Piatella Cafe, Glen Waverley

Most of you who have been to Glen Waverley would probably agree that it doesn’t have a shortage of cafes, or Asian restaurants for that matter. I certainly didn’t expect this quaint hairdresser turned cafe to become the centre of the dining scene on Kingsway. It’s probably the most packed eatery you’d find at any given time of day, at least that’s how we felt when we decided to dine here on several occasions.

It’s obviously popular for a reason.

For one, it has what most of the Western style cafes here don’t have – a front of house gelato section that can be eaten in or taken away. This catered to the casual diners and passersby. They also have late night crepes consisting of many flavours that can be enjoyed over a great coffee as well as pre-made cakes. Whenever we dine here after work (usually around 9pm) that’s all I see people having.

For us though, the main attraction is their large menu of delicious savoury meals.

During our first visit, we were both so hungry that we ended up ordering too much. If you know me well, that’s something I always tend to do anyway…

What jumped out at me from the menu was their lamb shanks ($26) which was slow cooked with red wine jus and served on a bed of creamy sweet potato and polenta mash. When I’m hungry, I always go for the meatier option. It turned out to be quite a substantial dish. The lamb was cooked perfectly with the meat falling off the bone with the slightest jab of my fork. I liked how much sauce they gave as well. I did find the dish a little bit on the one dimensional side, just seemed like something was amiss in the sauce. Perhaps needed to be a little less tomatoey and more lamb jus?

The polenta and potato mash was quite smooth and interesting in texture which went well with the dish.

Yuye’s dish was our pick of the night, which we actually ordered again on another occasion. It was the BBQ pork ribs ($30) which was twice cooked and served with home style chunky chips and coleslaw. The meat was very tender and we both loved the sauce that was on top. It was a bit tangy like a traditional baste but was also a bit different. The coleslaw was creamy but light and cut through the meatiness of the dish. I thought it didn’t really need the mayonnaise but I ate with it anyway. Boy was this dish big!

Note to self, next time do not order 2 big meaty dishes during the same meal.

I couldn’t possibly have ended the meal without having a coffee though so here’s a cappuccino and a latte just to make ourselves even fuller. They were smooth and aromatic coffees though so I couldn’t complain.

We had since been back here for dinner at least 3 times and breakfast once as well which I took photos of!

It was a nice and sunny morning, luckily we had the day off to enjoy a proper breakfast.

It wasn’t as full as the dinner sessions so we got a seat immediately. I thought I’d change it up and sat on the communal bench in the middle of the room.

We started off the meal with…yes 2 more coffees. This time the art was done with chocolate sauce which still looked quite nice.

They had a good list of breakfast items to choose from but Yuye felt like a mix of smoked salmon, poached eggs and hollandaise so decided to get the Just Smashing ($17.90) with additional hollandaise sauce ($3). It was a very enjoyable meal, the hollandaise was creamy and how it should be, while the eggs were poached to perfection. It was still quite a heavy dish with 2 huge pieces of bread.

But man, if you thought that was big, wait till you see my Piatella big breakfast ($19.50). It was probably the biggest big breakfast I’ve ever had. The bread was again massive and with 2 meats (cheese kransky and LOTS of bacon) as well as 2 poached eggs and all the sides, there was just no way I could have finished it, at least not alone. I reckon 2 people could have eaten this dish. What value.

The only downside (for me personally anyway) was the cheese on the bread. For some reason, I’m not a huge fan of toasted bread with cheese. It made the bread stick together and became even heavier.

But, with all that said, we both enjoyed our meal immensely and would definitely come back again for breakfast (and dinner), although probably wouldn’t order as much as we did that time. In any case, here’s some egg porn because we all need some.

Their strawberry crepes were great too but I forgot to take my camera with me when we had it so no photo, sorry! Do try it though.

If you’re in the area and don’t feel like something Asian, Piatella would be a great dining choice and even just for some gelato, coffee or a crepe or 2.

Piatella Cafe
Phone: (03) 95621700
88 Kingsway, Glen Waverley 3150