We adventured out to Coburg this long weekend and visited The Elizabeth Cafe on Elizabeth St. This cafe has been open for about 5 years, but was taken over 3 years ago by Hannah and her team. It boasts a double shop front, which means lots of room for a table and two separate dining areas. The decor is simple, but fresh, especially the pastel brick design that leads in to the second dining space. The art work on the roof of the shop front is also fantastic.
The new menu, which launched two weeks ago, is full of modern, yet original dishes. Manager, Lauren, said that they are aiming to cater for the younger community that have recently moved in to the area. They are in direct competition with a Degani over the road, but hopefully, with time, the general public will realise what a little gem this cafe is.
We ordered a watermelon/apple juice to start and an iced coffee - both were delicious! I don't usually like sweeter coffees, but this combination of ice cream and coffee was ace. We ordered 3 dishes to share - the Chorizo Burger ($16), Portuguese Chicken Burger ($16) & the French Toast ($15). All dishes had generous serving sizes, but were not huge.
The Chorizo Burger comes in a pink, beetroot bun and is stuffed with spicy chorizo, scrambled eggs, cheese, avocado, a hash brown and aioli. This is a hangover bun if every I've tasted one! The flavour combination was absolutely spot on, but the chorizo was just one whole sausage, so kept sliding out when I couldn't bite through the skin.
The Portuguese Chicken Burger came stuffed with juicy chicken breast, cheese, cos lettuce, tomato & aioli. It also came with a serve of fries. This burger is simple, but very tasty. The juiciness of the chicken worked well considering that a risk of chicken burgers is them being dry.
The French Toast was a very humble dish. It was simple cinnamon spiced toast topped with banana, strawberries, blueberries and a baby poached pear. Again, the flavours combinations were perfect! We shared this after eating our burgers and it was the perfect way to finish the meal.
The Elizabeth Cafe is staffed by an ambitious and dedicated team, with Hannah the owner, Lauren the front of house manager and Ross in the kitchen. They want to provide you with a Brunswick style foodie experience without having to travel all the way to the West. Visit them before everyone catches on!
