57 Cafe Bar Restaurant, Mt Waverley by Bureaucrat

Good, solid suburban cafes are sometimes hard to come by.  Usually, it's nothing more than the luck of the draw in terms of finding a cafe that does reasonable food at a reasonable price.  Our recent foray into cafe suburbia at Mister Greens yielded rather poor results. However, 57 Cafe Bar Restaurant delivers the goods.


Chef's burger

Bustling with diners, 57 Cafe is fairly big and popular with the locals - that's in spite of the fact that the relative hipster-inspired newcomer South Society has set up shop around the corner from it.  There's a lot to like about 57 Cafe - the food is not fancy but it is well-cooked and the serves are decent; the service is friendly and responsive; and the decor is what I'd call nondescript contemporary (i.e., it's nice, comfy and inoffensive).

Despite there being eight of us sitting down for lunch, I only managed to take photos of two of the dishes (that's thanks to Boy Chick throwing a wobbly when the food arrived). My chef's burger was substantial and tasty (see first pic).  Yum.  I could only manage to finish half of it (and the Lawyer was more than happy to help finish the rest).  The burger patty was finely minced (not a speckle of gristle) and was mixed with breadcrumbs.  I didn't mind this as it was done really nicely.  The patty was flavoursome and moist.  I also loved the crispy bacon and the fresh salad ingredients.  The chips were crisp and came with a good quality aioli.  All up, it was simple but really well made.


The Lawyer's prawn linguine was also a reasonable sized serve and came with a good amount of plump prawns.

In addition to our dishes, Mother Hen's club sandwich was noteworthy for its size and ingredients and Bubba Chuck's salt and pepper calamari salad was also quite generous.  Other dishes that we ordered included a risotto and a chicken parma.

We also got a couple of vanilla slices and tea and coffees as a dessert.  I have had the vanilla slice here before and it is wonderful.  I'm quite picky when it comes to the ol' snot block and 57 Cafe's meets the standard.  The custard filling is rich, vanilla-y, creamy and lush (it's not like a semi-gelatinous, semi-solid slice, which I absolutely loathe); while the pastry is crisp and thin.  Well worth coming here for a slice if you're a fan of vanilla slices.

Verdict

We really liked it.

Mid value.

Overall

A real good suburban cafe.  Food is above the usual suburban cafe fare; service is friendly and the seating is comfortable.  A good solid performer.

Also have a gander at Obelix's review back in January 2016.

Find it at

57 Cafe Bar Restaurant
57 Centreway
Pinewood Shopping Centre
Mt Waverley 3149
Phone:  9802 7025