The Cornershop | Cobb Lane Bakery
The Cornershop
9 Ballarat St
Yarraville, VIC 3013
03 9689 0052
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One problem with dating a shift worker is… BOY are they grumpy some mornings! But admittedly, the day we’d visited Cornershop I was partly to blame. I was so caught up preparing my dishes for Chinese New Year dinner that I lost track of time, and by the time I’d left home, Fatbee only had 20 mins to jump out of bed and be ready for pickup (he slept at 4am).
So there I was… standing in front of this cafe’s windows with Ees, Littledeath and Mr Crankypants… trying to make light conversation to brush over the blaring fact that someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed that day. Hehe… and the fact that it was about to be a 40ºC day also did not help.
Thankfully, a table freed up within 15 minutes and we could start working into brunch mode!
The Cornershop has lingered on the back of my mind for a number of years, having had a nice chocolatey cup of coffee there in the past. But the one thing that halted me from visiting sooner was this instinctive feeling that Yarraville cafes tend to be very crowded with long waits on weekends. Fortunately, that wasn’t really the case on the Sunday that we visited.
Strong flat white 3.8 | Ice coffee 6.5
First order of the day… a good infusion of caffeine for those amongst us who needed it. I love how Littledeath’s such a brunch creature of habit… 2 Strong FW’s in quick succession and the porridge/muesli dish please! He gave his drink a nod of approval. Fatbee finally settled down a little with his iced coffee which came nice, strong and chocolatey. He liked how the sweetness only came from the ice cream.
Chilled coconut quinoa porridge with mango & palm sugar 12
No prizes for guessing whose dish this was… ha ha!
Littledeath enjoyed it, mentioning how it was texturally like a rice pudding, only much lighter because of the quinoa. It looked really good to me.
Scrambled eggs with parmesan, cavolo nero & soft herbs 14
Ees went simple with a moist scramble. He was slightly crestfallen that the Tuscan cabbage was mixed in rather than served on the side, but liked his dish in the end, saying how the parmesan gave it good flavour.
The Melbourne Pantry cold smoked salmon with corn & polenta fritters & a tomato dill salsa 17
I had corn fritters which were surprisingly filling, probably because the fritters contained cheese and there was sour cream on the side. The dish leant towards the salty side and I think the fritters could’ve afforded more corn to give it some sweetness. The tomato salsa could also have been more ‘salsa-ish’ (ie. have a confidently spicy kick) to help counterpoint things.
Ricotta hotcakes with sweet basil, strawberries & cream 15
Fatbee struggled to find something appealing on the menu, but eventually picked a sweet dish. One of the hotcakes had a touch too much basil in it but the rest of the dish was alright. From the little sampling I had, I thought the hotcakes were nice and fluffy.
It was a pretty decent brunch. But as we were about to leave, Ees reminded me that our plans to brunch in Yarraville had a hidden agenda… I’m so forgetful! Can you guess what it was?
Cobb Lane Bakery
13 Anderson St
Yarraville, VIC 3013
03 9687 1538
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Sweets at Matt Forbes’ dessert HQ!!
It was just a minute’s stroll away… entering the doors, we discovered that you can actually brunch here, or just sit and enjoy the pastries with a cup of coffee.
I quite often see desserts by Matt Forbes displayed at many cafes, but they tend to revolve around doughnuts, cookies, brownies and slices. But at his bakery here, there’s even more variety on offer.
Butter Croissant 4.0 | Pain au Chocolat 4.5
Fatbee and I grabbed a couple of croissants to share for breakfast the next day. They’re baked to a dark crisp and were pretty decent.
Berry, Lychee + Rose Eclair 7.0
But it was these two more exciting offerings that finally dispelled Fatbee’s cranky mood.
First up, a tangy-fragrant raspberry lychee eclair… he liked the bold and interesting flavour combinations, while I found the almost icing-like topping made it a bit too sweet for me.
Salted Caramel + Cardamom Tart 7.5
This tart, however, won my heart. It was like a dark chocolate tart with a hint of liquor and filled with salted caramel. The gentle push of cardamon gave it a very unique uplift. Very nice.
We all get our cranky days… I’m like that after a long and physical day at work, and Fatbee knows that my sour moods are quite easily rectified with food/snacks (of any kind, I’m not picky!) or a good cider. However, it looks like I have a steeper hill to climb when having to appease the… *ahem*… wrath of the princess! And looking at how bumbly I generally am, I suspect I’ll be visiting many many dessert places in the near future in desperate search for ‘appeasement offerings’… ha ha ha!