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1252 Malvern Road, Malvern, 9824 5518
My score: 4/5
Friends don’t tell friends to open cafes. If they held back, there’d be fewer places run by misguided souls who do great dinner parties (“This pasta is amazing, you should open a restaurant!”) but don’t have any idea how to deliver hospitality. Businesses fuelled by unfocused food dreams might be full of heart – even delicious dishes – but being in them can feel like riding a runaway train.
On the other hand, there are places that know what they’re up to right from the first morning of the first day. The operators understand the neighbourhood (and they’re still willing to listen and learn), the menu is carefully judged and the waiters spill with initiative. Neon Tiger is in the second happy category. The collective CV includes Mr Brightside in Caulfield and Melbourne Pub Group and you may recognise the people serving and cooking for you from other quality cafes.
Everything feels good. The pastel fit-out adds a friendly spin to a brand new concrete and glass box. Cute corrugated ceiling baffles hold back the din. The dog-loving pavement area has heaters and umbrellas that ensure it’s feasible even in winter. The menu makes it easy to be healthy and fresh or gooey and indulgent and, above all, the waiters have enough experience and wit to keep trying to say ‘yes’ to their customers. Smart breakfast dishes include French toast (cut into fingers for more crisp golden fringe), and bubble and squeak ‘waffles’ because spuds are fine way to start a day. For lunch, eat the salads because they’re Superfood Central or just because they’re tasty. There’s also silky pappardelle tossed with roasted cauliflower, peas and gorgonzola: it’s superb. The coffee is good and the juice menu is excellent, rounding off a new cafe that’s as clever as it is comfortable.
See their website.
More new in town:
Jack Horner, 179 Weston Street, Brunswick East, 9388 1825.
The new cafe from the Pope Joan crew is a classy rethink of the canteen with roast chicken, braises and a checkbox breakfast menu (banoffee waffles are a specialty).
Bancroft Brewers, 470A Glen Huntly Road, Elsternwick, 9523 1198.
Taking over where the Moor’s Head left off, this brewer does specialty coffee and easy-on-the-eye scrambled eggs, salads and burgers.
Chato, 921 High Street, Thornbury, 9484 8554.
Cafe breakfasts with a Spanish spin (cauliflower pancake and romesco sauce) ease into tapas (charred chorizo, black pudding with sherry vinegar) as the sun goes down.
First published in The Age, August 2, 2015.
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