Switch Lifestyle

We've driven by Switch Lifestyle numerous times but ET has never really noticed it before, so he was a bit surprised when I suggested we try it out for breakfast.  I went the usual route of French Toast which  was cut nice and thick and served with enough sauce to cover everything without drowning it.  And note the sauce was not the usual clear, runny maple syrup.  The verdict - yum.  Although now I'm re-reading the menu, I think I was supposed to get caramelised bananas.  I think I was robbed! ;)

ET thought the Switch Breakfast was tasty and even found the mushrooms flavoursome.  It was only then that he realised how good brekky can be, if done well.

We have no complaints about the staff and water was served freely but the loud pumping music really doesn't suit the breakfast crowd, specially when there were several families with babies as well as the older generation dining there at that time.  Even so, I have a hard task finding a different place that serves a good breakfast without trekking across town and having to wait to be served.


Switch Lifestyle
Shop 8129-8131 Melbourne St, Knox OZone, Wantirna South

Lazy Moe's (II)

Not surprisingly ET chose Moe's Big Breakfast and I went for Bacon & Scrambled Eggs on toast.  What surprised me was the toast came unbuttered.  And both our dishes only came with one piece of sliced white bread.  Not surprisingly we ordered 2 more pieces of toast which also arrived unbuttered.  And for this priviledge we were charged $4!!

The dishes were not vey good or tasty but they came in a big serve, (as they always are at Lazy Moe's) and I think I got about five whole rashers of bacon on my plate.

The waitress was good and even asked if I wanted water when I finished my coffee and didn't order another drink.  That's a big tick and she brought it in a big glass with ice and a straw.  The straw was unexpected but I surprisingly used it.  :p


Lazy Moe's Forest Hill
320 Canterbury Rd, Forest Hill

Redgum Restaurant

Randomly searching for a place to eat, we stumbled across Redgum.  Unsure of what they serve, we asked to see the menu before we took a seat.  I think this was our mistake as they took the order of a table who arrived several minutes after we did yet we still had to wave someone down to take our order.

When served, the eggs on ET’s Big Breakfast seemed a little overcooked around the edges but the sausages looked a little anaemic to me.  What do you think?
Atop my French Toast, I was surprised to find the caramelised banana cut lengthwise rather than diagonally.  But this meant more caramel flavour and that made me smile.  Although ET (the banana fan) actually had to ask me what the things were on top of the French Toast!  Having a look at the photo below, I think I understand where he’s coming from now.
Here’s a close up shot of the caramelised banana.  I just like the way it glistens in this photo - yum!
And on a final note, I felt they were a bit stingy on the maple syrup.  There wasn’t enough to fully coat all three pieces of the French Toast but since they charge $0.50 for extra maple syrup, I decided to just deal with it.


Redgum Restaurant
2 Victoria Rd, Lilydale

Enrik's Restaurant (V)

I was glad to see the cobwebs in the corner had disappeared since we were last at Enrik's. And much to my surprise ET did not choose his usual Sunday Morning Savior. He went for Enrik's Big Breakfast which came with one piece of unbuttered toast. Luckily the waitress was kind enough to offer to bring some butter.

I was quite excited to order the Raisin French Toast. But when it was served to me, all I could say was "I ordered the RAISIN french toast". To which the answer was "That is the french raisin toast".  Funny, because I couldn't see one bit of raisin on the whole plate. And once I sliced into the thick bread, I still saw no sign of a raisin nor was there any taste of it anywhere.

The second slice of my french toast was a bit dry thanks to all the maple syrup being drizzled over the first slice. I was fully intending to ask for extra maple syrup when they finally brought over the butter for ET's toast and the water I asked for. But alas, neither arrived and so I ate my second slice without any maple syrup and ET ate his toast unbuttered.

You should have seen my mouth drop when, upon finishing our meals, another waitress said "French Raisin Toast" to the table behind us and ET nodded to show that they, unlike us, were served raisin bread for their French Raisin Toast. Grrrr!!


Enrik's Restaurant
25 Railway Rd, Blackburn

Birdie Num Nums

This place is well known for families with prams on the weekedn so it should come as no surprise ET chose to sit by the window counter.  This is where they keep several newspapers of the day, as well as the bookshelf of children's books - a testament to their family-friendliness.

