Monday 28 July 2008

Chimmy's Breads and Pastries

342 Bridge Rd, Richmond, Melbourne
Visited 27th July 2008


Shopping, no matter where you do it, imparts a very standard response from me; flee, find a cafe and drown the sorrow of the whole thing in caffeine and a good book. Prowling Melbourne's Bridge Rd for bargains, is about as much fun as Causeway Bay on a Sunday afternoon so, before you could say "get-me-the---out of here" I found myself settled in Chimmy's. The place is decked out with mismatched chairs, big wooden tables and a counter stacked full of home baked goodness. They're part of Abbotsford's Convent Bakery; which is where they get their baked treats and a certain mate of mine has been know to eat a lot of pies.

I'm sure there's a menu at Chimmy's, but we just selected a couple of things from the display that surrounded the front counter. I went for a ciabatta stuffed with salami, roasted capsicum, tomato and home-made pesto; the crisp, salty bread was divine and the chunky pesto the highlight of the tasty filling. Naomi enjoyed her tomato and onion quiche; the filling was soft and light, while the flaky pastry was buttery and rich. We shared a slice of berry cheesecake that was just as good as it looked and I enjoyed the couple of cafe latte I drunk.

I liked Chimmy's; the food was good and reasonably priced, the staff cheerful and atmosphere perfect for a casual lunch. I was also impressed that they're pretty social aware in choosing their produce; the coffee was fair-trade and many of the ingredients were organic. Bridge Rd however nearly has as many cafes as it does shoppers and though the food was excellent, I'm not sure if it was truly enough to make Chimmy's stand out from the crowd.
Visit restaurant website.

No comments: