chutney - the bright and hot pickley flavours lifted any heaviness from the fried batter.

 

   

 

The second wave was my favourite. It centred around cari gros pois, a rich and savoury butter bean curry encircled with sorrel chutney and topped with fioretto (cauli blossom). There was a gorgeous, soft dal puri (lentil flatbread) to scoop it up, interspersed with side dishes of bredes songes (sour winter greens and ginger) and achard piment (green apple and chilli pickle).

 

   

 

The staff accidentally had us waiting a while for our main, having mistakenly served it to another couple at the table. We weren't fazed, and Michael was comped a lovely dessert wine later by way of apology. We worked through the meaty, well-marinated oyster mushrooms slowly, and I especially enjoyed the accompanying roasted persimmon chutney. Rice and a modest green salad rounded this out to a full meal of its own.

 

   

 

The vegan set menu had us anticipating salted coconut sorbet and plum but, since we self-reported as vegetarians, I think they lined us up with the standard dessert. This was more of a panna cotta - though it's not my favourite kind of dessert this one was special, and beautifully set off with the scaled arrangement of plum slices on top.

 

We were unsure whether a seafood-free meal at Manzé would measure up but it really did! This menu was unlike anything we've been served before, and it's designed to cycle with the seasons, so Manzé will be well worth a revisit.

 ____________

 

Manzé has also received a positive review from Kulture Kween. 

____________ 

 

Manzé
Shop 2/1/5 Errol St, North Melbourne 

0401 749 051 

vegan set menu for Waring/Wombat season  

https://www.manze.com.au/

 

Accessibility: Manzé has a step up on entry. The interior is crowded and loud, mostly densely packed regular height tables and backed chairs, plus one high table with backless stools. We ordered and paid at our table. We didn't visit the toilets.

Sleepys II

May 15, 2026 

 

   

 

After first visiting Sleepys for brunch, we returned for Michael's (unblogged, weeknight, pre-netball) birthday dinner a month later. It took nearly a year for us to return for dinner again, ready to spontaneously treat ourselves on a Friday night. Naturally the menu changed a little in the meantime, though the theme is consistent - contemporary Chinese flavours in a wine bar setting, consistently staffed with the most friendly folk.

 

   

 

We were both in the mood for a cocktail, ordering an old-fashioned and a negroni between us ($22). 

 

   

 

We ordered most of the vegetarian options, with the help of our waiter. The teeny little spring rolls ($8) were piping hot and glistened with house-made sweet chilli sauce. Fried chive dumplings ($14) were hardier, with the chives filling the centre, and their chilli vinegar served more typically on the side.

 

   

 

The liang fen ($14) were very special, translucent handmade mung bean jelly noodles, naturally slippery, lightly dressed in soy, with roasted sesame seeds and Sichuan pepper.

 

   

 

The Hokkien noodles ($22) were less delicate and very satisfying, very salty, singing with soy and ginger and scattered with big chunks of spring onion. 

 

   

 

XO tofu ($30) was teamed with shiitakes on a gorgeous vintage fish plate and piled with sliced youtiao (savoury doughnut), which I loved dredging through the sauce. Some steamed rice ($5) seemed prudent.

 

   

The one dessert on offer was a star anise parfait ($15) served with plums, and it was a singular pleasure.

This was a special meal for no special occasion at all, a perhaps that made us feel all the more grateful for it. 

____________

 

 You can read about our first visit to Sleepys here.

____________ 

 

Sleepys 

787 Nicholson St, Carlton North 

food, drinks 

https://www.sleepyscafeandwinebar.com.au/ 

 

Accessibility: Sleepys has a step up on entry and clear pathway through the middle. Inside there are densely arranged regular and high tables with backed chairs; the backless benches outside look a little unstable. We ordered at our table and paid at a high counter. We didn't visit the toilets but it looks like there's a tight turn on the way out. (When this spot previously housed A Fan's Notes, we described the toilet as "a single, unisex toilet cubicle, which is a step up off an uneven path".)

Cherry almond bars

May 9, 2026 

 

   

 

I've broken the habit and pulled out The Big Book of Beautiful Biscuits for the second time in a year (after several years of choosing it only in my summer holiday). I don't recall ever eating these cherry almond bars before (dried fruit and nuts were divisive in my family of origin) but glace cherries feel nostalgic for me, nevertheless.

