Kafe Krave (or Cafe Krave, or Krave Cafe, depending on where you read it) is a suburban cafe located within the Homezone Centre in Windsor. Sitting at the corner of one of the blocks, it is understated in appearance from the outside. It does have quite clear signage though, with “Krave” on each of its road-facing sides.
Once through the doors, you will immediately see the service counter, which runs though the centre of the cafe space. Staff informed us as we entered that the cafe was counter service. We were free to pick whichever table we wanted to sit at, and staff soon brought water and glasses to us (we had picked up menus from a shelf near the entrance).
The cafe is a cosily decorated place, with wooden floors, and walls that are half brick-look wallpaper and half cream. That central counter has wood pannelling all along it, and many of the tabletops have images of trees and the woods printed on them. Glass windows on the road-facing sides of the cafe were closed to keep the heat out on the 30+ degree day we were there. On another visit on a cooler day though, they had the windows open and the fans on. Seating options are the aforementioned tables with cushioned stools or chairs, and booth-style seats arranged along one side of the cafe. There was relaxed pop music playing the background, at a volume that was present but not too loud.
The menu had breakfast options on one side, and lunch options on the other. The lunch items are available from 1100, and we had fortunately arrived at a time when all choices were in play. After going between various fritter, rosti, and wrap options, we finally settled on two items, the Krave rosti and sundried tomato, corn and red onion fritters, and went to the counter. There another conundrum presented itself, as they have a rather long list of coffee, milkshake, smoothie, and frappe options. Choices were eventually made, however, and we returned to our table with an order number on a stand.
It wasn’t too long before our drinks were delivered. The chocolate milkshake with a shot of coffee was nicely balanced. It was appropriately chocolately, with coffee that wasn’t bitter. The coffee flavour was actually present, and it was just mildly sweet.
The flat white was thought to be good as well. It had the right microfoam texture, and again wasn’t bitter.
The Krave Rosti was a potato and parmesan rosti served with three poached eggs and bacon, topped with bearnaise sauce. The rosti turned out to not be quite what was expected. Rather than being made of a nest of potato strips, in the usual Swiss style, it was more like a potato fritter, with dense mashed potato on the inside. It had a good, substantially crunchy outside though, and it had a herby, slightly gingery flavour. The bacon was cooked just right, not over or under. The eggs had runny yolks. The bearnaise sauce was smooth and creamy. Each component of the dish was tasty, and it all went together well, with a good variety of textures. We did wish there had been more of the bearnaise sauce though.
We also had the Sundried tomato, corn, and red onion fritters, with avocado mash, poached eggs, smoked salmon, and chilli jam. You can have them with bacon instead, but given that we already had one dish with bacon, we opted for more variety. The fritters were a little underdone, and so a little doughy, but they had a good salty and slightly sweet flavour. They did indeed have corn kernels, and slivers of red onion and sundried tomato between the batter. There was a good amount of avocado on the dish, roughly mashed, and flavoured with a hint of lemon and a scatter of pepper. The folds of smoked salmon on it were tender, and not too salty. The chilli jam was sweet and sour, with a little bit of tangy spice. It tended to overpower everything else though, so wound up mostly being scraped off to the side and reapplied only sparingly.
The waitstaff were friendly and cheerful at each encounter.
Overall, Kafe Krave makes a lovely little neighbourhood cafe. The coffee was good, and so was the food, apart from some minor faults. It makes for a good place to catch up with people. As another plus point, the parking in the area is easy. Worth a visit.
Scores:
Food: 3/4
Setting: 1.5/2
Service: 1/2
Total: 5.5/8
Price point: Breakfast items $13.50 to $22.90 for things more substantial than muesli. Lunch items $16.50 to $19.
Value: Not bad.
Details:
Address: Homezone Windsor, 142 Newmarket Rd, Windsor
Phone: 0415 484 252
Website: Krave cafe