Review Shade Cafe - Hawthorn

What a great new addition to Glenferrie Road! This place is 3 weeks old and the fittings and decor in this cafe is very welcoming. Was greeted and seated once I walked in. The chai latte here is delicious and I highly recommend the crab and chilli fold!! My friend had the generous serving of baos! The owner came over to say hello and to ask if everything was to expectations. Free wifi is a massive winning point in my books, purely because it’s rare for cafes do it nowadays, especially when Swinburne Uni is just around the corner. What a great way to entice the locals and students! If you follow my reviews, I’m a fan of puppy friendly cafes and this is one of them! They had dog bowls ready and their outdoor seating had protective street barriers. Thank you for a great breakfast experience!

We popped in here while we were at the Glenferrie Festival. It's a nice cool cafe. The wait staff were lovely and service was fast. We had a lovely lunch and the coffee was nice too - smooth. Good experience and great service

Shade Cafe fairly suddenly replaced Ya Souv this week. I was disappointed to see Ya Souv go, it had become one of my fave go to places around uni, but I was keen to check the new cafe in its place. I went to Shade on opening day, lured by the free coffee on offer that day. Whilst it still has the same layout as Ya Souv did - expected since it was only classed for a week - but the aesthetic is different. The old bold green/blue is replaced with a more earthy, woody scheme. As a disclaimer, being from the rural fringe, I must admit I haven’t been to all that many cafes in the suburbs, so I don’t have much to compare it with. But in my opinion the coffee is really good and was served at a nice temperature (not boiling hot). I wasn’t planning on it, but I decided to look at the menu. The menu is a bit pricey for me (a uni student) but it seems in line with other cafes I’ve looked at in the area. Good variety of food items, such as eggs (many options such as crab and chilli folded eggs), salads, burgers and bao. For lunch I was tempted by the pancakes, which cost $18. They come served with Persian fairy floss, gelato, candy walnuts, seasonal fruit gels, chocolate soil and maple syrup. Pancakes were great, I enjoyed the flavours, especially the gels and the chocolate soil. I did find it a bit dry by the end of the dish once I got through the gelato and the gels. However I still recommend it. Even though the place wasn’t all that busy, service was a little slow, but I guess that is expected on the first day. The staff are friendly enough. In summary: Shade Cafe is nice, I’ll be back again - just not too often due to price and range of options around. Now where to go for a good souvlaki..?

This was a really fresh cafe. It replaced Ya Souv only a week ago and rebuilt itself as a modern brunch spot. The food was excellent and well priced coming in slightly cheaper than the local average for brunch spots. The menu had a good selection of vegetarian and vegam options. The service though a touch slow was friendly and warm. We went for breakfast right after opening so our food came out slow but the owners took the cost of our order to make up for it which was very welcome. The coffee was fairly average/good but there are currently better places within walking distance. Overall it's a solid brunch spot to add to your rotation that will hopefully improve in time. 4/5

Brilliant, brilliant cafe! Amazing friendly staff who know their stuff. Great coffee, and brilliant food. What a menu! Healthy, naughty and everything in between. Even one of the best kids menus I've seen. Food flavour is fresh and great Tassie and variety available. Cool vibe to sit in or outside. A must visit and try. I'll be back to work my way through the menu more

I dropped in during a weekday for lunch and the place wasn't too busy. I ordered the low carb bowl with smoked salmon. I don't normally like "healthy" food but after a few days of over indulgence I decided I needed to balance things out. It was surprisingly good and satisfying. I only wished that they had more of the fried enoki as looking at other people's photos of the same dish it looked like they got substantially more. Service was friendly and accommodating albeit quite slow.

Look at that eggs Benedict. One of the best I've ever had. Good service, food and coffee. Don't forget that juice, it's awesome!

Favorite coffee in Hawthorn and one of the best Benedict I ever had! Recommended.

A very nice and cozy breakfast place, smashed avo was amazing and the portion size was good too. Orange juice.<br/>Highly recommend this place *****

Friendly staff and an extensive menu but I was disappointed with my flamenco eggs. The eggs on top of my dish were overdone and completely hard, not runny as they should be in this dish (the idea is that you dip in the bread!). They also curiously brought our mugs of coffee to the table without saucers or teaspoons to add sugar. That said, the staff were very helpful and accommodating and I would visit again for this fact alone.

Cute little place on Glenferrie Road, the food was great and the portions are very reasonable, great value for money. Staff are lovely and friendly. Will definitely return.

Great cafe on busy Glenferrie Road. I ordered the cinnamon and honey toasted granola with blueberry panna cotta and a coffee. The portion size was great and it tasted delicious.

PANCAKES 🥞 w/ Persian Fairy Floss, ice cream, candy walnuts, seasonal fruit gels, chocolate soul & maple syrup 👏🏼💕🤩 @shade.cafe<br/><br/>Wow what DELICIOUS fluffy pancakes!! Loved the different fruit gels mixed with the pancakes and the chocolate soil underneath! Plus the ice cream melting over all of it. Shakes were delicious, tasted exactly like the flavour of the shake, caramel and maltesers!! Beautiful presentation!!<br/><br/>Beautiful deco and also important to note that the staff were very friendly too, had a good sense of humour!