 

This recipe is a mash-up of things I love - cherries, chocolate, almonds, shortbread. I omitted the lemon rind, because I made these rapidly on a whim, but I'd welcome that element too. The biscuits are formed by slicing pieces from a dense, buttery log of dough. I clearly didn't get the dimensions as intended because I made 15 biscuit slices, and the recipe estimated a batch to be 35. Yet my chunky biscuits still overcooked during the recommended baking time! They weren't burnt but they were much more golden, occasionally even brown, compared to a conventional shortbread. Fewer biscuits also meant less chocolate needed, and I've adjusted the quantity down to match my batch.

These biscuits were delicious, but less than the sum of their parts. The toastiness of the biscuits crowded out the almonds, mouthfuls of the chocolate half tasted of little else, and the cherries were rare, separate experiences. Every bite was a pleasure tinged with a search for something else. 

   

 

Cherry almond bars

(slightly adapted from The Australian Women's Weekly The Big Book of Beautiful Biscuits, also published online here) 

 

90g butter, at room temperature 

1 teaspoon grated lemon rind 

1/3 cup caster sugar

1 egg yolk

1 cup plain flour

1/3 cup blanched almonds

1/3 cup glace cherries

125g dark chocolate

2 teaspoons vegetable oil 

 

In a bowl, use an electric mixer to beat together the butter, lemon rind, sugar and egg yolk. Sift in the flour, partially mix, add the almonds and cherries, and mix to fully combine.

 

Unroll a large sheet of plastic wrap and transfer the biscuit mixture onto it. Manoeuvre the plastic wrap to compact the mixture into a big log, with a cross-section of about 4 cm x 5 cm. Refrigerate the biscuit log until firm, at least an hour.

 

When the dough is ready, preheat an oven to 180°C and line 1-2 baking trays with paper. Use a sharp knife to slice the log into 5-8 mm thick slices and lay them out on the baking trays. Bake for 10-15 minutes, until just beginning to go golden around the edges.

 

Melt the chocolate using your preferred method and stir in the vegetable oil. Dip half of each biscuit in the chocolate and return them to the trays; refrigerate briefly to set. Store at room temperature.  

Babka III

May 9, 2026 

   

 

Babka is still open on Brunswick St for twenty-years-on coverage, though we've missed the cafe's founder by about 3 years. It seems to have lost most of the Eastern European features it was once known for:  borscht, potato dumplings, and - most devastatingly for me - the blintzes. Instead there's the more predictable Aussie cafe run of chilli scrambled eggs, smashed avo, chicken and avocado toasties, and egg and bacon rolls. (There are no markings for vegans or gluten-free folks, and I wouldn't especially recommend the menu to either.)

   

 

The overflowing sweets cabinet still reigns, and there were plenty of customers queuing for takeaway coffee, bread and baked sweets, rather than the sit-down menu.

 

   

 

Michael ordered the aforementioned chilli scramble ($21.50), a likeable, decently proportioned plate with a choice of bread (sourdough here), fresh herbs, chilli slices, grated cheese and a house-made chilli sauce from yesteryear.

 

   

 

Blintzless, I pivoted to French toast ($21.50). I was perfectly happy with one slice - it was nicely battered without being too eggy. The accompanying 'fresh fruits' were mostly tasteless strawberries, and the scoop of mascarpone was great. I didn't need any of the maple syrup on offer. 

 

   

 

We picked out a lil' something from the dessert case to take home for later. Michael rated his plum frangipane tart ($9) highly. I was even happier with the lemon tart ($9) - while I though the pastry was average, the lemon filling was exceptional, with a gorgeous wafer-thin crust of burnt sugar.

 

   

 

The Babka menu clearly isn't what it once was, but there's still a comfort to the place. The classic cafe fit-out feels just right. We were perched near the coffee machine and noticed the manager cheerfully chatting with everyone, with many clearly being regulars. The customers spanned generations and Brunswick St subcultures. I'm glad Babka has found a form it can sustain. 

 ____________

 

You can read about one, two of our previous visits to Babka. Since then, it's received generally positive reviews on Multicultural Melbourne, Almost Always Ravenous, Spoonful of Sugar, and Vanilla Slice (Snot) Blog.

____________ 

 

Babka

358 Brunswick St, Fitzroy 

9416 0091 

menu: one, two 

instagram page 

 

Accessibility: There is a step up on entry and a crowded interior. Furniture is densely arranged regular height small tables and backed chairs. We ordered and paid at a low counter. We didn't visit the toilets.