Sunday, January 22, 2012

Blue Dish, Highett VIC


Blue Dish, in Highett, Melbourne, is a rare gem of a cafe introduced to me by my colleague Lee, who in turn was introduced to it by our colleague Jess. The interior of Blue Dish has an old-fashioned charm, with upstairs and downstairs seating available.  However, the food is definitely not old-fashioned, and an all-day breakfast menu is available as well as the lunch and dinner menus.

In addition to in-house dining, Blue Dish sells an array of take-away gourmet products and patisserie items.  The patisserie items in particular look delicious, but I have avoided purchasing them to date only from the view of being able to fit into my clothes after lunch.

There is something for everyone at Blue Dish.  At the top of this post is pictured the pulled-pork sandwich with coleslaw,  which is a firm favourite with Lee and Jess.  It smells devine, and the sauce on the pork is delicious, but it is a little too rich for me to have every time.

Other dishes which I have tried at Blue Dish include the Moroccan Baked Eggs, which had a fresh, almost Thai-style flavour:


Most recently, I tried the devinely creamy pumpkin, spinach and goats curd risotto:



This is a perfect vegetarian option.

Other dishes that I have tried include the steak sandwich and the home baked beans with lyonnaise sausage on toasted sourdough, both of which I highly recommend.

The service at Blue Dish is attentive, prompt and friendly, and I love that they always ask if I enjoyed my meal. I feel lucky that we work close enough to Highett (which is otherwise outside my sphere) to enjoy this cafe occasionally for lunch.

On a  totally unrelated note, I could not resist sharing this photo of 4 cheeky cockatoos perched on the power lines that I saw on my walk to the train last week:



They raucously announced their presence to anyone below while gaily swinging on the power lines, including upside down at one stage.

Also, I wanted to share the gorgeous birthday cake that my friend Lorien made for the first birthday of her youngest son, Oliver, whose party I attended in Queensland on the weekend:



The cake was chocolate cake, decorated with rolled fondant.  The small children especially enjoyed the smaller cakes in the shape of alphabet blocks, although Oliver himself did not have any cake, and had the idea that "it's my party and I'll cry if I want to".  Big brother Liam came to the rescue by blowing out the candle, and middle brother Alexander charmed us all  with his dimples and golden curls.

Hope you all had a good weekend!

Blue Dish
326 Highett Rd
Highett, VIC 3109
Ph:  +61 3 9939 6641