Miss Jackson

Miss Jackson

2/19 Grey St, St Kilda

(Ph) 9534 8415

Miss Jackson at St Kilda is located slightly away from the strip of cafes on Fitzroy Street, and even though the address is Grey Street, you actually enter on Jackson Street - hence "Miss Jackson" =) It's given ☆☆ by the Cheap Eats Guide 

There's quite a nice outdoor area but it was quite chilly on this day so we decided to sit inside.

The waiter, or I think was actually the owner, was very friendly and chatty to us =) We ordered our coffees - a latte

and a hot chocolate - since when does hot chocolate come in a glass? =P

One of the specials of the day was Pulled pork, chorizo and potato hash with a fried egg $18 which sounded very delicious and both P and I wanted it, but I decided to be nice and let P get it =P

What happened to the potato hash?! They were just roast potatoes - fully jipped! =( Thought it would be like the Potato and leek hash - with minted peas, smoked trout and a poached egg which actually came with a big homemade hashbrown =( The pulled pork was a bit dry and very oily - was a disappointing dish. It was quite a heavy dish - bit too much for brunch =/

Dad and I both got the Corn fritters - with bacon, avocado and roasted vine tomatoes and homemade chilli jam

<3 corn fritters! These ones weren't crunchy or fried enough on the outside but were quite tasty with the chilli jam =) How cute are the roast vine tomatoes!

Mum got the Spanish baked eggs - with chorizo, char grilled capsicum and olives 

Quite a typical baked eggs dish full of flavour but the bread they provided was a bit hard and felt a bit stale =/

Dad also wanted some Crumbed polenta chips - with harissa mayo

Yummy! Polenta tastes a bit like mashed potato - not much flavour but with the delicious coating of panko crumbs and the slightly chilli mayo was super tasty <3

Food~
6/10 - just get the stuff on the normal menu and not the specials, and definitely try the polenta chips!

Atmosphere~
4/5 -  small cosy cafe, lucky we came on a weekday or I can imagine it would be packed on the weekends!

Service~
4/5 - very friendly and chatty waiters here =)

C.
xo

Dr Jekyll

Dr Jekyll

107 Grey St, St Kilda

(Ph) 9525 5999

☆☆☆

Dr Jekyll has been rated ☆☆☆ by the Cheap Eats Guide so thought I should bring my Brisbane friends here. Would have taken them to one of "THE Melbourne" brunch places but knew the waiting line would be at least half an hour so thought I should give St Kilda a try on this Sunday morning.

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is a novella written by Robert Louis Stevenson about the investigation of Dr Jekyll who has to battle between the good and the bad within himself - the good Dr Jekyll and the evil Mr Hyde. It is commonly used to describe people with split personalities or people who act very different morally in different circumstances.

So this cafe is called Dr Jekyll, so only the good side of things =) You have the option of sitting outside  in the courtyard amongst the garden or inside the cafe. We chose to sit inside against the window - finally the Melbourne sun is out! The waiter told us to wait in the courtyard for 5 minutes for them to clear the table, not bad for a Sunday morning =)

I was tossing between the Brekkie burger: fried egg, leg ham, chorizo, melted cheese, house chutney & roquette $13.50 or the Brekkie trout: scrambled eggs served on grilled viennoise, house cured ocean trout & chive creme fraiche $16.50. I went for the Brekkie trout and it didn't disappoint me =)

The scrambled egg was so fluffy and flavoursome, not sure if I could tell the smoked salmon was "house cured" but never mind, was still quite good with the chive creme fraiche =P Whatever viennoise bread is meant to be, it was delicious - soft and fluffy and slightly sweet, like a broiche, or something you'd get from an Asian bakery. The bread is really the hero of the dish, but complimented well with all the components =)

P went for the Brekkie melt with bacon, beetroot puree, melted mozzarella, 2 fried eggs and a side of rocket $16.50 which was found on the Specials board.

This unfortunately, sounds better than it actually tasted. The pile of rocket salad was a bit sad looking - and who serves rocket by itself? It's so bitter =/ The "melt" was not what we expected, we were expecting more of like a pressed sandwich with melted goodies inside but it was really just a bread with some stuff on top. I'm not a fan of beetroot so didn't really like the beetroot puree, though it didn't taste of much =/ So really it was just bacon and eggs with cheese on toast... hmm...

Food~
6/10 - I would definitely recommend the Brekkie Trout, but just stick with the normal menu and not the "specials". P should have totally ordered the Brekkie Burger instead!

Atmosphere~
3/5 - quite nice sitting against the window, there are cushions for you to sit on too =) got a bit too hot after a while! Maybe we should have seated outside in the cool garden instead =P

Service~
2/5 - we were at the corner table, and the table next to us was meant to seat 3, but 5 people seated there, so the waiter couldn't get to our table to give us our food. So we played pass-the-plate from the neighbouring table to us... didn't feel very professional but I guess it's the community feel of brunch cafes?