In case you happen to be a Peter Sellers fan, Birdie Num Nums is supposedly named after a line in the film The Party.  And just like the film, this place was slightly comical in that someone tried to serve us a muffin & coffee when no one had bothered to give us menus yet!

The big breakfast was the usual order for ET.

He also ordered a side of chorizos which arrived in a small bowl, cut up into pieces a minute or two after our meals were served.

I opted for the french toast and was disappointed to find some of the eggs had oozed out the sides of the bread so it felt like I was eating scrambled eggs. :(

Coffee was good so ET went for a second cup.  Although we weren't greeted as soon as we arrived, they also kept us waiting as we tried to pay.  We went up to the counter where a man was operating the cash register.  After about a minute he walked off without any acknowledgement!  We, in turn, were tempted to do the same.  It would have appeared to any bystander that we had paid and rightly so.  Imagine walking off on a paying customer like that!  Needless to say we will not be returning.  There were at least 3 other cafes within 30 second walking distance, all on the same side of the street.  And that's no exaggeration!

Birdie Num Nums

745 Nicholson St, North Carlton

Suede

We seem to keep finding ourselves surprised in that at past 12:30pm we expected to have lunch at Suede only to be handed a breakfast menu.  Once we realised this, I asked if they had a lunch menu, only to be told “Not today”.  Hmmmm.  Since ET & I had already ordered coffees by this stage, we decided to stay.

There were 3 waitstaff and the place was less than half full but we still had to wait half an hour for our breakfast.  The coffees were good so ET finally decided to order another when our food was finally served.  The waitress said the chef apologises for the wait so he’s given us an extra big breakfast.  ET tasted his dish and straight away said the mushrooms were nice.

For once, I had more than enough bread for my eggs.  I’m unsure if it’s because I ordered fried eggs instead of scrambled or if the chef gave me an extra piece of bread for the looong wait.  The bread were nice thick slices but too hard to cut up with a knife and a piece of mine flew off the plate so I resorted to using my fingers.  And they mentioned hand-whipped butter on the menu but since the bread came buttered, I can’t attest whether this is true or not.

We were served nice cold water from a vodka bottle as soon as we were seated so they passed the water wellness test.  But staff were a little lax in picking up our empty coffee cups.  ET & I found it strange the waitress not only asked if we had coffee, but also if we had any breakfast!  She said she couldn’t find our ticket but we were one of only a few tables inside and were basically sitting in front of the counter and cash register with our breakfast dishes still uncleared on the table!  Plus they asked the same thing of the other 2 tables that left before us!!  (Excuse all the exclamation points, but I think they are well deserved!)

Suede

284 Smith St, Collingwood

The Firehouse (VI)

In all honesty we were hoping for brunch at Smoken Joe’s Cafe but they are still under renovation.  We then headed off to Firehouse thinking we’d be able to have the lunch menu.  Unfortunately we were an hour early :(

ET not wanting to order the same dish as last time, was swayed by the sound of  poached eggs, double smoked bacon, chive fromage and hash brown.  Both having compromised what to order the last few times we’ve been out, we decided to hell with it and ordered the same dish.

ET was much surprised at how much he liked it.  Me, on the other hand, was surprised that the hollandaise sauce was poured on top of the eggs because a lady at the adjoining table had hers served in a small bowl.  (Perhaps she’d specially requested it that way?)  Admittedly, seeing her dish while we were looking over the menu was one reason why I ordered it and why I nodded my head towards their table when telling ET what I was going to order.

The other things that surprised me was I didn’t like the double smoked bacon.  I think it was just too much for my palette.  And lastly, when I saw the fried triangle piece on the adjoining table, I presumed it was the fromage fried like saganaki & other similar cheeses.  It came quite a surprise to me that it was in fact the hash brown.  Fancy that – hash brown shaped as a triangle block!

The Firehouse

253 Maroondah Hwy, Ringwood

Bar Bosh

Bar Bosh makes decent coffee and when I asked for water later on, I noticed they dispursed it from a hot water urn.  But when served to me, it was so cold it almost made me shiver.  Specially for a chilly morning, I would have preferred the water not to have been so cold.

