Cornershop: 11 Ballarat Street Yarraville

Breakfast is my favourite meal of the day but I'm getting to the point where I'm a bit sick of eating bacon on dry toast because the cafe cannot or will not do anything else for me. Nearly everywhere you go every single menu item has eggs or cheese, aioli, butter or some other tasty treat that my body just rejects (yes, I assure you I love these things as much as you do but having trouble breathing and feeling tired all the time is just no fun whatsoever, for anyone).

It was therefore with a little bit of trepidation that I approached my meal today. I ordered the smashed avocado and feta on toast with tamari and tahini roasted seeds and nuts (only with no dairy at all please). Senor Gringo ordered free range scrambled eggs with parmesan, rainbow chard, soft herbs and chilli, with a side of bacon. Sounds good right? Well it just wasn’t that great.

The second they put my plate down I noticed they had buttered the bread. Damn it. I rarely send food back because I don’t want anyone to spit in my meal, so cue the disgruntled scrapping. Not only was I annoyed they got it wrong, I get that kitchens are busy, people get into a routine and messing with the system can create poor outcomes, but come on butter and avocado? That makes two fatty foods together. You need strong flavours to overpower the avocado as it is without adding yet another fatty substance.

After I had scrapped half my bread away I tried to focus on the positives. They got a tick for the amount of greens –thank you, vegetables are good, I love them and appreciate when you include them; another tick for the lime wedge but they lost points by being stingy with the seeds and lacking a flavour substantial enough to create a good blend of flavours. All I tasted was processed white bread and avocado. Perhaps some spice could have made this a well rounded dish? The saltiness of feta could have helped, if they chose the right one, but then again it might not have.

Senor Gringo said his meal was similarly meh. Nothing outstanding. Even though the scrambled eggs were meant to have chilli and herbs he couldn’t taste them and some of the chard was not cooked enough, meaning there was a misplaced crunch. Plus, his bread was soggy as soon as it arrived and he needed to add sugar to his mocha, which I understand to mean his coffee had that bitter/burnt flavour. My chai on the other hand was homemade and better than a lot of places.

One tick for you cornerstore. Sorry we couldn’t get along better. The lunch menu did look more promising but there were so many things in there that were slow cooked and you probably couldn’t exclude the stuff that I can’t have. All in all, I won’t be back.