Servery & Spoon, Malvern East

As much as I love my brother, sometimes receiving calls from him can get a bit daunting. His calls usually mean he needs me to pick him up from somewhere, take him to somewhere or he needs some other sort of favour. Sometimes where he needs to go is quite far. Sometimes I do get annoyed but most of the time I just say yes. I know, lots of people tell me I’m spoiling him and so are our parents but being almost 10 years older than him puts me in a position to act like a ‘mum’.

“Why doesn’t he get his license?” a lot of people ask me. Well truth is although he’s 19, our parents being very traditional, thinks he’s not yet responsible enough to drive out on his own.

Recently I had to drive him to a music competition (which I was alright with because it was for a good cause) and as I had to drive him home as well, we decided to have lunch during the wait time in between. The competition was right next to Asakusa in East Malvern so we decided to eat there. To our dismay when we got there, it was closed! I didn’t realise they were only open for dinner. So we walked down the street and came across the most beautiful cafe – Servery & Spoon.

Servery & Spoon is a very large place filled with natural light, flowers and vintage looking deco. It was the perfect place to hide with a coffee and a book. I chose a seat right next to the large Victorian windows and enjoyed the afternoon sun which is disappearing ever so quickly in these cold winter months.

I loved the enamel jug which held cutlery and serviettes. It adds to the whole airy feel about the place.

The jug amongst many other items can actually be purchased the small shop attached to the cafe. I loved some of the items they stocked, although they weren’t the cheapest products ever.

There was a row of old lockers by entrance which held cutlery and glasses. I found this so fascinating I started to wonder if these came with the building or were put here after the cafe started. I didn’t get a chance to ask though.

It was perfect weather for a coffee and I opted for a cappuccino. Not the prettiest cappuccino I’ve had in Melbourne or the tastiest but it was not bad at all.

Yuye ordered a latte which was equally fragrant.

As we visited quite late in the day, we were told they had already run out of a few menu items which was a shame but the menu has quite a few delicious sounding dishes we were excited to try. Yuye ordered the crispy pork belly with waldorf salad and apple aioli ($18.50). It wasn’t surprising that he chose this dish as where there’s pork belly, there’s Yuye.

It looked a lot better than it tasted unfortunately. The whole thing came on a Turkish bread which was as rock solid as it gets. We couldn’t even get the knife through it. The pork belly itself was cooked perfectly with crispy skin and tender meat. However, I felt it was lacking in flavour. It did look fantastic though.

I ordered the beetroot cured ocean trout with spinach puree, poached egg and rye bread with cream fraiche ($17.50). The dish itself was not bad at all in terms of taste, it was a bit too sour for Yuye’s liking but I like sour things so this was fine with me. However, the rye bread was also as hard as rock. I nearly hurt my fingers trying to cut through it and it cut my lip when I was trying to bite it. The breads should have been softer or we should have been given a sharper knife to cut through it.

The egg though was perfectly runny and round. That was the highlight of the dish for me.

We had to wait a bit longer for my brother to finish at his competition so we decided to order a juice to pass time. The juice we ordered was the strawberry, pear and orange freshly squeezed juice for $7.50. It was very much orange oriented with not much pear taste as well and a little bit of strawberry but it was quite refreshing and big.

Overall although the breads were not fantastic to say the least, the taste of the dishes were not bad and the coffee was quite nice. I was quite impressed with the deco and atmosphere of the place so would still visit here for a coffee or a juice to enjoy a quiet afternoon.

Question time: Do you have siblings or children who always call for favours or to be driven to and from places?

Servery & Spoon
Phone: (03) 9571 7495
137 Waverley Rd, Malvern East VIC 3145