Angie B.
Yelp
I've seen a lot of Short Straw on Instagram for a while now, so I chose to go here for my birthday breakfast, and I live about 40-50 minutes away, so I had faith and I was expecting good things since everything looks so delicious.
Firstly, I'll say the interior and decor is really nice. It's light and airy and not too pretentious or anything. The music is good and not too loud, but gives the place a nice vibe. There's quite a few tables, and a lot of bar stool seating too, so we didn't have to wait long to be seated. However, it took almost 20 minutes before we could catch the eye of a waitress to come and take our order. They'd be right nearby, but never making eye contact. This was a little frustrating, but before long, they took the order. When my friend ordered her meal, she asked for a substitution. She didn't want pork, but salmon instead and that was fine. The waitress did however fail to mention that it would be an additional $5 ON TOP of the price of the eggs benedict. She might have mentioned that as a courtesy, but no.
We waited, and we waited, and we waited, and we waited, for almost 35 minutes before receiving our food, and the only consolation was that we got a quiet "sorry for the delay" from the girl who brought it out.
I must say, the food is beautifully presented and does look great. But what I ordered was exceptionally disappointing as I found it way too rich, and very sickly sweet. I had the waffles with lemon curd, and I understand it's not a savoury dish, but this was too grossly sickly (and I have a big sweet tooth). My friend's meal looked good and she said it was good for the most part, but the potato hash was a square of gooey fried mushed up potato and most unappetising.
So I know I chose the wrong dish, but honestly, the menu isn't overly extensive and I find that it's part of Melbourne's big eating breakfast out problem, which is that the vast majority of restaurants and cafes offer the same food. I can get eggs on toast at home with or without avocado, and I can get porridge too. I ordered this dish because it's beautiful looking and lesson learnt. Because there's nothing else overly appealing to me on the menu, and because of the slow, slow service, there are plenty of other cafes I can go to for breakfast and/or brunch with similar menus that are closer to home and not worth the schlep. If in time I did ever return, I'd be fair and choose something off the lunch menu so that I might get to try something a little less "what I can cook at home" like ...