Mr Ed Cafe

I love a quirky name association so when I heard that a cafe called Mr Ed had opened on Racecourse Road (‘A horse is a horse of course of course”) I had a little chuckle and vowed to stop by sometime. As is my way, this didn’t happen for the longest time. I’d been watching their Instagram feed for a while and my interest piqued when they announced that they had a liquor license. Still I didn’t make it along. Then they started opening Wednesday to Saturday nights as a burger bar.

I cleared my diary.

I am a big supporter of the boozification of Flemington. There are a heck of a lot of excellent Asian restaurants with very average wine lists. Yet there is a significant wine-drinking population. I like wine. You may have guessed that.

So, it was with some trepidation that I approached the Mr Ed wine list. Was this going to be another example of mainstream cheapies incorporating the sweet and the fizzy*?

No it was not! I was so excited by the wine list that I couldn’t even comprehend ordering food for a good 5 minutes (despite the stomach growls). If the staff that were there that night are reading this, I’m sure you remember me. So excited. For a little cafe-by-day, burger-bar-by-night, the wine list is superb. Lots of interesting Aussie stuff, a few classic imports and incorporating good quality sweet and fizzy too 🙂

I couldn’t go past the 2013 Coombe Farm Pinot Noir ($11)- one of my favourite wineries in the Yarra Valley producing elegant Pinot with restrained fruit and lovely earthiness. My fella had the 2013 Pasqua ‘Le Collezioni’ Pinot Grigio Venuto, Italy ($8) – floral and pretty with citrus and stonefruit and some good texture on the palate. The glassware is only basic so the photos were not pretty but hooray for good wine!

You probably want to hear about the burgers though.

Actually you definitely want to hear about the burgers. There are nine on the menu and they incorporate some of the most delicious flavour combos. Vegetarians are looked after with quinoa, lentil and mushroom (with goats curd, crispy kale and chilli jam); pescatarians with beer-battered five spice kingfish; and traditionalists with wagyu beef. My biggest struggle was I wanted to try them all (and I will).

My Love went with Soft shell crab, confit baby tomatoes, red slaw, burnt capers and watercress ($17)

The crab was crispy and the toppings fresh and tangy, not that I scored much of a bite.

I felt very adventurous straying from my usual go-to of pulled pork, instead plumping for the Beef brisket, haloumi, roasted celeriac, frisee, apple and shallot chutney.

Not terribly pretty but man it was good. I think I pretty much sorted out a weeks worth of iron requirements with that enormous serving of tender brisket. There was some lovely sweetness from the celeriac and chutney, and it was super juicy. Probably not first date food.

We also had a serve of Home made fat chips with aioli ($7) and an extra dip of manuka honey smoked paprika mayo ($2).

The chips were indeed fat and very hot and crunchy. Both dipping sauces were great but the sweet/smoky combo was fantastic.

The burger prices are up there- $15-$19 just for the burger. However the servings are generous and I would always prefer to pay a couple of extra dollars for a fabulous burger than scrimp and get an average one.

But there’s more…

After this win we returned a few weeks later for my birthday breakfast.

Again the decisions were hard. The menu is quite big and incorporates breakfast and lunch.

Something seems to have happened to me lately. I used to always go for some crazy sweet french toast creation (of which Mr Ed have a couple) but on this day I felt very virtuous with my order of Portobello and king brown oyster mushrooms, asparagus, poached eggs, avocado cream, olive toast and parmesan wafers ($17.50)

As with the burgers, the flavour combination was spot on. The serving was huge with big meaty chunks of mushroom, perfectly poached eggs, lemony whipped avocado. Oh and crispy cheese.

My love had Fried Hash with kiplers, purple congoes, kassler, shallots, cherry tomatoes, soft fried egg, pea puree and aged cheddar ($17).

There were no complaints from his side of the table but I was too busy tackling mine to steal some.

Coffees were good and strong. Service was efficient and friendly, even though they were packed out (on a Sunday morning). I was very impressed at how quickly the food arrived too.

I really can’t say enough good things about Mr Ed. There are a couple of great cafes on the Racecourse Rd strip and the quality and service here makes the grade. Plus bonus points are awarded for night time burgers and the wine list. I fear we may become regulars.

*Not that there is anything wrong sweet and/or fizzy but a wine girl needs more than just that.

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