We visited Lorna café in Ferntree Gully this week and were greeted by friendly staff, modern décor and an American inspired menu. They are located in a strip mall on Burwood Highway, but there is ample parking out the front and in the carpark on the next lot.
We ordered 3 brunch mains – the smashed avocado, porridge and the acai bowl to share. We also ordered coffees and smoothies.
The smashed avocado ($18.50) came with poached eggs on toast with nuts, watercress, pickles feta, grapefruit dressing & cultured cream (dressing and cream made on site - a really nice accompaniment to the dish!). We also added the side of smoked salmon. The toppings were diced perfectly and made it easy to have a bit of everything with each bite.
The porridge ($13) was the perfect size and was topped with crushed almonds, seeds strawberry, rhubarb compote & fermented milk (also made on site). There were blueberries throughout the whole dish, which was nice as I often get excited at the start and then all of the "fun stuff" is gone before I finish my meal.
The açai bowl ($16) came served with granola, home-made yoghurt, Indian gooseberry jelly, banana and peanut butter. It was a large serve and was the perfect dish to share after demolishing our first dishes. The jelly and peanut butter are both made on site and were absolutely delish. This dish also tasted great when you had a little bit of everything on the spoon at once.
The coffees tasted great and smoothies looked beautiful and were reasonably priced (I love smoothies that are under $10). The prices for all the dishes were also very decent. The staff were wonderful - very friendly and made sure to check in on us and see that we were enjoying our food.
It is great to see a cafe like Lorna bringing the trendy food and cafes vibes that are flooding the city and inner-suburbs out to the Eastern suburbs. They have a wonderful array of dishes at affordable prices and it makes having a great brunch much easier for all of us that live out East.
Thanks for a wonderful meal, Lorna :)