This week is all about brunch and bakeries.

Proud Mary
172 Oxford Street
Collingwood Vic 3066

If you’re ever looking for somewhere for breakfast/brunch/lunch Proud Mary’s is always a safe bet – great coffee and delicious food!
They change their menu regularly, but there is always a delicious burger, an inventive take on ricotta hotcakes (always delicious and fluffy) and the one staple, avocado on toast. Seriously, their avocado on toast is amazing, something so simple is just delicious! I tried the potato rosti with kale, crispy bacon and poached eggs this week and it was really tasty, definitely worth a try.
I’ll let the pictures talk for themselves on this one. I’ve taken these over a few visits this year, so unfortunately not all of these items are still on the menu.

8/10

Mister Nice Guy Bakeshop
151 Union Road
Ascot Vale Vic 3032

Mister Nice Guy’s Bakeshop is a 50s inspired bakery catering in dairy free, gluten free, sugar free, nut free, organic and vegan friendly sweets. Name your intolerance or food preference and they’ll cater to it.
They have a decent array of cakes, cupcakes and pastries on offer. I must admit, I was a tad apprehensive at first, but it was love at first bite. My bubka was delicious! I just about inhaled it.
I washed down my bubka with a hazelnut milk latte. Yep, I said hazelnut milk. In the spirit of all things dairy free, all coffees are made with your choice of soy, almond, coconut, hazelnut, cashew or rice milk.
All in all, I liked Mister Nice Guy. It’s nice to finally find a bakery/cake shop in the suburbs that caters to so many food intolerances.

They had a decent array of pastries, bread and lunch time goodies. Of course I was only interested in the sweet stuff, so I picked up a couple of traditional Italian doughnuts, one filled with chocolate and the other vanilla custard. The Italian custard was actually quite good, which surprised me because there aren’t many bakeries that have really mastered the art of Italian custard. The doughnut on the other hand, was ok, but nothing to rave about.

I picked up a couple of other choux based pastries as well, but they were really disappointing. They were both very dry, so we didn’t eat very much of them.