Seven Seeds

114 Berkeley St Carlton, 3053

Date visited:  14th March 2012

Seven Seeds is named after the seven seeds that a 17th century Sufi, Baba Budan brought from Yemen and then introduced to the world.  It is the largest of their three cafes, the other two being Brother Baba Budan on Little Bourke St, Melbourne and their new store De Clieu in Fitzroy.

Seven Seeds is located at a Carlton warehouse - the outside is marked by a picture of the cafe's stamp.  As you walk in, you are greeted by exposed brick walls, concrete flooring, large, dangling dome lights and communal wooden tables.  Interestingly enough, they even had a coffee laboratory.

Service was friendly and efficient - our names were taken as we waited in the queue by the main entrance, but we were seated in less than ten minutes at the end of a communal table.

They have a small one page breakfast/lunch menu and the kitchen closes daily at 3pm.  Not to say that there was little choice, for MerlinFan and I took a while deciding which dishes to get between us.

It was a toasty 30 degree day outside, so MerlinFan had the ice coffee.  The ice coffee was satisfactory, and the vanilla ice cream silky smooth.

Ice coffee

I have heard how good the coffee here - I had my usual mocha which was nice, but admittedly not the best I've had in my life.

MerlinFan decided to get their special for the day, which was the warm roast beef sandwich with caramelised onion, roquette and horseradish mayo, served on ciabatta.  She commented that the roast beef could have had a bit more seasoning and was a little overdone.

Roast beef sandwich $14.50

At first I was a bit disappointed that they didn't have the french toast with grilled banana that another blogger had hilariously claimed was "still in it's peel - gross!" (LOL) as I love bananas with french toast, but they had the brioche french toast with spiced baked pears, mascarpone and toasted pecans.  I guess pears must be in season now.

French toast $13.50

I'm glad I ordered this dish, for this is one delicious french toast!  The mascarpone was the best thing on my plate - it was just amazing - silky smooth, cold and reminded me of a lemon cheesecake.  The pears were perfectly poached and spiced, and everything just came together perfectly.  There was just a little sprinkling of pecans but it was all right, because I would have pushed them aside for later anyway as I don't really enjoy the crunch of nuts in my sundaes, desserts or sweet brekkies.

Overall, one of the better brekkie places I've been to.  Speedy, friendly service and nice food - do give it a go if you don't mind a lot of noise, hoards of uni students and sharing of communal tables.

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