The Jolimont Cafe — Restaurant in Melbourne

We tried this little local cafe on the weekend and have mixed feelings about it.

Let's start with the positives: The menu options are great, a good selection of all day brekky, lunch options include asian food such as pad thai and red/green curry.

The food taste good and amount of food served are good portion.

Parking is easy, right in front of shop or on the side street.

Now the let down: Atmostphere/environment.

Haven't been there before, so when booking I asked for the courtyard table as we have a dog with us. The staff did not warn us the courtyard at the back is very hot compared to the front. After we were seated, we realised there is a air con return air that blows out very hot air into the courtyard. The location of the return air is such that it blows into your back when you are seated, not high above seating level.

There is a pergola (with good intention to block sun) above the seating area and the hor air issue is exacerbated as the pergola trapped all the hot air under it, making into a outdoor sauna/furnace.

As we have quite a few people in our group, it was too hard to move to anohter table out at the front of cafe. (a couple who came just before we were leaving immediately asked for a change table to the front of shop, smart move), so we had to put up with it. However, it made the whole meal very unpleasant, hard to enjoy the food and I had to skip my favourite coffee as it just wasn't pleasant to have hot drink under the pergola while having the hot air constantly blowing into your back.

Service was ok, but nothing amazing to brag about. When we arrived at the cafe, the service staff led us to the table in the courtyard through the kitchen, there was no separate passage way so you literally walked into the kitchen then to the back, a hazard in my view and also food safety issue. You can of course go aroinf the cafe from the outside to the back door and enter into the courtyard that way but for some reason the staff did take us through the kitchen.

Would I go back? undecided, definitely...

Came back to this cafe after a few years. In the past I had their pad thai which wasnt good, then had french toast which was good. This time I tried their nasi goreng. Not very authentic, the only similarity with Indonesian nasi goreng is the fried egg and the sweet soy sauce they used. It was lacking of spices that Indonesians would have, and the chicken skewers, while it’s tender, it was subtly marinaded with some sort of curry powder/turmeric, which never in Indonesia you will find something like that. If they want to really make this Indonesian, either make it into Indonesian chicken satay with peanut sauce, or fried chicken that isn’t battered. Iced matcha latte was nice, but a bit sweet to me. Otherwise I like the atmosphere of the cafe, staff are friendly too, but yes their Asian foods can...

This is an absolute hidden gem. All the quality cafe standards done fantastically well, but also some tremendous South East Asian options.

I fell in love with Pad Thai in Thailand a long time ago and have tried innumerable versions, and the one they make here is the best I’ve had in Australia, and as good as, if not better than anything I had in the several months I spent in Thailand. Very few places in Australia go to the trouble of separating the nuts and the dried chilli and lime/lemon wedge, to apply yourself, but in genuine Thai style they do that here, putting them on the corners of your plate.

They have also done as much as they can with their humble suburban setting.

One of my...