Penta

Penta’s house-made beetroot bagel filled with salmon, watercress and egg.

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28 Riddell Parade, Elsternwick, 9523 0716

My score: 3.5/5

Who am I today? Am I the person who eats a breakfast bowl with quinoa and kale then spends the rest of the day beaming shining energy rays, boosted periodically by sips on a beetroot smoothie? Or am I that reckless creature who hunkers down over eggs benedict and braised beef cheek piled on crunchy sweet potato waffles, then spends hours galumphing around with jalapeno hollandaise on my chin?

Truth is, I am both those people at different times: the smoothie lover and the coffee chugger, the chia champion and the cheeseburger cheerleader, the buckwheat buff and the Nutella nosher.

Happily, Penta copes with all of me – and most likely with all of you. The cafe is in Elsternwick, in a great location opposite a little playground, right near the train station. Its five (therefore ‘penta’) owners have connections with well-established eastern suburbs cafes including Legacy Camberwell and Temperance Society in Hughesdale. Though Penta is brand new (and very handsome, in whites, silvers and blacks, with leather-draped banquettes) it has a hit-the-ground-running feeling. It’s ambitious: you can tell they have cafes such as Kettle Black and Higher Ground in their sights, that is to say, they want to rank among Melbourne’s very best.

What do I like here? I like the semi-secluded round table at the back, which can be booked, and would do nicely for business meetings. I like the complimentary sparkling water and the bottomless brewed coffee. I like the open kitchen and the hip, tempting menu from chef Nicky Campbell, who covers the daytime dining gamut all the way from healthy to hangover. Vegans and gluten-avoiders have much to choose from; there’s wheelchair access and highchairs too.

The Breakfast Bowl is a warm and nourishing amalgam of grains, greens and nuts, splodged with smoked yoghurt, nestling a spice-sprinkled poached egg. There’s a lot going on but everything has its place. For lunch, the Big Deal, is a burger, fries and shake (or soft drink) on a cafeteria tray. It’s cute and the burger dutifully ticks boxes: juicy, cheese-melty, sauce-slathery and bun-squishy.

Elsternwick is Bagel Central so it’s nice that Penta makes their own, a beetroot-tinged roll with a hole, filled with on-message cured salmon, watercress salad and fried egg. Salmon stars in a rather more serious lunch dish: a fillet is slathered in sriracha (Thai chilli sauce) and served over raw zucchini ‘noodles’, edamame (soy beans) and avocado. It’s fresh and flavoursome, filling without turning the eater into afternoon flotsam.

Cafes open every week but they don’t always feel necessary. Penta, however, is bringing something different and thoughtful to Elsternwick: go healthy or go indulgent, but do go.

See their website.

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Hawthorn Common, Level 1, 302 Burwood Road, Hawthorn, 9819 2200.
The straightforward please-all-comers menu and big horizons at this upstairs cafe make it a good place for daytime meetings. It’s licensed, so you can clink glasses if you want to celebrate an achievement or deal.

First published in The Age, 28th August 2016.