Frou Frou, Hawksburn - Forget it!

This morning, Jarrod and I thought it would be nice to go up high street and have breakfast at Spoonfull, the caterers he does work for. Unfortunately when we got there they were packed, which is a good sign, so we thought we'd have a look around to see what else was available.

The Tasting Spoon is on the corner of Chatsworth Road and High Street. I happened to live down the other end of Chatsworth Road when I first moved to Melbourne, so I thought it would be fun to go back to my old haunts and see how much things had changed.

We wondered down Chatsworth Road to Hawksburn for breakfast.

Past my old post office, the IGA I used to go to for food, past Husk, where the Bank of Melbourne used to be and then we found ourselves at Frou-Frou. My memories of it were hazy so we decided to eat there, they had outside seats and there was one free so we plonked ourselves down and waited for a someone to come out and and take our order.

So after a minute of two of looking at ourselves, Jarrod went in to check out what the go was. It ended up that that we had to order and pay for the meal at the counter, now in Melbourne that is something you would only expect to do in one of the more dodgy suburbs.

We both ordered the Eggs Florentine with tomatoes and hash browns. The meal took a while to come out, but I didn't find that too much of an issue as it was nice to sit there and soak up the past.

When our meal came out, I took a bite... I would have swallowed if I could, but the muffin was untoasted and the egg was over cooked/hard. Have you ever had a nibble of an untoasted english muffin? It's sort of dough like... Combine that with the soggy spinach and it was like clag!

Over cooked egg yolk is never good even at the best of times!

The hash browns were okay so I had a couple of bites as I was totally famished.

I was really not happy with the meal, so I decided that I would take them back in and ask them to fix it. They weren't cheap so I thought that I was fully justified.

I took the plates inside and was quickly attended to by the waitress who took the plates to get me 'soft eggs and hard muffins'.

Tick Tick Tick... Time passed and our food was brought back out.

'Which one of you had the half eaten hash brown?'

WHAT THE!?!

It was me, I replied.

Down the plate was lowered to the table... The thoughts going through my head as to what was about to be put in front of me, was like the visions of your life flashing before you as you are having a near death experience.

The egg and muffin looked okay, but there was no surprise that there was a half eaten, skanky looking hash brown on my plate. Fair enough I thought, but it had better be hot and crispy.

I took a bite and it was the most disgusting thing I had ever put in my mouth! Well it was as disgusting as eating a fish eye. Out of my mouth it flew, across the table narrowly missing Jarrod.

Hmmmm, I wonder if those are fresh tomatoes? HA! Hardly...

I poked the egg to check that it was soft... It was... I didn't bother taking a bite, I was so mortified with what I had been served and the total lack of pride they took in the food they served, I couldn't bring myself to eating any of it.

We got up and we walked off in disgust.

We ended up at Mojito's next to the Prahran Market and ordered Eggs Florentine with hash browns. They were cheaper and they were perfect the first time they came out.

I personally think that if you serve up a meal that isn't right, then when you bring it back out, the items that are meant to be hot should be fresh. You can get away with returning a salad if it's presentation is right, but hash browns and roasted tomatoes should be replaced.

Mental note for next time: Be careful of places that make you pay before a meal, once they have your money you don't have a leg to stand on.

And a note to all you people out there reading this: DO N0T EAT AT FROU FROU'S IN HAWKSBURN!