Short Round

I really don't mean to the blogger who's running from hot new spot to hot new spot, but when you're perving on menus online as much as I do, you really can't help it sometimes. 

Which is what lead me to Short Round, a hot new little cafe open in Thornbury. I hadn't realised until recently how close Thornbury actually was to me, as in my head it was always a lot further away. Like I said in a previous post, I love being proven wrong about these things.

Upon reaching Short Round, with it's gorgeous open space and simple but tasteful decor I was positively thrilled that we were able to get a seat immediately. 

However, we were also sympathetically informed upon seating, that due to the huge demand this particular weekend (and as they had only just opened) that the wait for food would actually be an hour. 

Well, Brad and I were there, we were seated, so we decided to wait it out. Our waiting habits from America are still strong with us apparently. 

Fortunately to tide us over, the very kind waitresses made sure we were quickly furnished with hot drinks. A lovely looking latte for Brad and an absolutely delicious soy chai for me (as always). I absolutely loved the cup that the chai was served in, it kind of looked like an egg to me, and I also adored how spicy and flavoursome the chai was. Incredibly enjoyable. 

Our hour estimate for food was accurate, and after fluffing around on our phones, talking about current affairs and eventually tiptoeing around some deep and meaningful discussions (for some reason brunch always seems to bring that out of us), our food all came out at once. 

What had attracted me to Short Round's menu was how a-typical it was, with only a few familiars to be found on it which had meant that it was really quite hard to not order everything on the menu. 

Brad went with the Breakfast Pizza (with a bit of gentle coercing from me), with egg, pancetta, passata, bocconcini, fresh cherry tomatoes, wild rocket and EVOO. Covered in a very generous handful of rocket leaves, this was way tasty, and the perfect bridge between breakfast and lunch. Loved the crunchy crust and to me, you really can hardly go wrong with passata. Mmmhmmm.

I already knew what I wanted when I arrived, despite all the yummy looking options on the menu! Being the fritter fiend that I am, I just simply had to try the cauliflower fritters with snow pea shoots, pomegranate molasses and minted yoghurt. Although they looked to be a fairly modest serving, I was surprised with how much these filled me up! I loved the colours on the plate, pomegranate is just so pretty isn't it?

The fritters were real crunchy around the outside, with quite a rich and salty batter, however this was offset will with the yoghurt which was very tart and quite strong as well. Adding a bit of freshness between the two big flavours, the snow peas were a refreshing reprieve and I loved how crisp they were. My only real complaint is that the cauliflower flavour itself was so subtle that it was overpowered by the batter in my opinion.

I'm getting a bit cheeky with my brunches these days, finding it hard to resist the waffle wave that seems to be taking Melbourne over, I mean really, from almost never seeing waffles on a brunch menu, they're really starting to make a bit of an appearance these days!

I mean though, when you see butter-SCOTCH (yes, scotch must be in capitals) house made waffles with vanilla mascarpone and toasted pecans, you just don't say no. I'm no waffle expert, in fact I generally find them a touch dry for my tastes in general, which is why I think it's not really the waffles that are important here, but the toppings. And here at Short Round they really out do themselves with the vanilla mascarpone, speckled with vanilla beans throughout, it's sweet, smooth and so delicious. The only nitpick? Can I have some more sir? 

So although there was a wait, I'm not really bothered by it, as we were informed upon sitting immediately and Brad and I chose to stuck it out, so that was our decision to deal with the wait. I also totally understand that it was one of their first weekends, and that a couple of things still need to be fine-tuned, you can't predict for everything now. 

The service in the meantime was friendly and helpful, and I loved what Short Round was doing with the menu on a whole. Hopefully a few weeks in and they've got their stuff sorted out a bit more, so when you visit you'll have a much shorter wait than I did!

Short Round

731 High Street

Thornbury

View I'm So Hungree in a larger map