Shade Cafe

What a great new addition to Glenferrie Road! This place is 3 weeks old and the fittings and decor in this cafe is very welcoming. Was greeted and seated once I walked in. The chai latte here is delicious and I highly recommend the crab and chilli fold!! My friend had the generous serving of baos! The owner came over to say hello and to ask if everything was to expectations. Free wifi is a massive winning point in my books, purely because it’s rare for cafes do it nowadays, especially when Swinburne Uni is just around the corner. What a great way to entice the locals and students! If you follow my reviews, I’m a fan of puppy friendly cafes and this is one of them! They had dog bowls ready and their outdoor seating had protective street barriers. Thank you for a great breakfast experience!

Shade Cafe fairly suddenly replaced Ya Souv this week. I was disappointed to see Ya Souv go, it had become one of my fave go to places around uni, but I was keen to check the new cafe in its place. I went to Shade on opening day, lured by the free coffee on offer that day. Whilst it still has the same layout as Ya Souv did - expected since it was only classed for a week - but the aesthetic is different. The old bold green/blue is replaced with a more earthy, woody scheme. As a disclaimer, being from the rural fringe, I must admit I haven’t been to all that many cafes in the suburbs, so I don’t have much to compare it with. But in my opinion the coffee is really good and was served at a nice temperature (not boiling hot). I wasn’t planning on it, but I decided to look at the menu. The menu is a bit pricey for me (a uni student) but it seems in line with other cafes I’ve looked at in the area. Good variety of food items, such as eggs (many options such as crab and chilli folded eggs), salads, burgers and bao. For lunch I was tempted by the pancakes, which cost $18. They come served with Persian fairy floss, gelato, candy walnuts, seasonal fruit gels, chocolate soil and maple syrup. Pancakes were great, I enjoyed the flavours, especially the gels and the chocolate soil. I did find it a bit dry by the end of the dish once I got through the gelato and the gels. However I still recommend it. Even though the place wasn’t all that busy, service was a little slow, but I guess that is expected on the first day. The staff are friendly enough. In summary: Shade Cafe is nice, I’ll be back again - just not too often due to price and range of options around. Now where to go for a good souvlaki..?

This was a really fresh cafe. It replaced Ya Souv only a week ago and rebuilt itself as a modern brunch spot. The food was excellent and well priced coming in slightly cheaper than the local average for brunch spots. The menu had a good selection of vegetarian and vegam options. The service though a touch slow was friendly and warm. We went for breakfast right after opening so our food came out slow but the owners took the cost of our order to make up for it which was very welcome. The coffee was fairly average/good but there are currently better places within walking distance. Overall it's a solid brunch spot to add to your rotation that will hopefully improve in time. 4/5

Brilliant, brilliant cafe! Amazing friendly staff who know their stuff. Great coffee, and brilliant food. What a menu! Healthy, naughty and everything in between. Even one of the best kids menus I've seen. Food flavour is fresh and great Tassie and variety available. Cool vibe to sit in or outside. A must visit and try. I'll be back to work my way through the menu more

I dropped in during a weekday for lunch and the place wasn't too busy. I ordered the low carb bowl with smoked salmon. I don't normally like "healthy" food but after a few days of over indulgence I decided I needed to balance things out. It was surprisingly good and satisfying. I only wished that they had more of the fried enoki as looking at other people's photos of the same dish it looked like they got substantially more. Service was friendly and accommodating albeit quite slow.