The Bell Jar of Sandwiches

I haven't used the jar of cafe's* in ages, but I did for brunch on Sunday. Jason and I have a slight bias towards Collingwood since we've got a few favourites in that area, so picking out yet another from the area made us pretty excited.

The Bell Jar

656 Smith St, Collingwood VIC

03 9482 7980

Mon - Sun, 7am - 4pm

[ tram 86, stop 23 (Queens Pde/Wellington St) ]

I didn't get many pictures of my surroundings cause I was preoccupied with the cute dogs sitting outside. It looked like they have an outdoor area at the back, but i didn't check it out. The place was small, but not the smallest and it was relatively quiet for a Sunday morning. The girl who served us acted a little too-cool-for-everything though, but she was nice when I complimented her leggings. Hmm..

Organic orange juice, $3.80.

Skipped the usual soy latté cause I just wasn't feeling it that morning. I didn't really like the orange juice there though, but then again, that's beyond the café's control. 

Strong latté, $3.50.

Jason did mention that the coffee was pretty good. We noticed that they do have Market Lane beans there, though I'm pretty sure he got the house blend. +1 for using Market Lane though. Again, we're a little biased.

Roasted pumpkin, pear & caramelized onion relish sandwich with gorgonzola and rocket, $12

I think i'm going through a massive pumpkin phase right now. I really liked the sandwich though I would've preferred a little bit more pumpkin in it. It's always the bread that gets to me though: the crusts were nice and crunchy and it gave the sandwich an extra texture to bite into.

Poached eggs with pan fried haloumi, avocado, kasundi, pistachio dukkah and lemon, $17.

I tried out the haloumi and it was really salty and the texture was a little weird. I really liked the kasundi, though I'm not sure if it's meant to taste exactly like sambal from back home. 

Jason, as usual, enjoyed the kick of poached eggs on toast. He seemed to enjoy the dish, but then again, he's never tried haloumi prior to this. 

I relatively liked the rustic look of the place. What i liked even better was that the place seemed to attract plenty of dog owners taking their pooches out on a Sunday morning. 

What we really noticed, upon paying our bill, was that the barista had pretty damn excellent latté art skills. His hands have so much control; it was such interesting thing to watch.

Food: 7

Coffee: N/A (for me)

Ambience: 8

Value: 7

Staff: 6.5

*jar of cafés : I've been picking out where I've wanted to go over the last few weeks; i use the jar when I really don't know where to go for the morning. If i pick out a place we've already tried, i'll just throw the rolled up paper away and pick another. Heh.

So i've watched enough Vampire Diaries. Anyone can recommend anything else? D:
may.