Scarvelli

Scarvelli Café was opened by Clare Voitin in 2013 with a commitment of serving «real food» and outstanding coffee. They pride them self in showcasing some homemade retail food as well as their own produce from Sway Bay Farm. «Paddock to Plate» is one of the trending topic in food industry right now and it’s a philosophy that so many Australian chef, café’s and restaurants embrace.
Clare has an entrepreneurial spirits inside of her starting with her own jewellery store in the district than finally entering her first venture into the food scene inspired by her lawyer husband who grew up on a farm. Her husband passion for the country lead on developing their own farm where some of the meat and majority of the vegetables are produced for Scarvelli’s. It’s the real Paddock to Plate experience. Clare with her husband run their own business, a 12 acre farm while raising their three boys is just beyond impressive.
I was invited to Scarvelli Café by Carlos and decided to visit them on a Friday afternoon. I travel from the city using 109 tram from Collins St, the journey takes approximately 40 – 50 minutes. Upon arriving, I was amazed by the rustic but modern décor. The café itself are divided into 4 separate spaces; they have several seats outdoor upfront and then there are two indoor spaces. Honestly, I love the second space the most with open bricks, deer decorations and the world map on the wall. Somehow it was homey, warm, messy yet well decorated. I was seated back on their spacious patio. There is a warm country vibe with some plants, vegetables, rustic wooden panels decorating the dining area. It’s perfect for any seasons since they also provide shades to avoid direct sunlight or rain.

How lovely to sit at this café outside in the sun on a beautiful morning with the newspapers and their wonderfully smooth, rich Long Black coffee. I totally enjoyed it. Service came immediately to my outside table, my order came quickly and overall it was just very enjoyable. No time to eat on this visit, but the menu looks divine. Judging by my experience today, it will be.

I used to go to the gym across the road from Scarvelli and watched it being put together dreaming about what it was going to be like while on the stair-​master earning more ‘eating out’ points. Now I go to Scarvelli more than I go to the gym.
Unlike the great Snow Pony down the road, we’ve never had to wait here, so it’s a viable back-​up option if you can’t be bothered waiting there. Not that it’s a poor-man’s Snow Pony at all:
Food is great, but agree with @Monique H about the lack of bread on some breakkie dishes — just seems like an odd statement to make, and means some egg googyness goes to waste without anything to sop it up with.
I’m not a regular coffee drinker (I feel your scorn) but the few short blacks I’ve had here smelt and tasted truly amazing.
Might be the fact that the staff is quite young, and everyone below 30 now looks the same to my old-​man eyes, but feels like every-​time we go in there there’s a whole new set of faces working. That’s ok though, unlike some I don’t get too attached to my waitstaff, and plus it means I can re-​use my jokes. Also I think their POS system is rigged through an iPad and every staff member settling our bills seems to struggle with it, but hopefully they’ve smoothed that small crack over by now.

In short:
It’s a lot like Snowpony a few doors down but with more creative food, more seats and better coffee.
In long:
There are seats out front, in front, in a small room out back and in courtyard out back. There are seats! And we still had to wait 10 minutes as this place is hustle bustle.
The all day breakfast menu reads pretty and has all sorts of words I want to see on a Sunday morning, ‘espresso mascarpone’ top of the list. But I’ve been stalking this menu for weeks and knew exactly what I was ordering. Dukkah eggs with cauliflower purée and pomegranate. Hit me.
Coffee up first. I had visions of a series of dancing swans and tiny cats created by their expert barristers which litter their instagram feeds. Alas we got love hearts. Somewhat disappointed but made up for it with the smooth taste.
Ordering the Dukkah eggs I timidly enquired about the possibility of bread as my dish came without. Waiter, who looked about as fresh as a Ralph Lauren Model breezing off a shoot in the south of France scalded slightly ‘it’s designed to eat without.’ Terrible by me to think of ordering bread in Balwyn. :)
But my recommendation would be to order bread. The whole meal was spectacular, one of the best eggs I’ve had of recent times but the delicious cauliflower purée found its way into all sorts of ridges in my plate that neither my fork or knife could reach. Two options. 1 — lick plate. 2 — use tool (i.e. finger) to scoop purée out. Too many people around to do either (would entertain either option in certain scenarios: O). Like MacGyver (or for kids Bear Grylls) I scanned my surrounds for solutions. Got it! Sugar spoon, you’re up. For $ 18 I want every bit of the purée I paid for!
So my advice… order the bread and ask for the dancing swans…

One of my favourite little places in the Camberwell/​Kew/​Balwyn area! Having opened around 8 months ago, its gone through many little changes to provide a great café experience every time! It has four small different dining areas throughout it too, which gives you a nice intimate experience.
Chris runs the coffee machine like a boss. He uses beans from Industry in Fitzroy which are always great, and not only are latte’s served but cold drip along with other methods are available too. The food too is superb. From the protein-​infused steak brekkie, the smoked-​salmon omelette and my favourite being the banana bread with candied hazelnuts and espresso butter, you cannot go wrong.
Definitely try it out!