Coin Laundry

61 A Armadale StreetArmadale, 3143

"Do you have a dollar, do you have a dollar for me?" - sung Lisa Mitchell in her song Coin Laundry. Well Lisa, I'm sorry, but if you need to scab a dollar from one of the punters at the fairly new Coin Laundry Cafe in Armadale, then you're probably eating out in the wrong area.

The customers at Coin Laundry, don't appear to be hard up for a dollar. That's probably because their modelling careers have taken off. The same could be said for the staff that work here too. The 2 male baristas look like something off the cover of Men's Health Magazine. While one of the female waitresses could easily be Australia's next 'it' girl. You would think that it would be hard to relax in a place like this, without worrying if you had a hair out of place or left some latte froth on your top lip. However, that's not the case.

Coin Laundry is suprisingly relaxed and laid back. The staff, despite their insane good looks, are very friendly and professional too. The room is sun-filled with massive windows looking out onto the swanky Armadale terraces. I reckon I can barely afford breakfast here, let alone one of those houses. But again, that's not the case! Breakfast is reasonably priced, which is why I guess the well to do, penny pinching locals love this place so much.

The menu doesn't go out of it's way to be different though, with everything on there sounding tasty, but very middle of the road. Considering the amount of amazing cafes in Melbourne at the moment, I was suprised to see a cafe of this calibre serving your standard poached eggs with bacon and rocket on top.

I ordered the Grilled Champagne Ham with Fontina Cheese on thick cut Noisette Sourdough with Roasted Roma Tomato and Torn Basil ($11.50) plus I ordered a poached egg on top ($3).

The Noisette bread was excellent as is everything I've tried of their's (especially their Olive Bread!). The fontina cheese looked a bit odd, kind of spread on the bread, looking a little like cream cheese. The poached egg, was perfectly poached and the tomato was nicely roasted. However the skin was left on. No big deal, but it would be nicer if they went to the effort of removing the skin. It was pretty tasty, but it's one of those things that you sit there and look at and go "I could have just made this at home and not driven all the way to Armadale." Which is exactly what I said.


Em ordered the Scrambled eggs with Bacon, Smashed Acovado and Rocket ($unk). Again, your standard cafe fare. Em noted that it was decent, but the scrambled eggs didn't have much flavour to them. However, I must point out that since I introduced Em to Bill's Scrambled Eggs in Sydney, nothing has quite met their standard. The 'smashed' Avocado has some lemon through it and maybe a bit of olive oil, which gave it's slightly runnier consistancy.

Em has a theory, that the better looking the barista, the better the coffee. Coin Laundry was apparently keeping up with this theory. Coin Laundry's coffee according to Em was pretty darn good! Their tea menu was fairly disappointing however, with only your stock standard Earl Grey, English Breakfast, Chai and Green. I wish cafes would show as much interest in the teas that they sell, as the coffee that they sell.

Overall, I reckon Coin Laundry would be a top local choice if you lived nearby. The staff are friendly and efficient, the food is decent, but it's not somewhere that I personally would be racing across town to re-visit. I think there are much more interesting options that I will be visiting before heading back there.

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Mies, Spotswood

Spotswood. There was a movie named after it once. There's a Science museum there. There's a train station. There's the beginning of the westgate bridge. Then there's Mies. The hippest little spot in Spotswood.
A small cafe on Hudson Rd, just off Williamstown Rd, which has popped up quite recently. Somewhere for the local residents to go, other than Nosh in Newport. This is a good thing.
The fitout is sparse, there's a communal table, but no kitchen as such. There's only a very small breakfast / lunch menu, with eats like muesli and toasties. Pretty good toasties too I must add.
Personally I think the guys could do a bit more in the way of food. If they checked out places like Amsterdam St Cafe in Richmond, they would see what could be done without an actual kitchen.
That said though, Mies is definately worth a visit if you're in the area and after a cup of good coffee and basic breakky, but if you're after a substantial breakfast/brunch probably best to head elsewhere.

