Creatures of Habit, Ivanhoe

This morning we visited Creatures of Habit cafe in Ivanhoe for a breakfast date with Craig's family. I can see why people may become creatures of habit going back to this cute little cafe- from the outside eating area, funky iron gates, friendly service and yummy food it is definitely a must visit in Ivanhoe where many of the cafes can be a little hit and miss.

There was a little confusion between Craig and I and his family regarding the booking- we arrived at 10am and they at 10.30. The staff were very accommodating and regularly offered us food and drinks while we were waiting.
The menu features a wide range of brunch treats, from the traditional to the modern. I thought about getting the yummy sounding baked lima beans with poached egg on sourdough but decided to do the right thing for my healthy eating plan and go with the breakfast salad, but chose to replace the bacon with smoked salmon leaving lettuce, roasted capscium, tomato, avocado, feta, smoked salmon and two poached eggs. Craig had this also. It was a fresh and healthy way to enjoy breakfast and I really enjoyed it.

Craig's Mum enjoyed the Eggs Floretine with a side of beautiful looking field mushrooms- I was envious of that yummy looking hollandaise sauce!

Craig's sister enjoyed the ham and cheese omelette which was huge and looked great. She commented that it was a tad peppery for her liking but still enjoyed it.

The remaining two blokes at the table tackled the Big Breakfast, which looked great also.

There was a slightly negative ending to our pleasant breakfast at the cafe. We had asked to swap the bacon in our salad for smoked salmon- now I know you usually pay extra for smoked salmon, but the bacon was listed on the menu as $4 so I assumed that it would be fairly easy to substitute the bacon for the salmon and pay a similar price. However, we were charged an extra $5 for the salmon even though we had omitted the $4 of bacon. Times this by two salads and our bill was $10 more than we thought. I know it is petty to argue these things but we didn't have the bacon so it seemed a bit steep to be paying for it as well as the salmon. The cafe manager was reluctant to do the straight swap but a bit of forceful arguing from Craig had him change his mind, not happily but we did end up getting the $10 off the bill. The salad was great, but hardly worth $20 for the tiny bit of smoked salmon that was in it!

All in all, a very cool little cafe that is perhaps struggling a little to deal with how busy it is at the moment but they will get there. The coffees took a little longer than expected and the poor barista looked completely snowed under but the food was great and the service mostly good apart from that small incident at the end. The lunch menu sounds good so I think I would return and just make sure I find out the cost of substitutions before I make them ;)