The Banff St Kilda

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Posted 2024-11-12 by Jen ⇒ follow

Images - Writers Own

It's not unusual that I end up eating out 2-3 times a week, especially on family day Sundays when we go for a wander to discover whatever we happen to come upon. On this Sunday we were heading over to a very eclectic pub which I adore, but have never eaten there. However the menu was very chips and burger-oriented, and we were not really feeling it. I scooted up the street passing some fancy establishments and Bayou food joints, scouting a place to eat. This time, Banff Cafe St. Kilda at 29/145 Fitzroy St was the chosen one. It was a pleasant surprise and the ambience was warm and inviting. Especially so when the person behind the bar/counter on the right as you enter greets you with 'how are you doing beautiful'. At my age, I'll take that. Grabbing a couple of menus, we decided to sit outside and take in the beautiful weather while under the shade of an enormous tree. It was most pleasant indeed.

As you can see from the first image, the prices were very affordable, and you can have classic pizzas for 11 bucks, and to takeaway during the week. We were grazing on the day as we were heading back to our favourite haunt for Sunday roast. We shared the wild mushroom with thyme cream risotto which was rich and creamy and amazingly tasty - in light of the fact that you're always hearing about risotto being the downfall of many a contestant on MasterChef. No complaints about the smoked salmon, red onion, dill cream, capers and spinach sandwich either. It was generous and the fillings and focaccia was incredibly light and fresh. The chef must have been on Cloud 9 on the day, as he was spinning out some great food as far as we were concerned - very happy with our find.

You may tire of me saying it again, but the roast vegetable salad mixed in with fresh leafy greens and mustard seed dressing was a delight. When I cook at home, I myself love putting together fresh and cooked vegetables together for a salad for a bit of a change. I liked that the roasted vegetables were cut into small bite-sized pieces, and that way you weren't getting a huge mouthful of just roast vegetables, but a good mix of everything on the fork. Having had a few drinks at the aforementioned but unnamed pub, we opted for lattes/coffees, which were pleasant enough, but not strong enough for my taste. With a couple of cafes on Chapel Street and Prahran Market that are known for their coffee roasting - churning out strong coffee, this was milder in taste but by no means unpleasant.

Banff may be known to the locals, and though established in 1942, if you don't live in the area, and with so many other cafes and eateries in the whole of Melbourne, you can't cover every single place, try as you might. However, the reason I'm making mention of it is because I thought it was a good find, had reasonable prices and the food was fresh and great - the atmosphere, a place you'd like to hang out at under the trees or inside. Open from Monday to Sunday from 8am to 10pm - you can basically have breakfast, lunch and dinner there if you wanted to. The breakfast menu which is served from 7am to 12pm on weekdays and 7am to 3pm on weekends has quite a good variety with prices ranging from $7.50 for a toast board to the most expensive salmon avo for $22, which is a smoked salmon, smashed avo, spinach, capers, herb cream cheese, soft poached eggs on multigrain toast. For 10 bucks you can get a kids brekkie of smoked bacon and fried egg on sourdough toast, or eggs on toast for the same price. There is of course quite a good variety in between.

You can choose from the lunch and dinner menu to have in-house or takeaway from 12pm to 9pm every day. In-house pizzas range from $12 to $17, but as I understand it, they go for $11 on weekdays as aforementioned eg. Mon & Tue 12pm to close and Wed-Fri 12pm to 5.30pm. You can also stick with the special pizzas for just $17.50 and enjoy lamb, chilli prawns, squid, and more pizzas. I was intrigued by the 'paper bag pasta' on the menu and asked what it was. They just said they only had a pizza oven, so they cook the pasta in a baking paper, paper bag (don't eat the bag!) and put it in the oven. These are just $17.50 each for carbonara linguine, chilli prawns spaghetti, etc, and kids can have spag and Napoli sauce for $13. We didn't get around to dessert or we'd have been too full to move on to the next round of grazing. If ever you're passing Banff , check it out. You might just love it.