Coin Laundry Cafe, Armadale by Snooze

Big Fil and I arrived very early one Sunday morning for our visit to Coin Laundry; which funnily enought was actually once upon a time a coin laundry. We's both noted the café when walking through the area, thought it was the kind of place we’d like … and we did.

The place has a warm ambience with lots of natural light flooding through large windows, and it's nicely positioned just outside the Armadale train station for public transporters. It also has three options for seating: inside, outside and around the back. Because we arrived at about 8.15 am, Big Fil and I got a lovely spot looking through that huge window on the far right of the photo.


Now we haven’t even got to the main attraction yet; the food.

Phil went for the smoked trout and poached egg on wilted spinach, potato roesti and beetroot sauce. I don't mind salmon or trout but it's not something I usually order it so trying Big Fil's smoked trout was a nice change. The trout had a softer flavour than salmon, and I think I'll order trout the next time it's on the menu. The serve was also generous and it went well with the interesting beetroot sauce.

I went for something slight different to my usual choice but not entirely out of character for me; a tasty chickpea and chorizo mix with a fried egg, rather than the usual poached, dusted with cumin, coriander and paprika. It came with a couple of slices of a hearty bread that I particularly enjoyed. One of the problems with beans is that they tend to be bland and come swamped in a tomato sauce. Coin Laundry's beans didn't suffer from this. The beans were tasty with the chorizo amping up the flavour, and the dusting of spices on the nicely fried egg wasn't overdone.


Big Fil doesn't like to leave without a little 'breakfast dessert" and we tried a fresh that morning chocolate chip muffin. I was pretty full by this stage and had only a mouthful but it was pretty good, especially smothered in butter. Definitely something I'd make space for if I was visiting again.


Overall
Coin Laundry is one of the few places I've been to that I can say not only are the menu items punching above the ordinary in terms of ideas, but there are several I'd like to go back and try. I see another trip in the offing, but I'd recommend to anybody wanting to visit that they arrive very early. The places is jumping by 9.30am on a Sunday and you'd be hard pressed to find a seat. On the downside I thought our waiter was a little sullen, which Big Fil didn't notice (given he's easily distracted by food), and that felt unwelcoming.

VerdictFood - 8.5
Ambience - 7.5
Service - 6.5
Price - 7

Address61 Armadale Street
Armadale VIC 3143
Tel: 03 9580 1888