HOBBA COFFEE AND KITCHEN

428 Malvern Road, Prahran - ph: (03) 9510 8336

"we take our food, coffee, wine and service very seriously but not ourselves. 

hobba has an edge without the attitude – its relaxed, casual and friendly place to enjoy great food wine coffee and company"

The opening statement on Hobba's website is actually pretty accurate in my account. I was very impressed by this cafe when I visited for a week day breakfast.  

The bar at Hobba 

The cafe is a converted warehouse with exposed bricks and concrete flooring - it's a cool industrial look. 

Hobba is fully licensed serving breakfast and lunch daily. The menu ranges from classic items like eggs on toast and muesli to more sophisticated concoctions like goats cheese panna cotta.

I was thoroughly impressed by the presentation of our plates when the food arrived. Goats cheese with poached egg is no extraordinary combination, but when the cheese is presented as a soft and creamy panna cotta and the egg is encrusted in crunchy, flavoursome hazelnut, the final result is fine dining material. 

Hazelnut crusted poached egg with goats cheese panna cotta and asparagus ($17)

Awesome combination of flavours and textures, and have I mentioned the perfect presentation? Oh yes, I have. The whole thing just looked and tasted so damn good that I didn't even miss a piece of toast to go with it. 

The same can be said for my friend's dish. The simplest change of artistically placing the hollandaise sauce at the bottom of the dish instead of on top of the egg made all the difference in presentation. 

Fried egg, bubble and squeak, farmhouse slab bacon, roast tomato, brown butter hollandaise ($16.90)

Coffee are also good. You can choose from single origin or house blend (my choice, since I was having a milk coffee).

Cappuccino ($3.80)

In sum, I was truly impressed by Hobba and look forward to coming back again. A word of caution though. The friend who brought me to this cafe did mention that he tried going there before on a weekend and gave up when he saw the long queue outside waiting for tables. Week days visits are probably a safer bet.