Cafe Delaville

Mid week lunch cravings sent me walking up Toorak Road. Awhile back I was invited to an event at Cafe Delaville but wasn't able to make it. I was always curious about it and since it was so close to me at the time. It felt like it was my calling to go.

Normally I don't like to go alone as I can never decide on sweet or savory. As much as I love sweets, I don't feel like my hunger is satisfied if I get just a sweet dish. So being along I ordered a savory dish.

After pondering I went with Cafe De La Ville Benedict. This tends to be my go to whenever I can't decide. Unlike a traditional Benedict, they did it with pork belly. It was served with poached egg, watercress salad, apple cider hollandaise and apple puree. I found the pork belly to be too heavy for my liking. However the different versions of apple sauce was quite enjoyable.

Overall it served up a decent meal. Would I travel out of my way to come here? No. Would I come again? Yes, if i was in the area and I want to try a sweet dish next time.

Hobba

In my typical weekend style, D and I went on our usual routine and looked for a new brunch place to try. This time I spent my Sunday at Hobba, a new brunch location on Malvern Rd near Hawksburn. It is a refurbished warehouse situated in the local shopping strip.

We got here after 2 and the place was still bursting with people, we had a short wait of 15 minutes before we were seated. The host was friendly and showed us to the table and made sure our coffee orders were in straight away.

We each got our usual, soy latte for me and skinny latte for D. The coffees were quick to serve and hit the spot. I liked how the used 5 sense coffee beans.

When it came to food, D had a lot of difficulty choosing. He wanted the big bad wolf, espanola and the hobba burger but sadly only space for one of those. In the end he went with the big bad wolf and as the name suggests, it was very big. This came with 2 fried eggs, bacon, kale, hash brown, home made beans, black pudding, tomatoes and mushrooms on toast. There was a lot on the plate and perfect for any hungry man or lady. The house made beans and the black pudding were my favourite element on the plate but i found it a shame, that they forgot to serve the black pudding and it wasn't until we were half way through that we realised it was missing and asked for it.

My decision was very easy, I walked in feeling like hotcakes and that was exactly what I ordered. The hotcakes came with berries, mascarpone, honeycomb and maple syrup. The hotcakes had a cripsy edge and were on the heavy side. I found it difficult to finish as I was full after the first hotcake, I would have prefer the hotcake to be more fluffy as well. I definitely walked out with a food baby after this

Overall 15/20 I like their atmosphere and there was a lot of variety on the menu. This is a place I would come back when I'm in the area or wanting a chilled place to brunch with my friends on the weekend.

Tivoli Road Bakery

After reading much about the hype of cronuts in the USA, I was thrilled to find out that I could get them in Melbourne. Instead of being called cronuts they are called doissants here (due to trademark and copyright reasons). For those of you who are unaware, it is basically a cross between a doughnut and a croissant. Both bad for you but just the thought of fluffy goodness of a croissant in a doughnut was enough to get me hooked.

Located on a side street off Toorak Road, this place has quite the hipster vibe. Known to be extremely popular, I had to call ahead to preorder them. 






I got my hands on both the chocolate croissant and the raspberry custard. They lived up to what I expected too. I went nuts and brought 6 of each, which wasn't such a good idea because the next day, they got a bit hard and is nowhere as nice as they are fresh.

I was quite lucky, when I was there, they gave me their famous doughnuts free to try. I may have went there for the doissant, but I left as a fan of their salted caramel doughnut.

Absolute Delish!


 

LuxBite

I will admit it upfront, I have a bit of a sweet tooth and I like pretty things. So learning that LuxBite was both, meant it was a must visit place for me.

Being in May with winter looming around the corner, things tend to feel grey from the weather so a nice dessert can be uplifting. The decor in the place is really bright and cosy, fitting right in with the Toorak crowd. As a little cafe with just a few tables near the window, it would be the perfect brunch or a good girls lunch spot. Brightly lit with cute and dainty fittings, it truly aims to give you that happy dessert place feeling.

