Balderdash - Port Melbourne

We happened to be in Port Melbourne on the weekend so decided to do a drive by to see what had become of our once beloved weekend breakfast haunt, Bowl of Soul. We were rather depressed when they closed, and nothing has really been able to fill the hole their closing has left over our side of the city.

We found that not only had the space BoS left behind been filled by a hip looking little coffee and cake style cafe called My Sister Says, but a new and equally inviting little cafe named Balderdash had sprung up only a couple of weeks ago where Silk Pirate used to be.

While we initially had intended to go to My Sister Says, we were more impressed by the offerings on the breakfast menu across the road at Balderdash. The coffee write up on the board sounded too good to pass up. Visiting My Sister Says to sit and reminisce in the empty shell that once was Bowl of Soul shall have to wait.



Love the little horse!

They have a couple of out door tables available, along with a variety of indoor seating options - a large communal style table, several 2 and 4 person tables, and a window bench. We seated ourselves at a small 2 seater table and were promptly visited by friendly wait staff to deliver menus and take our coffee order.

The coffees did not disappoint. I enjoyed my soy latte so much I ordered a second, and the long black earned a thumbs up from Kev which is rare. He is rather particular about his coffee and was quite impressed by the coffee he received.

The cafe has only been open perhaps 3-4 weeks and the menu is quite new. From this review they did not have a menu 2 weeks ago, and were serving only coffee and pastries. They have since introduced a full menu, and there were several vegetarian options available. They were also more than happy to make substitutions.

I ordered the corn and caramelised onion fritters which are usually served with a poached egg. When I asked if the egg could be substituted for mushrooms they were more than happy to oblige. The fitters were also served topped with relish. The fritters were fantastic and the relish worked really well with them. The mushrooms were also done well, good flavour and not served soggy like so many cafes do.  My only complaint was having to share half of one of the fritters with Kev since I had promised when I ordered that he could try some...

Kev ordered the pesto scrambled eggs with feta, plus a side of mushrooms and avocado. Pesto scrambled eggs is one of his favourite menu options from Seddon Deadly Sins so he was curious to compare. He liked that the toast was served unbuttered and separate to the eggs. Serving scramble on top of the bread just gives soggy toast. He really enjoyed the eggs here which he said had really good flavour and generous amounts of feta but still prefers the version that Deadly Sins do as they have a larger serving of eggs, and the pesto is more evenly distributed through the scramble.

All in all, Balderdash serve quality coffee with great food and friendly service in a relaxing and inviting atmosphere. They will be a very welcome addition to Bay street, which has been in need of some more interesting cafes. We will definitely be back here again when we get the chance.

Monk Bodhi Dharma

It's kind of hard to justify driving for 20-30 minutes just to get breakfast so Monk Bodhi Dharma has been one of those places I just hear other people raving about (see the reviews that had me drooling here and here and here).

When we were heading out to Berwick this last weekend however, it was the perfect opportunity to drop in on the way through to try the food and coffee I have heard so much about.

We got there relatively early, around 9am. They were already busy by then and we snaffled the last available table. People started queueing soon after we got there, so I imagine it would be a long wait for a table if you arrived for a late breakfast. Next time I would probably try to get there even a little earlier and try for a better table, since the table we got was the one right inside the door, with one seat below the newspaper rack. Every couple of minutes someone was coming over to put a paper in or take one out and Kev got elbowed in the head each time. Depressing how few people know how to say sorry :(

There was a bit of a wait on breakfast, but our coffees came out really quickly. We just ordered standard blend coffees. I thought my soy latte was pretty good, Kev said his long black was strong but too bitter.

There were so many good options on the menu, but every review of Monk Bodhi Dharma I have read has raved about the vegan french toast, so I had to try it. The french toast is usually served with ricotta, but when ordered vegan comes with sweetened vegan cream cheese instead. It looked so delicious in everyones photos. And it was! The bread did prove to be a bit of a challenge to cut because the crust was a little chewy, but this worked really well with the pear. The pear was nicely flavoured and sweet from what ever it was poached in. It was sweet enough that I skipped on the cream cheese, it was just too sweet for me at breakfast time.

