Yesterday we visited the gorgeous Lillie Espresso & Eatery off Chapel St in Prahran. We were blown away by how beautiful the venue was, with a huge fish tank on display as you walk through the door, pastel painted walls and some awesome designs on the ceiling.
It was surprisingly quiet for a Sunday morning, but it was also Melbourne Cup weekend, so a lot of people were probably either away or still out from the previous night. We ordered a coffee, a freshly squeezed OJ, the Dr Marty's Crumpets and the Breakfast Ramen. Both serving sizes looked a bit small, but were very filling.
The Dr Marty's Crumpets ($13) were immaculately presented, topped with vanilla mascarpone, blueberry compote, crushed walnuts, burnt honey and edible flowers. The blueberry compote had a very rich flavour, but was evened out nicely by the mascarpone. It is a very sweet dish, but the honey and the nut mellowed it out. There was a lot going on in this dish, but if you had a bit of everything in each bite, it tasted great.
The Breakfast Ramen ($18.90) was also very well presented, consisting of buckwheat (gluten free) noodles in a miso broth, raw mushrooms, bacon, tea egg and assorted greens. The flavours were great, but the bacon came in two big pieces and was hard to pull apart. I tried to eat it with chopsticks, but they did not have ramen spoons, so it was hard to eat the broth. The noodles tasted nice and were a bit denser than traditional ramen. The egg and greens were cooked perfectly. I did not finish it because it was a bit fiddly to eat, but it tasted very nice.
All in all, we had a very pleasant experience at Lillie Espresso & Eatery. The venue is gorgeous and the staff are very friendly. It is away from the bustle of Chapel St, but still close enough that you can go for a stroll afterwards to work off your meal. I would highly recommend this place before you have to start queueing to eat your breakfast :)
