I took my dad on one of my blogger lunches on Friday this week and we visited Short Straw in Hawthorn. This is my second visit to the beautiful venue, tucked away from the busy Glenferrie Rd, on Mary St. They are in the same family as Collective Espresso in Camberwell. We had to sit at a communal table, which was a shame, but there are plenty of tables in varying sizes.
NOTE: Both times I have visited, I have parked on Mary St and received a parking ticket - park in the carpark on the other side of Glenferrie Rd. I might have had a free lunch, but it cost me $95 in parking fines. They don't muck around.
The coffee here tastes great - I had a strong latte and Dad had a regular latte. Neither of them lasted long. I was going to order a smoothie, but I needed the caffeine hit. We ordered 3 dishes to share - the Eggs Benny with avocado, the New York Style Bagel with fries (I had this last time too - it's delicious - I had to have it again) & the Stack on Waffles.
I had ordered the Eggs Benny at a previous visit to Collective Espresso and had not read the menu properly. The braised pork is mixed in to the potato hash and has a similar consistency to a tuna patty. I was not a fan, but Dad said it tasted very nice and that the pork had a nice salty flavour. The eggs were poached perfectly and there was a very generous serving of hollandaise.
The New York Style Bagel comes absolutely stuffed to the brim with semi-dried tomatoes, chicken & avocado. Every bite that I took, bits were falling out. It tasted great though and i was very full by the end of the meal. The shoestring fries were cold, but tasted nice.
I was very excited to try the Stacks on Waffles - they have been popping up on my Instagram feed a lot lately and looked delicious. They were a bit smaller than I expected, but since Dad and I were sharing after having eaten something else, I did not mind. The lemon curd had an absolutely fantastic flavour and the chocolate macaroons were delicious. The waffles had a great banana-infused flavour and it was nice to have cream on top instead of ice-cream (so it didn't melt while we were eating everything else).
The staff at Short Straw are lovely and very attentive. The food is delicious and very decently priced. As long as you don't get a parking fine, like I did, you'll enjoy a wonderful visit at Short Straw. Thanks for having us, team :)