May 12, 2013

• St Alexander’s Kitchen

  St Alexander’s Kitchen is perhaps one of Thomastown’s best kept secret. It’s located in the most unlikely areas – (130A  Alexander Ave, Thomastown) where it’s not on a big main road or anything significant. It’s in a very unassuming area where the locals probably didn’t know that it existed… but it’s a gem find and eventually- sooner or later everybody will realize that too.

   

  I’ve been lucky- where I’ve seen the development of St Alexander’s from it’s humble beginnings of when they first opened and we were the only diners to gradually building a customer base with lots of improvements to the food that they served. I stumbled upon this place almost by accident- actually I lie, urbanspoon told me that this place existed with a very high rating of 100% (although at the time approximately 20 people had voted) and I thought to myself- what eatery in a place like Thomastown could possibly get such a high rating? I figure I’d better find out.

  My first time around, we had dinner- they mostly do dinners, but are open for breakfast on the weekends. I gotta say, I was pretty impressed the first time around but I knew the place could improve a little bit more (yeh i got high expectations) for it. And what I like about St.Alexander’s Kitchen is its ability to grow and become a better place….

  This time around (now my 4th visit over a long period of time) was for breakfast. We were extremely happy with what we were served:

   

   

   Mr_54632 had the “Hangover breakfast” which comprised of scrambled eggs, danish feta (which was really yum), jalapenos, smoked sausages and roasted peppers. 

  This was much better than my Eggs Benedict- and that’s not to say that my eggs benedict was poorly cooked. No, it was fantastic, the egg was yolkey, the hollandaise sauce was just right… but the hangover breakfast was just better in comparison.

  I loved the feta and the jalapenos but the best bit was the smoked sausages. The whole dish really worked well with each other. Personally I wouldn’t have had jalapenos for breakfast but hey- who knew it was fab with eggs and feta? Well certainly the folk at St. Alexanders.

   

  The coffees were very good too- albeit it did take them awhile to come out. But I liked the honesty of the waitress who told us she had our order mixed up. One person wanted a Chai latte and the other wanted a soy latte. I think she made a soy chai latte (yuck) and had to restart. Better that she realized then serve up utter rubbish- I am not a fan of soy milk (even though I am lactose intolerant)

   

  Now- if it’s your first time to St. Alexander’s and it’s a beautiful day make your way to the outside garden. It’s a terrific site although the inside is very eclectic as well but what the team at St. Alexander has done is very different… something you’d find in the hipster suburbs like Brunswick/Fitzroy

   

  It’s the last place you’d think to find something as cool as this. But we were really taken in with the artwork, the furniture … well basically everything. I loved how they also incorporated real plants (i.e lemon trees which are very common in the area) as part of the scenery.

  There’s so much going on, but nothing too crazy where it just takes the focus away from everything where you could be lost in your own world just looking around.

  We were really lucky on the day we visited as it was a beautiful day in May with fantastic weather to showcase the crazy garden area… and extremely good food to boot.

   

  The ONLY setback is that they ONLY take CASH- but it’s not so much of a problem when the meals aren’t bank breaking in the first place.

  But it’s a place worth visiting if you live/work or visiting the area.

   

   

  *please note: this is not a paid review. All meals were paid for with my  own money*

  

  • 8:46 pm
  • 1 Comment