Foodstore Cafe, Hawthorn

We visited Foodstore Cafe in Hawthorn last weekend, with the lovely @melbourniancritic, @knowingmelbourne and @splitthebill for a cheeky Saturday morning brunch. I drive past this cafe on the way to work every morning, but had never stopped in, so it was lovely to actually have the time to pay them a visit. The owners, and staff, are absolutely lovely and very accomodating. There is also ample (free!) parking and a large number of tables both indoors and out.

We ordered the red velvet hotcakes, omelette, smashed avocado, shakshouka and veggie brekky special to share and photographed the absolute hell out of them before eating them. I also ordered the new mango smoothie to try.

Considering how long we took to photograph everything, each dish still tasted great, which is a testament to the great flavours. The hotcakes had melted the ice cream and were doused in syrup by the time we were done with them, but they were still light and fluffy. If I hadn't demolished the smashed avo first, I would have eaten way more of them. They were very tasty.

The smashed avocado was nice, but then again, it's hard to stuff up a smashed avo. I loved the addition of the herbs and cherry tomatoes, which made it taste extra healthy.

The mango smoothie was very sweet and came with a giant ball of Persian fairy floss on top. My only issue with it was the seeds on the top of the smoothie, that kept getting stuck in the straw. It made it a bit tricky to finish off.

The girls raved about their dishes, especially the rich flavour of the shakshouka and the cauliflower. Everything on the table was devoured and we all left very satisfied from generous serving sizes.

Foodstore Cafe is definitely becoming a brunch go-to and is a very popular spot on weekends for cyclists, so make sure you visit soon before you have to start queuing up for your meal! :)