Replete Providore
Replete Providore is one of those suburban cafes that I’ve been driving past for years and thinking ‘I really must try that place for breakfast sometime’.
Whenever I’ve been past on the weekends there is always a line of people snaked outside the door.
So when Mr announced this morning that he was taking me there for breakfast, I was mega excited.
Considering that this place is ridiculously popular and has won oodles of awards, my expectations were quite high.
Luckily, it was pretty damn good.
May I start all my Monday mornings with a leisurely breakfast at Replete Providore from now on?
Please?
The front room of the cafe is quite small, but in a cozy welcoming way. This is the kind of place you would love to have as your local. A friendly welcome as soon as we walked in the door, and a table that actually had a reserved sign with our booking name (don’t you hate it when you ‘book’ somewhere and the waitstaff look around in a panic for a spare table?). Coffee orders were taken straight away, and served to us within 5 minutes. Strong coffee too. An essential first thing on a Monday morning. Even if you have the day off. La la la..
A decent sized menu with lots of vegetarian and gluten-free options. But I skimmed the “Tutti Frutti’ ‘Toast & Breads’ and ‘Eggs’ selections and went straight for the ‘Main Event’ items. Where I found THESE:
Replete corn fritters with crispy bacon, tomato and avocado salsa, tomato relish, sweet chilli and sour cream. Can I hear you say ‘OH YEAH!’? These were like some sort of crazy breakfast nachos. Sort of. Although the presentation was a little sloppy, they tasted fantastic. The corn fritters were light and fluffy, and there was a perfect amount of sauces and condiments that somehow all went together really well. A bizarre breakfast that worked. And defeated me – I couldn’t finish. The corn fritters are also available with salmon, but alas I am allergic to fish. I would probably order this dish without the bacon next time, to make room for more sour cream :)
Mr usually avoids gigantic cooked breakfasts, but not today:
Not really my kinda thing, but he reported that his breakfast was most excellent. Check out the funky hash brown (which was delicious. Yes I stole some). Quite often a cafe’s token ‘big breakfast’ will be a plate of greasy slop, but this actually looked very decent.
All up our bill was $51 for two giant breakfasts and four coffees *twitch twitch*. Not exactly a bargain, but we left feeling well looked after and very satisfied.
Good quality food? Check. Great service? Check. Decent coffee? Check. Good ambience? Check. So will I be going back for another visit?
Absolutely.
Replete Providore 302 Barkers Road Hawthorn 3122 03 9818 4448
Food gobbler. Wine lover. Kitteh keeper. Gen-Y. Fiancée. Twitter addict.
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It’s been years since we went to Replete, and we pretty much stopped going when it changed hands. It’s interesting that you mentioned that the plating of the food was messy, because with the original owners, it was fantastic.
But the other reasons why we don’t go anymore are that the prices are a little bit too high and there are often long queues during the weekends.
Interesting – quite a few people have mentioned the previous owners. Shame that I didn’t try the place a few years ago so I could compare. To be honest I wouldn’t go on the weekend. Not a fan of crowds.
have you tried anything else from there? I wanna go…but sooooo far from me (west side)…what else would u recommend at replete?