Everyone loves Melbourne culture, from the coffee to the food. Growing up in Melbourne has been a privilege that we have always seem to take for granted.

Johnny and I are both from Vietnamese backgrounds so we grew up eating your typical Vietnamese home cooked meals. You know like Vietnamese braised pork belly, caramelised claypot fish and the occasional weekend Pho. If we’re lucky.

If you’re Asian you’d know that Asians ONLY eat their own food #subtleasiantraits. You can put a beautiful rib eye steak in front of my grandma and she would still prefer her caramelised Vietnamese fish. There are things we can never understand, no matter how hard we try. Even science won’t have an explanation.

It’s Winter in Melbourne again, and the weather is bad even for Melbourne’s standard. Now that says a lot. Which means uni sucks more than usual, work is twice as draining and the only ever happy time of the week is …. brunch time!

We’ve always been dying to visit O’Hey ever since …

But as always, you know how difficult Johnny can be, he’s so bloody bipolar. One minute he’s the most adventurous boyfriend in the world and the next he’s a complete grumpy old loser. That time I convinced him to finally give No.19 a shot, was probably the biggest achievement of our relationship.

I was ready for a fight to the death when I suggested we try out O’Hey, but for some strange reason…he just simply agreed. No fuss or sook. Nothing at all, just a straight yes and from there we went.

The drive wasn’t too bad, it was a Sunday morning and the streets of Coburg looked emptier than usual. It took us about 20 minutes to arrive at the almighty O’Hey cafe.

Bright colourful theme all round, with a lively vibe that we can never forget. We instantly fell in love with the place, everyone seemed so happy.
Everyone talks about DisneyLand being the happiest place on earth but we think otherwise. For us, O’Hey should definitely be right on top of that list.

The sun had finally returned after hibernating all week. We decided to sit out back and enjoy the sun whilst it lasted. You can never trust Melbourne weather it’s packed full of surprises. The O’Hey team walked us to the courtyard seating outside, right in front of their iconic feature wall.

This week’s menu was very different. No more Acai bowls, finally he has to try something else for once. Everything sounded so good, we literally wanted to order the whole menu. 2 hours of indecisiveness later…

We finally decided on our usual 3 plates to share strategy. Johnny settled for the poke bowl whilst I tried out the beef brisket and we got the apple pie to share.

The food took longer than usual but we didn’t mind at all. The sun was warm, the courtyard vibes were great and we sat there soaking in the weekend. Before we knew it, the food showed up all at once.

We were starving by then but blogging is life… so just for you guys we set aside our hunger and snapped up some pour shots with our new lens.

The apple pie was amazing, one hell of a sugar bomb but totally worth the diabetes. Seriously, look at that melted white chocolate sphere.

I loved how the spice apple and the meringue bits complemented each other. The extra crumble and gold flakes on top brought everything together so well. I knew this would add an extra kilo or two to my waist but in that moment I couldn’t care less.

Johnny wanted the healthy option as always, except this time there weren’t any Acai bowls around. Thank god because I was getting seriously fed up with his Acai addiction.

His poke bowl looked so pretty, the plating was on point. Vibrant colours, great variety of veggies and beautifully folded smoked salmon. The miso dressing that we poured on top was incredible. It gave the bowl that extra kick of flavour and helped bring everything together. If every healthy meal was like this than I’ll probably be the healthiest person in the world.

Double smoked beef brisket served with potato hash, hollandaise sauce and poached eggs. Everything I ever wanted, all in one. What more can I possibly ask for? There’s even grilled corn cob on the side. Easily my favourite meal of the day.

We took our time with this and actually enjoyed the food for once. Surprisingly, Johnny chewed his food this time and I didn’t overeat myself into another food coma. By the end of it, we were a ‘satisfying’ full. Not the ‘food coma’ full but more the ‘just about right’ stage.

By the end of it, we didn’t want to leave. The cafe was so cosy, warm and homey that we could probably hang out there all day if it weren’t for our annoying uni assessments.

Don’t worry there’s always a NEXT time ! We are definitely coming back for another brunch date very soon. Until then, stay tuned for more food adventures in and around Melbourne. Follow us on Instagram and Zomato for all the latest food sneak peaks. Ciao!