Now that we are moving further South, it has become my mission to check off as many brekky places as possible before the big move. First on our list, Darling Cafe! On a bright Sunday morning, we walked down to Toorak Road, on the hunt for our first cafe to tick from the list. Down the quite road of Darling Street, this not so quite cafe already had a line up when we arrived.
ATMOSPHERE & SERVICE
We arrived around 10:30am, which in Melbourne world is already too late for breakfast. We placed our name on the wait list and patiently wait for our table to be ready. 45 minutes later, we were finally called! Inside, the U shaped dining room was brightly lit, with accents of concrete and wood. Bright coloured flowers bring a positive energy to the space and a large feature bar works hard at continuously pumping out delicious coffee and smoothies.
I love the contrast between the different fittings including brass, timber and marble, all working together to create a minimalist vibe. Here you will find a younger crowd, catching up with the sound of the latest hits playing just a touch louder than you’d expect for a cafe.
The service was attentive once we were finally seated. It didn’t take long before our coffee orders were taken and food brought to the table. All the staff, both on the floor and behind the bar were energetic and polite, with an attitude of genuinely wanting to be there.
FOOD
The menu is quite small, however there is a great variety of dishes to choose from including delicious French Toast to more savoury wok cooked stir frys. We started with our usual Piccolo and tripe shot Cappuccino (yup, you heard right, TRIPLE shot!), while we waited for our food to arrive.
Since we were sitting near the kitchen, I saw some pretty amazing dishes come out, including their smoothies! So was a must to order the ‘Red Smoothie’ with dragon fruit, mango, chia seeds and fresh fruit garnish. I’m so glad we ordered it because it tasted just as yummy as how it looked!
MC ordered the ‘The Darling’, which was eggs your way with bacon, sautéed kale, flat mushrooms, roasted tomato & Italian sausage. Everything was grilled and cooked to perfection, including the delicious kale. MC isn’t a kale lover, which is perfect for me, since I just steal his. The flavours that came from the kale were so amazing, I could have just had a plate of this and would have been happy.
I went with the ‘Smashed Avocado’ served on sourdough with kale chips, goat’s cheese and chilli cherry tomato concasse. Again another stand out dish! Although it’s a simple dish, the flavours from the kale chips and the slight spiciness from the concasse added a whole new element to a rather simple brekky dish.
I would have loved to bring home one of their AH-Mazzing goodies from the cabinet, however the thought of trying to fit anything else in just wasn’t sitting right with me. Will definitely have to head back for maybe just a coffee and a sweet goodie, and correct me if I’m wrong, from Doughboys Doughnuts?!
This was a great way to kick off the last few months we have in this amazing food-aholic area. It’s very tempting to come back, however we have a never ending list of places to visit! But, will keep this one close to the top for a re-visit!