This place is well known for it's macaroons, ranging from kaya toast to pandan and peanut butter jelly combo. I got an 8 pack consisting of: rose and lychee, pandan, kaya toast, bamboo oolong tea, ribena lemonade, green tea pistachio, peach and apricot cocktail and peanut butter jelly. Of the 8 my favourite was pandan. This was very fragrant without being overpowering. Kaya toast was a surprising change too, but I think you would need to have had a real kaya toast before to appreciate this flavour. The others were also nice but not as unique as those two.

There was so many cakes to choose and after much dilemma I decided on Endless Love, Meringue Monster and take away a Oriental Love.

Endless love is just one of those things that is so pretty to look at you want to eat it. A big oversized macaroon with fresh raspberries, rose cream and lychee ganache. Just the combination to make any girl go gaga and want to take pictures of it. The fresh raspberry had the hint of sourness which made the overall dessert feel fresh and not overly sweet. It would hit the spot if you had a berry craving.

Meringue Monster was as the name suggests, a meringue cake. With soft meringue on the outside and pistachio cake, peach melba, apricot cream, raspberry and pistachio bits. You really need to cut into this cake to see how beautifully it's layered inside and the array of colours.When you bite into it, you can also taste each individual layer. All the layers beautifully complement each other as well. On  the visual Endless Love may be more appealing but in taste, Meringue Monster ranks higher.

Oriental Love, another big macaroon. This with banana's as the key ingredient. Unlike endless lover this has no hints of sourness, instead it smells tantalizing with the sweetness of the banana and the pandan. There is also a bit of a crunch/chewiness with the small bits of crushed peanuts and you would occasionally taste the sesame. Out of the three this was definitely my favourite. But I might be a bit bias as I love the smell of pandan.


Overall a 15/20. I am looking forward to going back to try the breakfast menu.


Pricing $ Expensive if you compare it to cakes from Cakeworld or Breadtop but quite value for money if you compare it to patisseries of it's calibre.



 

Quaff

So I a mid-semester break...... what did I get upto in that time you ask! I went hunting for food! Quaff is a fine dining experience located in Toorak village. Only thing is I went for lunch and had the set lunch! With a slick waitress and fine white table cloth it is perfect when you want to feel a little pampered.

For this one I need to thanks Oanh for telling me about it! It's all about the open pie this time!

With a nice selection of entrees to choose from I couldn't pass up a salt and pepper calamari. It was a nice soft just enough to still maintain a bouncy texture. It was not too oily or dry with the perfect succulent moisture going it through and nicely matched with a bed of rocket leaves. That was merely the deception I got. The verdict? It was nice but I would have prefer the calamari to have a slightly more richer flavour. Not badly done but just didn't match up the image it painted in my mind when I was ordering it.

As my main it was the open I was eager to try open pie with creamy mash! The filling we had was the beef and vegetable. I had to say the pies here are different because it is not the usual pie pastry but it is a light fluffy pastry that does not feel heavy at all. The filling did not disappoint either. The beef strips were just cooked to perfection with a combination of capsicum, tomato and onion they went with the flavour perfectly! (I normally don't eat capsicum and I ate each bit of capsicum in this pie). The picture speaks my desire to go back!

Desert supposingly is the best but I have to say the berry sorbet was a huge disappointment. The sorbet was served with fresh berry puree. Rather than the sweet tasting berry I was hoping for the berry was sour and at times the sorbet left a bitter aftertaste. The lemon sorbet could really have done with some sugar. I know it's all good to be natural but sometime we have sugar salt and other flavours to give natural a little helping hand. This lemon sorbet was in need of that! I am either not a sorbet person or it was just crappy sorbet. One or the other, I like to think the sorbet wasn't great.

Overall: 13/20 It would have got higher rating had not been for the sorbet but I will go back for the pie! According to a reliable source they also have a open pie with a creamy fish filling which apparently is delightful!

Pricing was $30 for the lunch special which I found very reasonable. It also came with a glass of house wine. I managed to take a photo of the menu so be the judge for yourself $$(and a half)