Kev ordered the sweet corn and ricotta hotcakes served with basil pesto and cherry tomatoes. He's a big fan of savoury pancakes, corn and pesto so this was like a breakfast dream come true. I didn't try these myself, however Kev said that they were great, plenty of corn, good texture and great flavour. His only wish was that there was more of it.

They had a selection of vegan cakes available too, and I did think about getting one to take, but decided against it. I got all excited when I saw they had brownies, but was crushed to see they had walnuts in. Being allergic to walnuts sucks, most brownies and carrot cakes get walnuts stuck in them. Boooo. The cupcakes looked really good, red velvet I think. In hindsight I regret not getting one, but I was all pouty about not being able to get a brownie. The pic below is not great, but you can still kind of see how nice the cupcakes looked - I liked the icing, red and brown swirled together.

I'd definitely come back here again, maybe for one of their degustation breakfasts (next scheduled are on the 30th November and 1st December).

Why is everything awesome so far away from my house :(

Seddon Deadly Sins

There is a cafe near our house that we go to fairly regularly, called Seddon Deadly Sins. For a start, just the name is pretty damn awesome. The staff are super friendly and the service is great, regardless how busy they are (usually very busy from 10.00 onwards). The cafe has a nice relaxed atmosphere, with 4 separate dining areas - 4 tables on the footpath, a relaxed but usually crowded front room, a courtyard that is lovely on warm days, and my favourite the cosy back room with fireplace. I love the interior, and their furnishings and that they haven't caved to the hipster cafe trend and decided that milk crates pass as chairs and communal tables are the way to go. They also have a room upstairs called the Good Room that is full of various old sofas and chairs (all second hand chesterfields, and plush red lounges sourced from eBay) and the bathroom upstairs is well worth checking out. In my dream house, my bathroom looks a lot like this one, minus the disco ball... The Good Room is used for coffee and cake only however, and sometimes they will offer to seat you up there with a coffee while you wait for a table to come available.

I do think it is adorable that they present their menus inside old little golden books though.



Since the fiancé is a bit of a self confessed coffee snob, the most important thing for him in any cafe is the coffee, and the coffee at SDS definitely passes the test. It is easily the best coffee we have found over our side of the westgate.


In keeping with the name of the cafe, a lot of the items on the menu are named after sins like gluttony, wrath and envy. The guys here are always happy to adjust a meal where they can. I ordered the field mushrooms, which is usually 2 mushrooms filled with mushy peas topped with haloumi, served on spinach and eggplant with 2 poached eggs. I ordered it without eggs and cheese. Once you take the eggs away it looks like a pretty small weekend breakfast, so I added a side of tomato. Most of Kev's hashbrowns also came out on my plate and I held them hostage for a while, but eventually caved and released the little crispy fried prisoners one at a time. I'm pretty sure the hashbrowns are not even vegetarian, they look like commercially prepared frozen ones.

More food needs pea in it!

There is spinach on that plate, it's just hiding under the eggplant and mushroom.

Aside from the standard menu, every weekend they will have a specials menu up on the chalk board. These are usually meat based, but occasionally there are some real gems up on the board like breakfast dahl (yay!) or a rosti. Today the special was corn and zucchini pikelets with aioli sauce, served with spinach, poached eggs and bacon. Kev ordered this without the bacon, but with sides of tomato, mushroom and hashbrown.

They also have a cake cabinet with various sweets, cakes and biscuits. There is always at least one flavour of cheese cake, and 1 gluten free cake option. The options available will change day to day, but I have not yet seen a vegan option available.

I also just wanted to show you my new tea cup, which I think is really cute. It was given to me by a friend who saw it and decided they had to get it for me. Being a ranga, I have from time to time copped the nickname 'little red', and she thought this mug would be the perfect gift. And I love it, thanks Em :)

Does anyone have any suggestions for good cafes that serve good coffee and have vegan breakfast options? I know there are plenty of places over the other side of the westgate, but would really appreciate if anyone has any recommendations closer to us.