Ashton and Old

Great coffee, freshly squeezed juice and atmosphere. Only thing is that the service can be a little slow. But all n all a nice café and the staff are always very friendly

Thoroughly disappointed. First with the somewhat limited menu. Only one light salad option and that wasn’t that light with bacon and heaps of dressing. And then with the the food once it arrived. A terrible shame.

I read a review of Ashton & Old that was positive but basically said, ‘avoid, avoid, avoid’ between the hours of 10am and 2pm weekdays if you don’t want to share you dining experience with gaggles of gossiping Mums and noisy kids. Taking this warning on board, I’ve visited on two successive weekends, hopeful that most parents were shuttling their kids to sport or ballet.
We arrived at the relatively early time of 8.30am to avoid the crowds. The greeting as soon as you walked in the door is friendly with plenty of staff on hand to seat you, take your order and serve. On both visits we were offered a choice of places to sit and water without asking. The room is basically the four walls, some windows that open out on to street and a mix of table and bench seating inside as well as some small stools and tables outside. The décor is modern, minimalist. I like the look and feel of the place but like most new fit outs, it’s all hard surfaces so the noise bounces around and the volume in the rooms escalates significantly as the place fills.
There’s a good looking menu with plenty of savoury and sweet options and I’m pleased to see that if you decide to have a lighter option such as muesli trifle or fruit salad w yoghurt, they don’t charge like a wounded bull at $ 7 a serve. The most expensive breakfast main is $ 16 and there’s plenty on offer for carnivores and vegetarians. Good to see some different breakfast options too such as the unusual pan fried black pudding, cheddar, avocado & corn salsa on tortilla ($ 16) that taps into the current mania for Mexican style flavours. There was no question this dish was going to be my choice. Others on the table ordered the braised mushrooms, poached eggs & marinated fetta on sourdough ($ 12) and, house made baked beans, ham hock, baked eggs & toast ($ 14).
Meals arrived promptly and my black pudding tortilla was just the ticket for a jaded breakfast palate. Full of fresh flavours and a substantial size, I was happy to see the corn salsa had been made from scratch with corn straight from the cob. That’s the eye for detail and extra effort that I warm to. The black pudding serve was generous and my oh my, it was peppery. Perhaps, a little too peppery. There was plenty of cooling avocado and crème fraîche to take the kick out but the black pudding maker had a very liberal hand with the pepper. Having said that, it wasn’t so spicy that I wouldn’t order it again.
House made baked beans were served in a cocotte, straight from the oven and deemed substantial and enjoyable. The mushrooms and eggs came with two well poached eggs but the fetta was not discernible. Either it had melted into the pan fried mushrooms of they had forgot to scatter it on. The meal was deemed enjoyable but lacking some oomph so maybe some more fetta or another ingredient such as some caramelised onions could make it more exciting. The mushroom eaters said they enjoyed their meal but would order something different next time. Coffee and drinks ordered throughout the meal turned up promptly and although the place became busier, we were never forgotten.
By the time we left, the brunch crowds had arrived so we were happy to head off. I certainly recommend Ashton and Old for breakfast and brunch, and their lunch menu had some very promising items on it too. I’m glad we can walk to this place as the destination makes it worth the exercise.

Good service and good food

The disappointment when a café you’ve been excited to visit fails to live up to its potential is crushing. Ashton & Old was a café I’d been keen to visit since hearing of its opening and when I finally got there it was just, well, ‘meh’. Sure the coffee was good and the interior fit out is cute in an old cottage-​y kind of way and I could easily fall in love with the home-​made preserves and relish (rosemary and quince or beetroot, anyone?) but the noise! Oh Unilocalers, the noise level.
As the space filled steadily from the time I arrived to the time I quickly skulled the last of my flat white to make haste for the door, the chatter and clanging of the café amplified to the point where rather than experiencing a relaxing mid-​morning coffee and quick power-​work session in the sun, I was witness to overhearing everyone’s conversation in the room. This, my friends, is Ashton & Old’s biggest downfall. I do hope that over time they’ll iron out this and a few other kinks (burnt banana bread is not cute) and I’ll return on a similarly sunny day and fall in love with this cute south side café as I’d expected to on my first visit.