Merricks General Store

3458 Frankston Flinders Rd, Merricks VIC 3916, (03) 5989 8088

What does one do when they feel like they've been to almost every decent breakky spot in Melbourne? They drive to the country, of course! We set off early on a Saturday morning via the luxurious new Eastlink Freeway, to find a town called Merrick, down near Red Hill on the Mornington Penninsula.
The drive took about an hour and a half from Fitzroy, via Eastlink, which meant no stops until Frankston. Which is ironic really, because isn't Frankston the place where most people would prefer not to stop?
Merrick's General Store is situated on a nice little country road, just out of Red Hill and has views looking out the water. Spectacular spot. The General Store was of course once a General Store, but now has been transformed into an amazing country cafe / restaurant / cellar door.

The menu doesn't offer any particularly exciting options, or anything really out of the usual. The menu doesn't appear to be overly cheap, either. But, since we're in the country, they're probably using amazing, locally grown produce, or you would at least hope so.

After a long drive, I need sustainance, so I ordered the Merricks General Big Breakfast- two eggs, bacon, tomato, baked beans and little pork sausages ($19 - the most I've paid for breakfast in a long time). The poached eggs, were perfectly shaped little egg sacks- a shape I wish my poached eggs would turn out like. The bacon was delicious, the baked beans had potential with big chunks of what appeared to be ham hock in there. However the beans were a little watery and just may not have been cooked down quite enough. The roast tomatoes were ok, but the little sausages were nothing much different from your standard backyard BBQ snags. Nothing like the amazing Maple Sausages that you get from Harvest Cafe in Healesville.


Em' ordered the Eggs Benedict, toasted muffin, two poached eggs, hollandaise sauce & house cured ocean trout ($18). Em' was very happy with her breakky, apart from the fact that the hollandaise and poached eggs tasted quite 'vinegary'. Other than that, the House Cured Ocean Trout was particularly delicious!




Merrick's General Store is a beautiful room and would be great to check out this place for a proper lunch or dinner. However, the breakfast wasn't worth driving all that way for. Although, I would consider going back if we happened to be staying in the area.

Little Ox

452 New Street Brighton, Vic

Some friends of mine had a beautiful baby this year and their nickname for him before they he was born was "Little Ox." So, when I heard about a cafe of the same name in Brighton, I had to check it out. The cafe, is straight out of Real Living magazine. Whoever put this place together knows their stuff when it comes to interior design. Clean white walls, with a colourful country vibe. Just my cuppa tea. Bright yellow ladders, replica Eames chairs, amazing yellow rimmed Bribe glassware, bright orange tea pots and milk bottles with flowers in them. This place is farmhouse cool!

We arrived the day after the AFL Grand Final and unexpectedly the place was packed at 9.30am! I was sure everyone would be in bed, still nursing hangovers. This place is fairly new from my understanding, but when something is this good, word spreads fast!
Despite a bunch of people waiting at the door, the oh so beautiful staff are not only gorgeous, (apparently the guys aren't too bad either) they are good at their jobs, despite their post Grand Final Hangovers. Instead of keeping us waiting for a table, since it was raining outside, they bought in an extra table and chairs for us - happy days.

There were so many tasty choices on the menu which made it hard to decide, but since it was a freezing Melbourne morning, we decided to go with the Baked Beans $13 with poached egg $3. This isn't your typical Baked Beans as a side to some eggs. The Baked Beans are the hero here topped with a perfectly poached egg. The beans are big, smokey and delicious! Comfort food at it's best. They're served in a bowl, not on toast. You're not even served your standard sliced 'toast' here. You're giving a big chunk of delicious proper toasted bread, which is perfect for ripping apart and dipping into your beans and egg.


Drool.... drool... drool!

Bang! I have a new favourite cafe! If only it was closer to home. However, it's only a couple of blocks away from my girlfriend's house, so it looks like she might get her way and we'll be spending more nights at her house instead of mine. That way we can get up and have breakfast at the Little Ox.

I was however, a little disappointed by the lack of tea choices. They have your standard choices and nothing too exciting on there. Admittedly their English Breakfast was top notch, however, I'd love to see some Russian Caravan or French Earl Grey on their menu.
I'm predicting that you're going to be hearing a lot more about the Little Ox, it's a fantastic little place, the food is homely, produce driven and coffee is great (well, so Em' says - i don't drink the stuff). The staff are fantastic, friendly, fast, professional and of course beautiful.
So, not only do the people of Brighton get to drive fancy cars, live in big houses and have very healthy bank accounts, but they also get to enjoy one of the best cafes I've visited in Melbourne right around the corner from their house.