Omar and The Marvellous Coffeebird

124 Gardenvale Rd
Gardenvale, VIC 3185
03 9596 4186
www.omars.com.au
GoogleMap

I have a mental map of where to go for reliably good coffees in Melbourne. Most of my favourite cafés and roasteries seem to be concentrated around the inner North (Fitzroy, Kensington, Northcote, North Melbourne). When I’m in that area, I’m in a land of plenty.

But once I roam into the other areas of Melbourne, my ‘good coffee radar’ start to beep less frequently. I do have a few backup cafés scattered here and there for emergencies, but the drive’s often quite lengthy to get there.

Today, we explore a Bayside café and roastery. If anything else, I just wanted to come here because of its marvellous name!

Fit-out gave me the impression of a coffee warehouse slash pop-up café, everything looked like they could’ve been on wheels! The row of tables for seating had wheels which were fitted into a set of ‘tram tracks’ that led into an unknown destination at the back of the shop.

One thing I noticed here, the seats are rather high in comparison to the height of the table, so my food sat at a slightly lower altitude than what I’m normally used to. Now I know how tall people feel… :)

Piccolo $3.5 (White Blend, Sumatra Aceh Mengaya)

Service was good. Fakegf and I were seated promptly and our coffees came quick. There are a number of blends and single origins on offer, but for standard milk coffee drinks, they use something called the ‘White Blend’, a low acidity bean from Indonesia that carries well with milk. On closer inspection, it seems the White Blend’s beans come from the one source in Aceh, so this blend could technically be classified as a single origin?

While the foam art wasn’t elaborate here, our piccolos tasted good enough. Rounded, chocolatey, and safe… with dark hints of fruit. In a way, it reminded me of coffees from 5 Senses. Quite satisfying, and Fakegf liked it too.

Toasted macadamia muesli, served with honeyed yoghurt & fruit $9.5

The menu isn’t extensive, with a distinct lack of cooked offerings, so don’t come here expecting poached eggs. But what was on offer was decent. Fakegf’s muesli was delightful and filling. She liked how it wasn’t overly sweet and they were very generous with the macadamia nuts. It also had a hint of cinnamon and other spices which made her breakfast very nice to eat.

Black Rock smoked salmon with labneh and avocado on sourdough $17

I opted for a simple platter of some of my favourite brunch ingredients. All the components did not disappoint, and I liked the Middle Eastern touch with the use of well-made labneh. I did find my dish a little dry though, and while it tasted simple and good, I felt that charging $17 for this was a touch pricey, since no cooking was involved making it.

Overall, a decent brunch. I may pop by again just for a cup of coffee or a bag of beans should I be in the neighbourhood.

White Blend 250g $12 (Sumatra Aceh Mengaya)

Look at the ‘tram tracks’ lining all the tables… quirky! Before leaving, I got myself a bag of beans to use on my machine (and grinder) at home. I had to grind the bean a little finer in order to get a more robust flavour. I found the white blend to be a very forgiving bean, and it produced (on my machine) bright and citrus-tasting coffees. I’m still a baby when it comes to making coffees at home, with only a 5-10% chance of making a good cup, haha. But it’s still a lot of fun trying and I’m slowly getting better!

I’m also going to give everybody a heads-up. I may be doing combined brunch posts in the future, as in cover more than one place in the one post, and maybe with a theme. This is because I’ve been brunching heaps lately and can’t catch up! Also I think reading too many eggs-and-coffee posts each week can become boring, so let’s streamline things. Watcha think? :)