Snow Pony – Balwyn

October 12, 2012 by Bec 6 Comments

Snow Pony
95 Whitehorse Rd
Deepdene, VIC 3103
03 9816 8911
snowpony.com.au

Another Sunday, another brunch-day. Brunch would probably have to be my most favourite meal (long Sunday lunches come in at a very close second), and brunch with two of my favourite girls is even better!

As I am now the resident blogger of the group, the choice of where to scoff down some delicious eggs was left up to me. Unfortunately, I am not that great at choosing new brunch places as my most absolute FAVOURITE place in Melbourne is only just down the road from where I live (Dukes on Chapel St, Windsor), and I can rarely bring myself to deviate from their mouth-watering baked eggs, baked beans w/ poached egg or smashed avocado & hummus toast. Their service is almost always perfect and they can never get it wrong in my eyes *gushes*.

Anyway, I digress – this isn’t a blog about Dukes. I just get a little excited – sorry!

One other breakfast food establishment I have frequented a handful of times, when I manage to drag myself away from Dukes, is Friends of Mine (FoM) in Richmond. Seeing that I am a huge fan of theirs, I thought we could try another place from the same owners called Snow Pony (SP) in Balwyn (they also have Porgie & Mr Jones in Hawthorn). As SP (and FoM) have a strict CASH ONLY policy, I made sure to warn the girls in advance to avoid any embarrassing situations!

So, out past the inner city limits we drove and eventually we found ourselves in a pretty run-of-the-mill street in Balywn. We arrived at the peak brunch time of 10.30am, although I was hoping everyone forgot to put their clocks forward an hour so it wouldn’t be as busy! But alas, there was a 15 minute wait for a table for three and so we all agreed that on this miserably cold Melbourne morning we would wait in the warm car until our table was ready.

Once 15 long minutes were up, we waltzed back inside and eagerly awaited to be seated in the warm cosy café….. however, when we were led to a door suspiciously looking as though it would take us back out to the cold I think our faces said it all! There was only one small heater in the middle of the outdoor section and we were nowhere near it! After some negotiation with the maître d’, he agreed to try and find us a seat where our toes wouldn’t fall off our feet – call me weak but I just cannot sit outside and enjoy my brunch in temperatures of single digits!!!

So again we shuffled back inside and waited, our tummy’s rumbling every time a scrumptious smelling eggy feast went by under our noses. Finally when three stools at the bench along the window became available, we pounced before the poor sods that were leaving even had a chance to stand all the way up!!

Once we ordered (which didn’t take very long at all by this stage), the coffee and juices flowed and some girly banter saw that the time passed quickly before our breakfast chow arrived.

N was served her Smashed avocado w/ thyme buttered mushrooms, marinated feta + torn basil on wholegrain toast ($16,9 w/ poached egg $18,9), and dug in quite merrily. I don’t blame her – I LOVE smashed avo!

J was presented with her (colourful and beautifully presented) choice of ‘Bang Bang’ eggs – poached on toasted grain bread w/ fresh spinach, roasted pepper salad, hazelnut dukkah ($14,9). 1 word – YUMMO!!!!

I really had a craving for bacon and as I had been eating so healthy of late, I surrendered to my inner carnivore and opted for the Giddy Up – poached eggs, bacon, slow roasted tomato, avocado + thyme buttered mushies ($18,9). My only complaint was that one of my pieces of toast was quite burnt. Luckily, I can never eat all my toast anyway and my other (not burnt) piece was sufficient enough.

We all tried a bit of one another’s fare and concurred that each one was very delectable & well presented. We lingered over our coffees for a good while after we finished eating and weren’t in any way rushed by the staff, despite the queue of people eyeballing us through the window from the cold, whilst they waited for a table!

Overall: The service was ok, but I didn’t find it as outstanding as I have done at FoM. The fact that we were initially seated out in the freezing cold was probably in the forefront of my mind when forming this opinion though!

All the food was great and the menu was very similar to FoM (although maybe not as extensive). I love that they source local and organic produce and that their eggs are ‘from happy chickens’ (cute!!).

Would I be back? If I happened to find myself out in the Balwyn area around brunch time then yes. Otherwise I will just continue my patronage at FoM if I have a hankering for some ‘happy chicken’ eggs!

Thanks for reading!

Bec 🙂