Mr Milton's Canteen

127 Alexandra St

Hamilton CBD

Walking into Mr Milton’s Canteen is like stepping into an Easter-themed cafeteria with nice lighting and waitresses wearing floral skirts. The walls are pastel green, the coffee cups egg shell blue and banana-rama yellow. Even the customers, and there are many this Friday morning, have somehow managed to match the friendly décor.

My friend orders the Mr Milton’s breakfast ($17.50), which comes with a soft boiled egg, toast, preserves, yogurt, orange juice and the coffee or tea of your choice. It arrives on a pretty wooden board and our only complaint is that the egg is slightly under-cooked, with some white bits still gooey. The menu also didn’t specify that it was soft-boiled, which some people might take issue with.

I opt for the bruchetta with mascarpone, feijoa jam and rhubarb compote ($7.50). Somehow, the toast tastes like a croissant. I don’t know how they do this, but I must find out how, as it is divine: flaky and buttery and perfect with cream-cheesy mascarpone and the feijoa jam, which is the best jam I’ve tasted in yonks. I ask the waitress where they get it and she tells me that all preserves are made in-house. I make a mental note to bribe the chef for the recipe at my next visit.

The coffee here is nice, but not as good as at sister café Hazel Hayes. My friend’s flat white isn’t quite hot enough, and my long black ($3.70) is touch over extracted. Still, the well-priced, well-prepared and well-presented food more than makes up for these slight imperfections.

Staff are friendly, prices are reasonable but parking is a bit of an issue on weekdays (you will most likely need to pay). However, if the weather’s good, put on your trainers and pretend you’re on an Easter egg hunt: Mr Milton’s is a fine find indeed.

4 stars

Grey Street Kitchen

It’s a bright, chilly Sunday morning when my boyfriend and I nip into the Grey Street Kitchen, our breath following in cloudy trails behind us. We are so relieved to find the place heated that I am tempted to give them five stars on the spot.

Inside, the GSK is packed with tables full of university lecturers, the odd student, and those who have wandered in after browsing Grey St’s Sunday market stalls. It’s loud in here, which is one of the only reasons I don’t come very often.  Hard walls, hard furniture, not a scrap of fabric in sight to absorb the sound; this is not the place to come if you are after an intimate conversation.

My boyfriend orders the Eggs Benedict with roast vegetables ($17.50). It arrives stacked on its plate, looking lovely all smothered in warm hollandaise sauce. For some reason, however, the chef has decided to put what tastes like pickled capsicum on it. It’s an interesting idea, but it doesn’t work. The flavour takes over, and while the hollandaise is nice and buttery you almost can’t taste it.

I opt for the day’s breakfast special: gluten-free ricotta hotcakes with caramelized apple, raisins and maple syrup ($14). The words “gluten free” usually put me off, but the rest of the description makes my mouth water, and after a few bites I forget that the dish was intended for a Celiac sufferer. Almond meal, I am told, has been used instead of wheat flour, and the hotcakes are moist and crumbly, drunk with syrup, and too rich much for me to finish. The apples are a tad sweet and make my teeth cringe, but otherwise it’s a delicious plate of food.

The coffee, in my experience, isn’t consistent here.  I’ve had both wonderful and average cups depending on who’s behind the machine, and today’s long black ($3.50) is the latter. It’s drinkable, but I don’t order a second.

Essentially, the food here is nice, the coffee is average to good, the staff are friendly even when it’s busy, and there is plenty seating both inside and out. One of my favourite things to do here is simply stare out the window at passers-by. Call me a voyeur, and I’ll tell you that a decent vantage spot for people-watching can be a café’s best selling point.

3 ½ stars

Just a few bits and pieces about our drug of choice...

Dora’s Cafe
105 Collingwood St

Dora’s is my local. There is possibly something inherently biased about critiquing the cafe you go to almost every day, where you know the staff well enough to order simply by walking in the door and saying “hi,” and your tacky cartoon sketches are pinned to the notice board.
But why should this little gem of an eatery miss out on a review, just because I happen to spend half my paycheck there every week?
With this attitude in hand, I order a bowl of their self-proclaimed, “probably the best in town,” macadamia nut muesli ($10.50), which I have never tried. It is most definitely the best I’ve had, and I’m not just saying this because I hope Misty will make me a free long black ($3.50).  Macadamia nuts, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, cashews, and other bits and bobs all toasted in honey and served with creamy plain yogurt and berries, yum.  It’s gluten free as well, if you swing that way.
My friend takes on the salmon bagel ($10), which is basic and comes with cream cheese and capers. The bagel itself isn’t amazing or anything, but then again, you need to fly to the States if you want amazing bagels. You get plenty of salmon though, and lots of cream cheese.
The espresso here rarely fails to impress and if Misty, the barista, is in a good mood, it comes with cheeky comments and a heavy dose of banter. Grant, the manager, is a sweetheart. You get the feeling when you walk into this place that you’ve entered something special, a community of sorts. Don’t come here for exotic food, fancy plating, or chic décor. Come here because you want genuine warmth and a reliably good coffee. It’s kind of like eating at home, only much better.

In a class of its own

If you're like me, then you get really excited when you come across ways of making much-loved (but terribly fake) processed foods at home, where you know exactly what's going into the jar. Home made Nutella, anybody??!!!!! Here's the recipe:
http://punchfork.com/cXmWXu

Hazel Hayes

587 Victoria St

So you take a café, tuck it into a crack-in-the-wall spot on the seedy end of Victoria Street next to the adult shops, make your signage really small and don’t mention the word “café” in your name. You’re doomed, right?

Not, apparently, if you are Hazel Hayes. This place does the implausible, and it’s packed on a weekday morning. The north end of downtown Hamilton is dying at the moment; shops all around the café are shutting up, and yet Hazel Hayes is hopping with all sorts: businessmen and women, two young mothers with children, an older lady I recognize from Raglan, and it feels the way a downtown cafe should.

Nick orders the homemade hash browns with poached eggs, Portobello mushrooms, spinach and hollandaise sauce ($15.50). The hash browns turn out to be scrumptious balls of mashed potato and herbs, fried with crispy outers and creamy inners, delicious. His eggs are underdone with some of the whites still runny, but the hollandaise is excellent.

I made up my mind on a menu item, but when I got to the counter to order I spotted a vegetarian quesadilla in the cabinet, and I’m glad I did. For a miserly $7, I got a gorgeous toasted wheat tortilla pregnant with buttery, decadent, roast vegetables (who knew vegetables could be decadent?) with just enough seasoning to keep it from being bland.

The menu here, as well, deserves an honourable mention for creativity: free range black pudding, anyone?

Yummy Supreme brand espresso (my long black was $3.50) and cute retro décor complete this place. Restraint has been shown though, and you don’t feel (too much) like you’re at nana’s house circa 1955. Adorable coffee cups in pastel green with gold trim, a little silver “Queen Charlotte Sound” teaspoon and toy cars for table numbers, the details really make this place.

Staff were busy, but friendly, and parking wasn’t too hard since this is the unpopular end of Victoria St.

We will definitely be back.
4 ½ stars