New York Tomato
| Where | 2-6 New Street, Richmond, 3121—View map |
Contact | 03 9429 0505 |
Website | — |
Open | Monday to Friday 07.30am to 03.30pm Breakfast until 03.30pm |
Payment | EFTPOS, Visa, Mastercard, Diners, AMEX, Cash |
Diet | Check with venue |
Seating | Inside and outside |
Kids | Welcome |
Pets | Welcome |
Adventurous eggs where New Street meets York
Claire Wiltshire 26 April 2008
If you’re not careful, New York Tomato may well be on the verge of closing for the day once you’ve figured out how to get there. For the more street savvy among us, you’ll find this warehouse-cum-car port style café a block or two back from the North Richmond station in amongst pubs and factories, where New Street meets York. Very clever. And very Melbourne breakfast.
Once seated at a table in the indoor/outdoor area, you’ll discover no shortage of waiterly help. A specials board teases the tastebuds and the menu presents many out of the ordinary “brunch” options, including a Japanese hotpot with miso, egg and pumpkin.
Without compromising on imagination or variety, the majority of dishes are refreshingly vegan or vegetarian. And with choices like smokey beans with sweet corn and eggs baked with Napoli, fetta and pine nuts, it’s hard to know which one to settle on.
The menu is bursting with fruit; seasonal, poached on muesli with yogurt or as a fruit salad with yogurt and honey. For wintery cosiness, try the crumble of pear, apple, rhubarb and berry.
At times, the exciting list of ingredients overreaches the complexity of the dish, as with the omelette. The enticing promise of pomegranate was nowhere to be found or tasted and without the coriander on top, would have been a little on the dull side.
The stand-out dish has to be the waffles. Served with spiced labne, banana and cinnamon spiced pear, the explosive floral tones of the orange blossom maple syrup really make this one unique.
The coffee is pretty standard, nice selection of tea and fresh juice and for the allergy conscious, the hot chocolate is dairy and gluten free. Gluten free breads are also available as an option including 100% black rye.
With the soy dandie temporarily off the menu for the day, I decided to go the whole hog and order a Tokyo Mary, third in the list of Mary’s after Virgin and Bloody. Now, if you have to drink with breakfast, the Bloody Mary is a good option; with the fresh combination of tomato juice and chunky celery stick, it’s like drinking a garden salad. The Tokyo variety replaces vodka with sake that is overpowered by an intense kick of wasabi. This drink wakes you up, fills you up and then takes the edge off.