Gas
| Where | 253 Coventry St, South Melbourne, 3205—View map |
Contact | 03 9690 0217 |
Website | — |
Open | Breakfast Monday to Sunday 8:00 am to 12:00 pm |
Payment | EFTPOS, Visa, Mastercard, Cash |
Diet | Check with venue |
Seating | Inside and outside |
Kids | Get a baby sitter |
Pets | Welcome |
It's a gas, gas, gas
Rowena Robertson 21 August 2009
If you can quash the mild sense of unease that is likely to arise due to the fact that this café is named Gas, your intrepidness will definitely serve you well. Set on the same strip of Coventry Street as the iconic Café Sweethearts, Gas is a long, narrow, brick and tile-walled roomwhose main seating is an equally long and narrow high bench that extends down one side of the space. Spotlights and the natural light that streams in through the front windows give the place a cosy feel.
The breakfast menu at Gas has clearly been lovingly devised, with great attention having been paid to details (this is exemplified in their array of inspired sides). The "truly free range" eggs are sourced from Great Western Victoria, and Dench Bakers' bread and Yarra Valley jams areused. The menu has a definite Mediterranean-cum-Middle Eastern focus – perfect for those who like their breakfasts to have a bit of personality and kick.
I almost went for the Spanish omelette with goat's cheese, chorizo, fresh herbs, bacon, balsamic and harissa glazed tomatoes on Turkish toast, but in the end chose the Middle Eastern eggs served in a pan with stewed tomato, haloumi cheese, paprika and Turkish toast. It was a touch difficult to find the eggs and haloumi amidst the mass of stewed tomato in the pan, but overall the dish was extremely tasty and actually put me in mind of those comforting meals you might slap up for a Sunday night dinner in front of the TV.
Greedily, I followed this up with the Greek thickened yoghurt with rose water, pistachio nuts, honey and stewed rhubarb, which was nothing short of exquisite. The flavours were perfectly balanced; the mix was neither too sweet nor too bitter. Beautiful.
Other gems on the menu include the house made baked beans – canellini beans slow-cooked with tomato and smoked ham and served with Turkish bread, vine-ripened fruit bread lightly toasted and served with honey and vanilla bean ricotta or Yarra Valley jam, and the French toast with brioche and dusted in cinnamon sugar served with either banana and maple syrup, or Yarra Valley raspberry jam or maple syrup (this dish was voted "most delectable French toast" in The Foodie's Guide to Melbourne 2006).
The coffee (Gravity) was some of the best I've had in sometime, and the service was extremely friendly and efficient. The Gas experience is one you want to take home with you, and you can – they have a comprehensive range of top quality foodstuffs for sale.