Tall Timber Restaurant

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Breaky PlateChicken Bastilla

The first time I heard about Tall Timber was through Tinder. With a search radius of less than 10km, we both happened to live in South Yarra, making the trendy café an ideal meet up for a first date. True to form, I bailed on the date, but I'd been meaning to try the much-hyped café ever since.

A year later, with an interstate guest in tow, I finally found myself waiting 30 minutes in the blistering Melbourne winter for a table. Only down for the weekend, I wanted to feed my guest some of the best brunches Melbourne had to offer. Tall Timber shaped up; although not without a few splinters.



After waiting the customary half hour for weekend brunch, we were seated at the corner of a communal table. Lovely and bright inside, the café is decorated minimally with light timber and Australian flora. On-trend brown glass bottles of eucalyptus leaves, gum nuts and banksia line the centre of the communal table and walls, offset wonderfully by jars of homemade jam that were possibly left behind from another meal.



Rolls of brown butcher's paper streamed down from the ceiling, with the daily specials scribbled hastily with a Sharpie – similar to the economical specials board seen at Coin Laundry Café in Armadale - consisting primarily of fresh-pressed juices perfect for bolstering August immunity.

With a huge selection of breakfast and lunch options on the menu alone, it was hard to choose between a variety of poached eggs and the call of a hearty salad. After spending a few minutes scrolling through their Instagram for visual clues, I chose the Breaky Plate, while my guest ordered the Chicken Bastilla.



A sucker for poached eggs and avocado on toast, I couldn't go past the variety offered: A poached egg on two slices of toast with smashed avocado; a bowl of gourmet toasted muesli with blueberry yoghurt and milk; and a glass of freshly-squeezed orange juice.

A small splinter: being lactose intolerant, I asked to substitute the milk for almond milk and was charged a dollar extra. While I realise that good-quality almond milk is expensive, I'm still waiting for the discrimination around non-dairy milk to lift – particularly when the alternative is for the cow's milk to go to waste.

One interesting take away from Tall Timber is that, although the décor screams "AUSSIE, AUSSIE, AUSSIE – OI, OI, OI!", the menu lends a delicious nod to Middle Eastern flavours, with plenty of dukkah sprinkled across the offerings.

My guest ordered the Chicken Bastilla – essentially a hearty pie – abreast a grain salad. Wrapped in flaky pastry, the chicken was rich in Moroccan flavours and plenty of cinnamon. The pastry was melt-in-your-mouth delicious, and it paired well with the fresh squeeze of lemon.



The grain salad was everything you want in a clean eating winter meal: quinoa, lentils, flaked almonds and hazelnuts with spring onion and a refreshing Greek yoghurt side. Not too heavy, yet filling – my guest almost licked the plate clean.

Another splinter stuck when, mid-mouthful, the waitress tried to take my plate and I almost dribbled almond milk and muesli telling her to back off. While Sundays are clearly one of their busiest periods, it'd be nice not to feel like we were being rushed out mid-meal.

Splinters aside, I will definitely return, as the menu was too thorough to ignore. With so many options, I'll be sure to find my way back early in the morning or much later in the afternoon, when all of the rough edges have been smoothed.

#brunch
#cafes
#food_wine
#prahran
#south_east
%wnmelbourne