Anyhow, for breakfast I chose the Spanish Omelette and was surprised to find it to be as big as the plate!  I tried to take a picture of the whole thing without being conspicuous and almost succeeded.  Anyway, I felt it somehow lacking in flavour even though there were chorizos in the dish.  Usually chorizos are spicy enough to keep me reaching for a drink.  But perhaps the capsicums I asked them not to put in the dish would've made the difference in the taste?

ET ordered the Big Bosh Breakfast although he was highly indignant that it was listed as "Strictly no alterations" when no other item on the menu had such restrictions.  Once served, his comment was: it needs better plating.  Beside the eggs on top of the Turkish bread, there's bacon, hash brown then sausage on the very bottom.  Not that you can tell by looking at the photo below.

I almost forgot the best bit - when asked if we wanted pepper, both ET & I almost feel off our seats when the giganormous pepper grinder was brought over to our table.  The thing was almost as tall as our waitress!  We were in such shock & our eyes as wide as saucers that I forgot to take a photo : O




Bar Bosh 
509 Burwood Hwy, Knox O Zone, Wantirna

The Firehouse (V)

Before you shake your head and say 'Not again!', in our defence at least this time we went for breakfast.

The breakfast menu lists 12 items, some of which were a tad unusual like the breakfast bruschetta or the baked rice and buttermilk.  Partly because of the fact everything I had my eye on had too much dairy for my liking, I had to order scrambled eggs. Luckily the scrambled eggs were nice & fluffy. However the piece of turkish bread underneath the eggs was not large enough for me. Since I forgot to order extra bread, and service was quite slow, I just went with it. Thankfully the serve was not too big so I left nothing on my plate. ;)

ET chose the Huevos Rancheros with a side of sausage. Although the dish wasn't quite what he expected, he did say it was delicious.

Coffee also got a very good rating from ET so Firehouse gets a thumbs up for breakfast. Now we'll just have to visit for lunch to complete the picture!

The Firehouse

253 Maroondah Hwy, Ringwood

Enrik's Restaurant (III)

Having only ever visited Enrik's for dinner, we were happy to see many tables occuppied when we arrived for a weekend breakfast.

ET thought the latte he ordered was nice.  So was mine but my layer of foam was larger than his.  Was it because mine was soy, I wonder.  Also, is it nit-picking to wonder why there was no design on the foam?  Yea, I guess it is.  But there was really nothing else to pick on during that visit.

Anyway, back to the food.  ET ordered something like turkish bread with bacon, eggs and, I think, pesto (I can't remember exactly what was in it or what it was called) with a side order of sausage.  As soon as ET took a bite of his sandwich, all he could say was "That's delicious".

I ordered the french toast which arrived as 2 pieces, each of which was about the same size as the plate.  Upon orderng I thought it wouldn't be enough to fill me, so I also ordered bacon as extra.  And no wonder they served it on a side plate, considering how much room the french toast took up on the plate!  Needless to say, I didn't finish my meal.  If I knew how big the french toast was going to be, I would never have ordered the bacon.

ET agreed their servings for breakfast were quite generous and we both enjoyed our meals, so Enrik's is now definitely on our list of breakfast/brunch places to go to.

Enrik's Restaurant

25 Railway Rd, Blackburn

Sassy's Cafe Bar

The cafe being inside the shopping centre seemed to keep it busy with a turnover of customers.  So much so that we were kept waiting for someone to take out order.  Luckily the waiter caught our eye to let us know he would be with us when he could.

I ordered the scrambled eggs with toast; the extra thick cut of casalinga bread was a nice change to the usual sourdough that seems to be proliferating all Melbourne cafes at the moment.  Although by the time I finished eating, there was still at least a full egg's worth of scrambled eggs left on my plate.  Having just recently woken up, I probably would've ordered another slice of bread if I was awake enough to feel hungry.

ET ordered from the specials board - scrambled eggs with salmon & chives.  Plus he requested a sausage as well.  I didn't initially realise why, when served his meal, he looked up at me and back down on to his plate.  As previously mentioned, I was half asleep so he had to ask me "Does that look like salmon to you?"...

Hmmm....Unless I was still asleep or that salmon is actually brown and fried in strips, I'm pretty sure that was bacon on his plate. And where the hell was the chives???!

Sassy's Cafe Bar

286-292 Whitehorse Rd, Nunawading