One of the things that I really don’t like doing is servicing my car. When I bought my car, I signed up to a deal where if I service it once a year, I can get extended warranty on it for free. When I hear I get anything for free, I always get sucked in, that’s the way of being Chinese. But little did I think about just how far it is from my house.
I now live in Doncaster. To get to Brighton which is where the car dealer is, I must drive for about 45 minutes to get there and you can’t be late because each person only gets 15 minutes to get booked in. After the car is in, I then have to wait for a further 1 hour or more before it’s done. It doesn’t sound like a good deal to me now.
Thankfully, there’s always the option of having brunch nearby afterwards to comfort myself and tell myself that the 2 hours drive and wait was alllll worth it.
The most recent cafe I picked was Omar and the Marvellous Coffee Bird just around the corner from the car dealer. As I walked in I thought to myself “wow, the tables sure are lined up very neatly.” Then when I sat down, the table in front of me started to move by itself! I was shocked. I asked Yuye if he had moved the table to which, of course, the answer was no. It turned out there was a perfectly good explanation for it.
The tables are set on wheels and can be pushed left or right at will to put tables together. What a neat idea that is! Except when you have very curious kids with you at brunch because even I could not resist moving them around.
Like many cafes these days, Omar also has its own roastery. We sat right next to it and I enjoyed watching the beans being poured in and taken out.
My cappuccino sadly didn’t have any art on it but was still a full bodied smooth blend that had a chocolatey lingering finish.
Yuye ordered a Tade GG from Ethiopia. It’s said to have sparkling acidity, floral, peach, grape, pear, stone fruit, tea and vanilla hints. I could taste the tea and part stone fruit but not much else. Guess my palate is still not good enough for this. 
I found it to be quite clean and almost refreshing. It wasn’t all that acidic which I liked (I don’t like very acidic coffees as much as the smooth ones) but still had a great flavour. The menu gave a great explanation of where it was from and who grew it and also how it was grown and picked. Very insightful summary which shows just how dedicated the owners of this cafe is to the coffee bean.
Omar doesn’t do as many hot cooked dishes and also sadly doesn’t have any eggs on the menu. I ended up ordering the pork belly with apple slaw and crackling ($15). Oh man the crackling! Can’t get enough of it. It was quite healthy tasting despite that it had melt in my mouth pork, deliciously crunchy crackling and mayo filled salad. It was super delicious and I guess it made me forget that I wasn’t having any eggs.
Yuye’s mushroom melt ($14) was literally full of mushrooms and cheese. It was quite carby but very tasty and I was surprised he ordered that even though it has no meat.
We finished our meal satisfied. What made me the happiest though was that the manager gave me two coffee bean sacks when I asked him about them. Now I have an additional cool looking background that you might see in some recipe photos. 
The guys are Omar are very serious about their coffees so if you’re into a no fuss cup of coffee that tastes good and a decent meal to go with it, you should give Omar a go if you’re in the area. That is, unless you’re dying to have eggs because you won’t find any there.
Omar & the Marvellous Coffee Bird
Phone: (03) 9596 4186
Address: 124 Gardenvale Rd Gardenvale, VIC 3185
Website: http://www.coffeebird.com.au/
Opening Hours: Monday to Friday: 6am to 4pm
Saturday to Sunday: 7am to 4pm
