Cibi, Collingwood

Is it just me, or do other people also feel anxiety about bringing friends to new and possibly obscure places to eat? Particularly when I’ve never been before, I always get a paranoid fear that it will be overly pretentious or have a block-long queue out the front, or have obscenely priced tiny portions. Or that it’s so underground that I can’t even friggin find it. I was feeling a slight flutter of panic as Dave and I walked deep into Keele St. and came across no Japanese café.

We made it there in the end, obviously. The feel of it is pretty relaxed, and the staff are really friendly too, so really I was worried for nothing. The interior is lovely, and features a lot of recycled furniture. I also like the fact that the kitchen is an open space in the middle of the café.

To drink, I had a pot of gen-mai cha. Really tasty and musky, with that amazing comforting smell of roasted brown rice. Takes me back to a rainy evening spent with a good friend in a tiny Japanese restaurant south of the river- Hibari has mouthwateringly good brown rice tea.

Dave had an iced coffee, which they took pretty literally. It was a latte that came with another ice-filled glass. Ummm… okay.

The menu is pretty simple, with a few Western brekkie dishes (eggs, sandwiches, muesli) and a handful of Japanese options. Dave went for a Texan ham toastie, while I obviously couldn’t go past the much talked-about traditional Japanese breakfast.

Ham, rocket, cheese, mustard on sourdough. According to Dave, “It was delicious, but you can’t really call something Texan when it’s so small”. In more diplomatic terms, he would have enjoyed that toastie more if there had been more of it. [In economics jargon, you could say that Dave's utility function is strict monotonic, ie more is better. Oh my god. Stop me. Honours is taking over my life!]

Anyway, back to the food.

The traditional Japanese breakfast consisted of a mound of brown rice, grilled salmon, potato salad, slices of omelette and a serving of vegies. My favourite part of the dish has got to be the miso soup. I’ve never had miso soup this hearty yet so cleansing. It was filled with little chunks of carrot and enoki mushrooms and felt like the most suitable thing to eat in the morning. NOM! The serving of cooked green beans tossed in ground black sesame seeds was also delicious. Overall a pretty tasty and filling brunch/lunch in a great, laidback environment.

I will be back. Probably to get the more veggie-heavy version of the Japanese breakfast, definitely to just kick back and maybe scoffle down a couple of those amazing-looking green tea muffins! You can also read reviews by MEL: Hot or Not, That Jess Ho and Fitzroyalty.

Cibi

45 Keele Street
Collingwood VIC 3066
(03) 9077 3941

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