C.
xo

Veludo

Veludo

175 Acland St, St Kilda

(Ph) 9534 4456

We were in the area so thought we should grab brunch at one of the cafes here - Veludo was one of the restaurants in my Entertainment book 25% off =)

It was such a cold windy morning so we decided to sit inside under one of the heaters ahh ^^

P, as per usual, got the big fat pommy bastard: 2 eggs, bacon, hashbrown, roast tomato, pork chipolatas, mushrooms, chilli tomato pickle & toast $19

What a strange long plate! The hashbrown was homemade and super delicious! Crunchy on the outside yet still soft inside =) How come when I try to make it it's so fail?! =( The chilli tomato pickle was surprisingly really good with the chipolatas, not too chilli but not just like a tomato chutney either, and there were far more mushrooms than P liked which I was happy about =)

After my delicious corn fritters at Cheeky Monkey, I decided to get the corn & zucchini fritters, smoked salmon, watercress, persian feta, honey mustard $16

This was a bit disappointing =( I was expecting crunchy tall fritters but these are pancake-like like the Alcove Cafe ones =/ BUT they were much tastier, at least had some flavour and was slightly fried on the outside =P The honey mustard was really nice with the "pancakes" but wish they were more generous with it. The persian feta tasted like normal fetta but more mushy which made it easier to spread on the "pancakes" =P wish they had like an avocado salsa or something instead of the watercress though.

As we left we heard someone at the next table complain their baked beans was cold =/ hmmm... not sure if I'll come back here if not for the voucher...

Food~
5/10 - was alright but P's dish was better than mine~

Atmosphere~
2/5 - felt good under the heater =)

Service~
2/5

C.
xo

Monarch Cakes

Monarch Cakes

103 Acland St, St Kilda

(Ph) 9534 2972

Had to come to St Kilda for a doctor's appointment again. I had read about awesome cakes at Monarch Cakes - apparently one of the best take away cake places in Melbourne according to The Age. I didn't even realise the other day when we came to the Acland Cake Shop but it's actually just next door! The cakes don't look as tasty at the window here that's why that time we didn't come here =P

P wanted to get a slice of French Vanilla, after our delicious vanilla slice at the Acland Cake Shop last time but then we saw a fly was sitting on one of the pieces of French Vanilla and that totally put us off =P What is the difference between French Vanilla and Vanilla slice anyway? French Vanilla just looks taller and a whiter cream compared to the Vanilla slice. 

I know the Chocolate Kooglhoupf is their most famous cake here - had heard about it for ages, people travel across Melbourne for this cake =) And they actually have a mini version of it! How cute =) So P got a slice of that instead =)

Chocolate Kooglhoupf 

The waiter man took our orders and we paid and sat outside. Then we saw him chatting to other customers and not getting our cakes out - how rude! He took forever - how hard is it to put a slice on a plate?! But then we realised he heated up the kooglhoupf and dusted some icing sugar on it =) Very interesting cake - it's like a mix between a donut and a cake - delicious! with chocolate marbled through it and crunchy on the base =) 

I ordered a slice of the 100 year old Polish baked cheese cake - of course I had to try it =)

100 year old Polish baked cheese cake

The cake was super smooth and cheesy but not overly rich - I liked =) The biscuit base wasn't as crunchy as I would have liked it though - the cheesecakes I've been having lately don't have a crunchy biscuit base to my disappointment =(

The cakes were ~$5.90 each, at first we thought it was quite expensive but that's actually quite reasonable in this day and age for cake - *sigh* everything is so expensive now!

Food~
Chocolate Kooglhoupf - 7/10 - very delicious and unique!

100 year old Polish baked cheese cake - 6/10 - the cheesecake was yum, if only the base was crunchier!

Service~
2/5 - not very good taking so long to bring out the cakes though! it's really not that hard!

Atmosphere~
2/5 - was alright but it started raining which ruined it a bit but not their fault! =P

Next time we'll try the French Vanilla!

C.
xo

The Acland Cake Shop

The Acland Cake Shop

97 Acland St, St Kilda

(Ph) 9534 3785

We came to St Kilda for a doctor's appointment and since we came a bit early, we decided to walk around and treat ourselves to some cake =)

The first cafe/bakery we come across was The Acland Cake Shop - I wanted to walk on and see what the other cafes had but the waitress here was really nice so P said we should get something here. There were so many different cakes and tarts and slices etc to choose from! Looks so nice from outside =)

All cakes/tarts cost $5.10 here 

P wanted the Chocolate waffle but I said that didn't sound that fancy so he decided to get the Chocolate Tunnel.

Chocoalte Tunnel

It's a piece of chocolate wrapped around chocolate cake in the middle and chocolate mousse at the two ends, with the edges dipped in crushed nuts. Looks fancy but taste was alright - cake was a tad on the dry side and the chocolate was sooo sweet!

I wanted to get a slice of baked cheesecake (of course I do =P) but I know P doesn't like it so I got a Vanilla Slice instead.

Vanilla Slice

I don't know what the big dealio with Vanilla Slices are - I'm not usually a fan of them, it's just pastry wrapped around some custard lol. And when you try to break the top pastry it never breaks properly and end up squashing the custard in between =P Would have liked it if the pastry was slightly more crunchy but the custard was very smooth and creamy. P liked this very much =) There was a French Vanilla Slice as well, not sure what the difference is, but the custard looked whiter and the slice was higher - should have asked the waiter what the difference is!

Food~
Chocolate Tunnel - 4.5/10 - looks better than it tastes

Vanilla Slice - 5.5/10 - was alright, but I don't really know what the hype over St Kilda cakes is about, cakes here are alright but they're not the best, for $5.10 I can get much tastier cakes elsewhere

Service~
2.5/5 - the waitress was really nice and polite and brought water outside to our table

Atmosphere~
3/5 - we sat outside and since it was a nice warm sunny day, it was beautiful ^^

Won't trek all the way out here for the cakes, but if I'm in the area - by all means! =)

C.
xo