Shade Cafe is located along Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn not far from the station. <br/><br/>Stopping by lunch I couldn’t go past the zucchini and corn fritters with a side of smoked salmon and a coffee. Stacked high and generously topped with sriracha hollandaise and fried enoki, the fritters were very filling and full of flavour. As hungry as I was this day I struggled to finish my plate so this a great option if you’re quite hungry.<br/><br/>Overall Shade is a great little cafe with tasty food and friendly staff and is worth checking out. I rate Shade ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ out of 5.<br/>

Very nice coffee with good environment and service. We ordered eggs Benedict and corn fritters, they are both very yummy. We will come back again for sure.

Have been here a few times and usually the breakfast is fantastic. I’ve had the Benny before which is to die for and the burgers which are juicy and delicious! Unfortunately the Granola with the Berry Panna cotta fell very flat! <br/>I ordered this the other day and was quite disappointed. The granola was quite tasty but the panna cotta was quite terrible. Very bland, rubbery and super thick - like a hard jelly. In my experience this dish should be smooth and creamy. Considering the price ($17) I was expecting an amazing breakfast but most of it went uneaten. <br/>Would still come again but would avoid this dish unless the chef does some work to the recipe! has

Great burgers, tasty chili crab omelette (although it didn't actually taste like crab). Overall, food was fairly good for the price.<br/><br/>The cafe was completely empty at 12:30, so it looked dank tired and old - strange for a fairly new place. The dark lighting didn't help. It did fill up a little later which gave it a bit more life.<br/><br/>Here's hoping things look up for this little place soon. Glenferrie Road needs a few decent places!

When Nick Kolaitis, Ben Freeman, and Frank Gavralas decided to turn their Greek Street Food restaurant into a café, they took to the history books to find a name reflective of the area’s history, and their vision for its purpose. Having paid respect to their own heritage, by bringing authentic Greek Street Food to Melbourne, they decided their latest venture would pay respect to the native forbearers of land on which it’s located. Located within the Boroondara Council, which comes from an Aboriginal word meaning ‘place of shade’, the 3 men decided to name the venue Shade, and thus ensure the city’s Indigenous connections would not be lost.<br/><br/> <br/><br/>Step inside this Glenferrie Road haven, and you soon realise its design is specifically crafted to provide a place of shade, with its natural timber base, exposed red bricks emitting a cool feel, and dotted plants echoing the greenery from mother nature’s greatest shade providers.  It’s stylish, without being obtrusive, and leaves you with a sense of lightness, much like you would feel while sitting under a tree on a sunny day.<br/><br/> <br/><br/>Venue manger, Josh Carey, was quick to offer me a table, and soon offered me the fruits of another shade provider, the humble coffee tree. Beans are sourced from Reverence Coffee, with both the Night vision blend for that punchy milk coffee, and single origin beans for black coffee. For a café entrenched in a culture of paying respect, sourcing beans from a roaster named Reverence, is as harmonious as the venues ambiance. I was thrilled to see an Ethiopian Areka available for espresso. Truth be told, I could smell its blueberry aroma while Josh was putting my beans through the EK. This aroma permeated my sensory field, and followed through into the cup. Its sweet fruity flavours and clean finish made for an ideal espresso.<br/><br/> <br/><br/>The flavour fusion didn’t stop there. Nepalese chef, Abe Pandi, has taken basic ingredients and concepts taught as a child by his grandmother, and interpreted them in the modern flavour filled menu. Meals are designed to bring out the essence of each ingredient, such as Saffron Bircher Muesli, Chocolate Croffle with Matcha, Crab & Chilli folded eggs; and Coconut Prawn Noodle Salad.  <br/><br/> <br/><br/>What I really appreciate about Shade, is that they have preserved a link to their Greek heritage by way of offering Frappe and Freddo coffee. This is definitely a point of different in the area, and a popular option with students looking for that refreshing caffeine hit on a warm day. They are served with a double shot of Reverence’s Night Vision Blend, and frothed using a traditional Greek method, which provides that thick texture frappes and Freddos are famed for. You’ll be sure to have a clear vision after a few of those.<br/><br/> <br/><br/>Hawthorn continues to be a place of shade with both leafy streets and parklands; and this gorgeous café which feels like an energising embrace. Find Shade at 684 Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn.<br/><br/> <br/><br/>

This is a new cafe along glenferrie so me and my friends decided to give this place a go.<br/>Lovely interior, modern sleek decor but that's where the buck stops. I'm not usually one to voice my experiences on these apps, in fact, I downloaded the app for this.<br/>Every new place has its teething issues and that's understandable. Upon entry it looked reasonably full, which was promising but we were not greeted and I had to approach the counter to ask where can we sit, the busy barista/cashier just said sit anywhere. The only free table had the last customers food and plates all over it, which I had to clear and no one came over to wipe down the table for us. The culterly Jar was empty and only 1 napkin in place. It took 10 minutes for someone to come over to ask for coffees after we actually grabbed our own menus. Our water jug had food and stains all over it, the windows werent clean and our table had stains. Another 15 minutes later, our coffees arrived which I had to ask for mine to be remade because it tasted like Luke warm milk. Another 10 minutes later, we were finally asked to order which people around us who had came in later had already received their food and had it sent back for errors in what they had ordered. After ordering we waited and waited and we decided to leave. All up after an hour of being there we canceled our orders and left. Extremely disappointing experience.

