Babka Bakery Cafe

How often is it that food makes you weep? … No? Just me?

It was a Sunday morning when I said I would cook eggs on toast and be done with it, but the thought of foraging for the ingredients and going out to buy fresh bread – let alone the cook up – was like adding a jackhammer to the pounding in my brain. Good times were had with my boyfriend’s youngest sister turning 18 – but I think I’m going to stick with adult drinks from now on. Like coffee. That was an absolute godsend and up there with one of the better breakfast cups of Joe that I have had recently.

So you can understand my frame of mind when we walked into Babka for coffee and breakfast. The Boy wanted something hearty and I wanted a coffee and a cuddle from my Mum, but I settled on food instead. I ordered the blintzes with cottage cheese and sultana filling, drizzled with honey, cinnamon and citrus ($9.50).

Just as I made the first cut through the centre and the sweetened cheese oozed out and mixed with the honey/cinnamon/citrus I almost started to cry. This couldn’t taste more like my dream breakfast if I tried. It was a combination of my favourite Russian dessert/breakfast treats (cottage cheese pancakes called syrniki are a favourite, as are the crepes, blini) and fond memories of making sugar and lemon crepes on long Sunday sleepovers with our friends when we were kids.

The Boy lapped up your standard eggs on toast (scrambled to perfection) with a side of beans and bacon. I was lucky enough to score a few large spoonfuls of the beans. My, my, my… not your standard tomato-ey beans, these really brought out that bean flavour that I love. Enough to satisfy at $8.90 plus extras $3. I would’ve loved to have tried the Georgian Beans with feta on toast – that’s next on the list of hearty breakfasts.

A proviso though: it gets quite busy, especially with all of the people coming in to buy their breads and baked goods. If I wasn’t a complete piggy with the ordering of blintzes I may have even taken one myself! (The lemon tart is rumoured to be as creamy and as lemony as glorious lemon butter and with a crisp brulee top to boot!) As it was, we had to wait about 5 minutes for table to become available.

However, I’d say it was well worth it.  Just as I have travelled out the other side of town for a taste of good Russian breakfast food, I’d travel for the pleasure of this one on a Sunday morning. And for the prices? Not bad at all.I’m happy to call this the new go-to semi-local.

Ambience: 9/10 (perfect and cozy, only a little squishy)
Service: 8/10
Food: 9.5/10 (oh yes)
Value for money: 9/10
Score (food is weighted double): 90%