Spilt Milk, Carnegie by Big Fil

Carnegie is becoming more and more cool. It's always had more places to eat than nearby Ormond or Glen Huntly, but over the last few years it's really taken off. Firstly some well regarded Korean and Thai restaurants, then the dumpling houses. Now along comes Split Milk, the latest outpost of North side style to hit the inner South East.



Large coffee machine near the front, Check. Menu up on the board, check. Bare floors, industrial style lighting, white paint peeling from the walls, check, check, check. It's nothing you wouldn't have seen before if you routinely head up to Collingwood or Fitzroy but it is a new look for Carnegie.

Given that it is fairly small inside it definitely feels more spacious than you would have expected. It does this by limiting the number of tables and placing them all along the walls so there is an open space between the front counter and where everyone is eating. Probably a necessity given that it is order and pay at the front counter, so that you have somewhere to stand when doing so, but it does make the cafe feel more comfortable.



Even with the fairly miserable weather there was a constant stream of locals passing through looking for either coffee or a quick breakfast. The food has all been given funky animal names - the porridge with honey and cinnamon is a 'Bear', the poached eggs on sour dough with bacon, spinach and spiced capsicum aioli is a 'Donkey'.

The menu is fairly limited and it's the sort of food you could make at home if you wanted to make an effort, but that it's sometimes much easier to just let someone else do it for you. Presentation wise everything looked great, not so that you think how clever the kitchen is but more that you just knew it was going to taste good. In particular I loved the look of my Donkey, the grill marks on the toast, the contrast of the orange aioli, the green spinach and the white egg. The eggs themselves were a bit different to what I had expected. They weren't your usual cut them open and watch the golden goodness spill out poached eggs. They had been cooked a little longer, so that the yolk no longer flowed but remained gooey, then cut in half and placed on top of the crispy bacon.



The Bear looked good in its striped bowl with the cinnamon sticks on the top. And there was certainly a waft of cinnamon when it hit the table. Unfortunately though the cinnamon flavour wasn't as strong as I would have liked. This could have been related to just how much I like cinnamon but I think a stronger hand with the spices would have been better.



Overall
A great local cafe with a lot going for it. Good food, nice space, fun staff and much cheaper than the places we normally frequent for breakfast. I loved the background music and while I didn't feel there was anything it did outstandingly well it did just about everything very well. I could well imagine it as my local hangout for when I want my comfort food and nothing too fancy. The only real issue, almost flavourless hot chocolates.

Verdict
Food - 7.5
Ambience - 8
Service - 7.5
Price - 7.5

Address
288 Neerim Road
Carnegie VIC 3163
Tel: (03) 9571 8880