Naughty Boy Cafe

The line between cafe and restaurant these days get more and more blurred. In fact, what’s the difference really? Why is there a differentiation between the two? After all, cafe’s serve food, and restaurants also serve coffee…they just generally have different opening hours. But with more and more all day eateries opening…

Naughty Boy wasn’t the place I was expecting to be totally and utterly blown away with, located on the quiet end of Lygon Street, the space is big, playful, with cheeky murals and milk crate lights and would cater very well to parents with kids (who hopefully aren’t so naughty!)

My Bondi Chai was sweet, nicely steeped, but not very spicy. 

The food menu reads a treat at Naughty Boy, I was very sorely tempted by red velvet pancakes, I went for the grilled Atlantic salmon, with a potato and bacon galette, avocado mousse, spinach, caper berries, poached eggs and radish.

Now I don’t know what I was expecting, something filling for sure, but wow. Naughty Boy turned it up and delivered one of the most gorgeous breakfast dishes I’d seen in a while. This could almost be dished up for dinner instead!

Just the right amount of pretty plating for me, but my gosh, executed so well. The salmon was perfectly cooked, with a crispy skin, still tender and succulent pink on the inside. Eggs were gooey, not runny, which worked well for this dish. Incredibly smooth dollops of avocado hid bursts of citrus which added a nice bit of acidity to the dish and the potato galettes were simply everything. The cubes looked good, but one bite and you know they’ve just been happily drowned in butter and/or cream…and you’re totally okay with that.

Brad’s baked eggs were a little more modest and traditional but was all good; braised ratatouille, tomato, basil, white beans, cotechino sausage, fried haloumi and toasted pide. Hearty, soul soothing food, I loved the sweetness of all the tomato, especially paired with the basil throughout. And do I even need to talk about haloumi? 

These guys have been getting some love lately for their ‘freak shakes’ which I didn’t have, but really, the food offering all on it’s own is amazing at Naughty Boy. Good value, utterly delicious and presently gorgeously. And no queue. For now. 

Naughty Boy Cafe

499 Lygon Street

Carlton North