Had about 45minutes to grab some lunch and we popped into Shade Cafe at around 12pm on a Friday. Staff were very friendly and didn’t pressure us to pick their cafe, they passed on a menu and said let us know if you’d like to dine in. <br/><br/>What we ordered: we both couldn’t go past the Vietnamese Pork Bao and we were glad with the choice we made. The meal itself was filling and contained a variety of flavor. The sauce was also a good touch. <br/><br/>Would definitely come back!

My friend and I had lunch here, and we were very pleased with the variety on the menu. We shared the crab omelette and the pork bao, both were presented well and were full of flavour! The bao came in a set of three, and the mint mayo matched perfectly with the bbq pork. I also had a turmeric latte, which was delicious, but the only downfall was that there was a lot of sediment at the base that hadn’t been mixed in. Great new cafe in the heart of Glenferrie rd.

Great menu, best fritter dish I have ever had! Reasonably priced food too in comparison to some new cafes! Been a couple of times now and I’m impressed. Will be back for sure

A disappointing experience. Very disorganised staff and limited selections available on the menu. To top it off, the coffee seemed over extracted. I'm not usually inclined to be too harsh on local business but I found it difficult here.

I went to this cafe for their grand opening and wasn't dissapointed. Their fairy floss pancakes will leave you satisfied and are probably one of the best I've ever had. I also have had their panna cotta which is presented beautifully, however it tasted very grainy instead of silky. Free wifi and a beautiful interior will have you not wanting to leave anytime soon.

A welcome addition to the Hawthorn food scene, Shade Cafe offers up some of the best brunch options we’ve had out East in a long time. The coffee is on point, and the staff are very friendly too. ‘Shade’ is also located not too far from the lovely Hawthorn Central Gardens, for a nice walk with the pram, and fun at the playground, once you have finished your meal!

A newly-opened cafe that’s conveniently located in the busy section of Glenferrie Street - next to Maccas, Swinburne University and Glenferrie Station. Its spacious interior with modern yet minimal design creates a warm and cozy atmosphere. The place looks like it can hold many seats inside, with a couple of seats outside as well (outdoor gas heater included). We came in early for brunch and were greeted warmly by staff. The food and drinks were brought out relatively quick. Drinks wise, the coffee was smooth and tasty while the golden latte was pretty sweet. Food wise, the presentation was beautiful but the taste was average. We found the smashed avocado to be on the salty-side with not much to balance out the flavour. The feta foam - while it was something new - only helped to add more saltiness. Also, the toast was too hard on the corners. That being said, it was nice to see a ‘smashed avo’ with two poached eggs decently priced at $16. On the other hand, the ‘cinnamon and honey roasted granola’ we ordered did fair a lot better. But the home-mode granola was quite dry to eat on its own and would have been nicer if there was milk or more yoghurt to accompany it… For $17, I felt guilty not finishing off the granola… All-in-all, great food presentation but the food lacked a bit. Great ambience, friendly staff and prompt service.

went to shade this morning for breakfast for a great start to the public holiday! <br/><br/>staff were very friendly, welcomed me in, sat me at a table and asked if i wanted any coffee to start! being the AFL public holiday, they had an offer that if you wore an AFL scarf or beanie, the coffee is on the house and they absolutely delivered that! (i even ordered one on the way out and thought i needed to pay since i already had one on the house and i also got my second one free!) anyway the coffee was amazing!<br/><br/>my mum came to join me for breakfast later and she ordered the tofu scramble and she loved it! i had the smashed avo and i also thought it was delicious! i thought the fetta foam was really interesting, and the whole dish had heaps of flavour ! <br/><br/>loved the decor in the cafe and had a really nice vibe to it :)

Visited shade cafe today, it was very busy and had a great atmosphere ! The staff were very friendly, I ordered the smashed avo, my friend ordered the big breakfast and another got the granola, it was great! All Presented so well, definitely will be back! Such a lovely addition to glenferrie road !

Coffee was really good.<br/><br/>Food was nice, but not beyond nice, really;  good serving portions, and good priced as well. However, it took about 15 minutes or so for my food to come out and, honestly, it was not worth the wait.   <br/><br/>The staff were really lovely but there was an evident lack of coordination and attention to detail.  There were a good deal of patrons when I visited, but the place was not full by any means. <br/><br/>This is a good addition to the Glenferrie coffee strip, but there are so many awesome cafes around that they need to step up their game if they want to survive.

Decent cafe addition to Glenferrie Rd. I ordered the tofu scramble with eggplant toast, chilli relish and a side of chorizo. The tofu scramble itself was cold and fairly flavourless but the eggplant toast was excellent. The chilli relish was really tasty too. They were also having issues with their coffee machine so I ended up with a golden latte instead which was actually really nice.