Orto Trading Co.

To finish off a productive day in the city of watching a movie and asking locations for an event, I decided to finally try out this cafe. The cafe is under some residential buildings, but it does have a high roof and lots of natural light coming through, and they also have heaps of seating outside. Inside the cafe the tables are quite big, but the cafe itself isn't really spacious. Make sure to bring your sunnies, even if you're sitting on the inside, since the sun does come into your eyes.

We came here at 2pm (a late lunch) and there was still quite a few people here, luckily the kitchen closes at 3 so we didn't have to make a quick decision on what to eat. The food here tends to be more English with a modern Australian twist.

love their decor of flowers hanging down

winter menu

drinks with a view (:

large cap: $4, mixed berry smoothie: $7

Coffee was average. Decided to get a smoothie since it was quite a warm winter's afternoon. I know I can make the same thing at home, but you'll need to go out and buy milk, yoghurt which I probably won't finish before the expiry date, then wash up your blender etc (ie. a lot of effort). The other flavour was banana, so decided to get mixed berries. The portion is actually very large for this price (compared to The Grounds now, where it's similarly priced but in cute milk glass bottles, and visibly smaller portion). The smoothie here is yoghurt based, more towards the thick side and not too sweet.

3 dishes between 2 :)

Scotch egg with salt cod and piccalilli-$12

A few weeks ago on MasterChef, I watched Rose make (very burnt) Scotch egg and realised I've never had this before. Loved the golden colour on this and the crunch. However, the egg wasn't really runny which was a disappointment, only a tad bit runny. The herbs made it more refreshing from that deep fried crust, and the pickles helped to calso helped to cut down on the oily flavour from the deep fried egg. 

hash 2.0 with birkshire ham, tomato, avocado, rocket, lemon, asparagus, poached egg (gf)-$16

Looking at photos, the previous hash version was more of a stack, it looked taller but smaller at the same time. The potato was a big piece of hasbrown (I think) hidden under the rockey. This newer version makes it seem more generous with scattered bits of tomatoes to brighten the dish up and piped avocado with lemon. The deep fried potatoes were very oily unfortunately. There was a decent serving of ham as well hidden under all the other toppings. Wasn't expecting much from this dish, but it surprisingly tied together really well.

look at that running yolk!

Gnocchi with pine mushroom, cropwell bishop blue cheese, fennel jam, red elk-$19

Haven't had gnocchi in ages. I love how cafes these days puts more love into vegetarian dishes. This dish was very flavourful with the strong blue cheese. Also can't go wrong with big slices of mushroom.  The gnocchi itself was soft which contrasted well with the crunch from the hazelnuts.

Afternoon was spent well.