Apte

Apte
538-540 Heidleberg Road, Alphington, VIC
Their own house blend
Best Pikelets


Update (yet again):

The consistent excellent performance of the Banana pikelets won this place a new award. In fact, if you compare the photos, there's much more fruits than previously. If only there were more pikelets too... it's still too small!

You know the dishes are good when I order the same thing over and over again =)
________________________________________
Update (again):

I haven't been back here for awhile... was a little worried when I heard they changed hands. But to my relief, nothing has changed. In fact, I think it may have got better!

The Apte Scramble ($12.50) - scrambled free range eggs with fresh herbs and feta on toasted organic sourdough was a no-fuss quality dish. Unfortunately it was also not-much-excitement.

The Spanish Baked Eggs ($13.90) - free range eggs baked with cannellini, red kidney beans and chorizo sausage topped with a parmesan crust and Turkish flat bread was very "beany" and akthough good, was no match for the sweet food!

There's now a Mixed Platter ($15.50) - half serve of ricotta hot-cakes and banana bread... that's what you get when you can't decide between their 2 famous sweet breakfasts! The hot-cakes, served wuth poached seasonl fruit, honey and orange infused ricotta were as good as before. The banana bread had a coconut element to it, and was served with honey labne, pistacios and rubard. Best of both worlds? Maybe... but the next dish was the absolute bomb!

I think the Pikelets ($10.50) are new and I hope they stay on the menu for a long long time. The crisp, light banana pikelets with beautiful clotted cream, crunchy, sugared pecans and fresh berries was amazing! My only complaint? Such a tiny dish! I needed more... lots more!

There's also a whole lunch menu - including this lamb dish my friend ordered. But with breakfasts so wonderful, I haven't ventured on to the next page yet!
________________________________________

Update:

We went back to confirm the 4 beans rating (which it was) but only to find out a week later that the owners have sold this cafe... they're moving on to something similar in the carlton/brunswick/fitzroy area i think. Yay for me!

We had the big breakfast again - it was as good as before. We also tried the Smoked Tasmanian salmon with a corn, pea and feta fritter, with avocado, rocket and dill sour cream ($15). I it, except for the corn. But I guess I saw that coming from ordering corn fritters! A much less picky partner thoroughly enjoyed the whole deal.
________________________________________

Who would have thought Apte was an acronym for "a place to eat"?

There's a handy car park at the back (the little road beside allows permit parking only) but beware of cars trying to come out at the same time - it's a crowded breaky spot. Entry from the car park leads to a courtyard with crates of toys and kids' books. A little too child-friendly maybe?

Anyway, we managed to score a bar stool spot almost immediately but the bigger groups that came at the same time ended up waiting for more than half an hour. Service is amiable, and while the menus are not groundbreaking, the execution is zinging. Mayo, cakes, pesto, etc is made on site with excellent quality produce and ingredients.

The big breakfast ($16) includes 2 perfectly poached free range eggs, sausages that I surprisingly found nice, bacon, delicious house made relish (which you can buy in bottles), mushrooms, spinach (which had a bit of soil/sand taste still), tomatoes and organic toast - one multi grain & one white for variety.

After we waited pretty long for the eggs, we were worried our order of Ricotta Hotcakes ($13.50) to come after was going to take just as long. It came in perfect time. Not as good as Replete's let alone Bill's, but definitely better than Rathdowne St Food Store's. Plump, light and golden and served with poached fruit, honey and orange infused ricotta. Despite the dishes being generously proportioned, both plates went back clean.