Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Prospect Espresso + The Whoopie Pie Bakery


I don't think I will ever get Brad to help me decide where to go for breakfast. We'll wake up, get cleaned up and I'll then spend 5 minutes rushing through my wishlist on urbanspoon, opening 20 tabs of different cafes, sift through menus and eventually come back with two or three potential options for that day.

And all I get from Brad when I propose eating options to him is a bit of a shrug, an 'I don't mind', and a fiddle with the iPhone. Abuse from me on how unhelpful he is, followed by a spontaneous decision and we're out for breakfast. 


This really is our 'where should we eat out' ritual. How do you guys decide where you're going for a meal with a friend or the SO (significant other)? 


On this particular Sunday, our usual process brought us to Prospect Espresso, which has been open just over a month now. Although if you weren't a regular in the area, you would be forgiven for thinking the place had been open for much longer, with the cosy little space completely full of laughter, coffee and happy diners. And cute turquoise coffee cups and saucers. Loooove. Crazy crockery lady here.



In a very simple, bright and understated interior, with a cheerful splash of yellow (which I couldn't help but notice straight away), I was just charmed, I couldn't help but smile in here! Always helps to have good looking staff too, but y'knooooow.


I love a concise but delicious looking menu. Somedays it's hard to pick because of this fact, with so many good looking choices and some days where it's just easy when one thing just kinda leaps out, clings to your face and waits until you order it. 



Lovely dark, robust looking latte for Brad and a delightful, sweet but spicy, easy to drink soy chai for me. Gosh these are cute saucers.


This is our Sunday ritual that I am in love with. 



Baked eggs with tomato relish, mushrooms, brioche and goats cheese for Brad. Oh delightful. Not too particularly saucy, well seasoned and just tasty. I loved the addition of the mushrooms, which is a little less common, which provided a delightful earthiness. The brioche was also so crumbly. Oh lord that was sexy bread. 



But really, I think my dish wins in the cute department. Bubble & squeak with smoked salmon, a poached egg, hollandaise, a little bit of spinach. So minimalist and almost kind of sculptural, I didn't really want to eat it! But then if I didn't eat it, I wouldn't have enjoyed the perfectly foodporny egg with the delicious, fluffy and soft bubble & squeak. All elements on the plate accompanied each other well without anything being too overwhelming. Oh so tasty. 


Whilst I loved the food at Prospect Espresso, as it is delicious and really quite a high quality breakfast, I did find it a little bit on the pricier side, for the portion sizes. Our dishes were $15 and $16, and whilst it was enough for me, Brad was hungry a lot faster than usual after our brunches and made the comment that if he had had my dish he would have needed more. Maybe not the place if your man is feeling hangry!


But still, if you're looking for something that titillates the taste buds, a little breakfast indulgence, with good coffee and cheery service, definitely pop by Prospect Espresso. Personally, I'd be more than happy to come back and try out their other breakfast goodies. We all need a treat every now and again right?


And speaking of treats...on the way back to the car I popped into the Whoopie Pie Bakery, having read about it the night before and then parking super close to it...you know, it's...destiny!



And so I picked 3 mini whoopie pies, chocolate and peanut, red velvet and crushed tim tams,  with the intention to share them when I got home...but naturally, I ended up stuffing them all down my pie hole. But why wouldn't I? I know zip about how whoopie pies should be like (and am happy to be educated!), but I loved how fluffy and moist the cakes were, and of course, how sinful the creamy filling was, without being overly sweet. It didn't fall apart in your mouth and made for surprisingly neat and easy bites. Red velvet was my favourite...but don't take my word for it. You'll just have to try it yourself!

We also might have bought 4 litres of ice-cream this particular day. Ah Camberwell.

2a Prospect Hill
Camberwell, VIC 3124

Prospect Espresso on Urbanspoon


View I'm So Hungree in a larger map

700 Burke Road
Camberwell, VIC 3124

The Whoopie Pie Bakery on Urbanspoon


View I'm So Hungree in a larger map




9 comments:

  1. Oh my gosh, I've never had a whoopee pie before! And this place is right near my uni.....

    the making of things

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    1. Sounds like you've got a date in the making....! :D

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  2. Oh you visited the Whoopie Pie Bakery! We were the first to review it, perhaps you have seen our post on it? Glad you liked it though it is not quite there with the American standard yet. It's great that Melbourne now has such a specialty sweet boutique -- we were getting a bit tired of macarons/cupcake things. Btw, try eating the normal size version, real gob-stoppers! :)

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    1. Yes! Your mouthwatering pictures was one of the reasons I made sure to pop by! And whilst I do love macarons, it's wonderful to see something different, will try the regular size next time, but I quite enjoyed the 'naughty but nice' factor the smaller ones had ;)

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  3. I'm from Maine in the US and the state dessert (I kid you not) is the whoopie pie. I've been eating them for a very long time. I'm a purist though - they need to be chocolate with cream in the middle. All these photos make me hungry and I'm absolutely full from grazing all evening.

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  4. YAY :) So excited to find out that there's another good cafe in Camberwell :) I get really sick of traveling to South Melbourne hehe that poached egg with salmon looks SUPER YUMMEH!

    And I've driven past the Whoopie Bakery so many times and have wanted to visit but haven't had time oops :D Gotta go soon!

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  5. Loving both places! Maybe something to try next weekend? Can never decide which of the 100s cafes on my wishlist I should give a try :)

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    1. Tell me about it! So many cafes to visit these days! But the quality of food (and coffee I hear) is really top notch at Prospect Espresso...plus if you go on Sunday you could also visit the Camberwell Sunday Market like I did afterwards! :)

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  6. I have to admit when you first posted this I was going through a fairly vague stage and not reading much of what came into my Reader ... that said, when I was looking for brunch recommendations last week I'm so glad I came across this one. I went there Sunday with family and we all absolutely loved it! The coffee was really good (if I don't have to add sugar to my short mac, I'm a happy girl) and the food was fabulous. We'll be back for sure ... after crossing a few other places off 'the list' :).

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