Raya Melbourne — Restaurant in Melbourne

ORDERED 🍞 Kaya & butter toast + soft boiled eggs ($12.00) ☕ Hojicha latte 🍰 Black sesame cake: toasted ground black sesame, white miso cream ($9.50)

I spent $26.50 here. *weekend has +10% surcharge, and public holiday +15%

REVIEW: ❤️ The kaya and butter roast with soft boiled eggs was delicious. It came with a generous amount of soy sauce and pepper, for you to season at will. It's really satisfying to dip the sweet, rich, coconut spread sandwich with the salty butter into the creamy soft boiled egg. It's simple, but jam packed full of flavour and incredibly addictive. 🤩 ➖ The black sesame cake was decent. It was fluffy, and pulled the nutty black sesame flavour really well but the miso cream was too savoury for my personal taste. It added a saltiness where I was looking for sweetness, so I ended up eating around the cream.

➖ Atmosphere was straight forward in a bare bones establishment. If you're dining in, there's serviettes and cutlery by the coffee machine along with self serve water. You'll need to grab the dine in seats yourself, and order at the counter as well. They'll also call your name out to pick up from the counter when your order is ready! 🤝 ❌ The staff are busy during the lunch rush, so diners really need to be mindful. The crumbs that were next to me (shared table) remained there until the lunch rush was over. I did mention to the staff the crumbs when I first got up to order. When the staff finally got around to it towards the end of my meal, they were apologetic for the delay, but would've been nice if the diner(s) pick up after themselves...

We came on consecutive days and if I have one suggestion, it is this: if you plan on getting baked goods, then either wait until at least a half hour after they have opened OR ask the staff if what they are serving you is freshly made from that morning or if it is from the day before. On the first day, I ordered the kaya toast with soft boiled eggs; besides being a little light on the butter slices, I thought the execution was essentially perfect with the thicker-than-expected toasted bread having excellent crispy texture throughout. The next morning, we came right as they opened and I saw that some of the cookies and a few slices of cakes were already in the display, looking very similar to the day before. I ordered a slice of the pandan chiffon cake, which was taken from a glass case where 2/3 of a whole cake was sitting, presumably since before that morning; my wife and I both agreed that the cake tasted a little stale. We then watched as staff placed presumably fresher cookies and other items directly from oven trays into the display case without clearing out the pre-existing baked goods. We have seen many bakeries offer discounts either at the end of the day or the following day to clear inventory for fresh product; we were disappointed that we were charged the same amount for product that wasn't particularly fresh, and I would recommend that you ask about the date/time of baking/preparation before committing to purchasing any of these...

@Raya.Melbourne for Kaya Toast with soft boiled eggs and teh tarik. The teh tarik is superb, a big warm comforting hug, delicious flavour, light and foamy, great way to start the day. It's a bit of a wait but breakky is here. After a dash of soy sauce and white pepper and a mix of the soft boiled eggs, one bite and I'm hooked. Rich egg yolks which delight the senses, perfectly prepared whites that are super soft, these are superb. The bread has been toasted enough to have crunch but not too much to leave a little softness. The butter has melted in and oozes richness whilst the kaya jam is excellent, evoking a light coconut flavour. I must say this version is probably better than that I had in Singapore! Awesome meal.

I had also visited previously whilst waiting for my lunch order at Hector's Deli and popped in, surveying the range of baked treats on offer. The kaya toast cake caught my eye. A soft cake with a salty but sweet burst, this is very intriguing. The saltiness definitely conjurs up a toast like sensation, I'm not sure how, but it just does. The slightly sweet cream cheese icing keeps the cake moist and plays off the saltiness with the kaya adding a coconut tone to the cake. Fascinating and enjoyable.

#SouthEastAsianFood #breakfast #kayatoast #kayajam #toast #softboiledeggs #tehtarik #dessert #sweettooth #Foodie #melbournefood...