14.5 / 20 How we score European $$ $$ Eaten kaiserschmarrn recently? If not, it’s either because you haven’t skied the Tyrolean Alps, where this scrambled pancake is popular, or because you’ve missed breakfast at Elio’s Place, a new Flinders Lane restaurant open every day from morning to late. It’s a long hike to the slopes of southern Austria and snow is months away, so I suggest Elio’s for your fix.
To make kaiserschmarrn, a sturdy pancake batter is partly cooked, broken into pieces, fried to golden and – in this version – dolloped with blueberry compote ($20). Eating it feels like both a naughty treat and sensible breakfast. For a food city, Melbourne could do better at all-day dining.
There are a few good places: Carlton’s Heartattack and Vine trips easily from coffee to meatballs. Brunetti Oro , a few doors from Elio’s, does granola at 8am and spag bol at 8pm. You can slurp pho anytime in Springvale and Sunshine.
But overall, it’s slim pickings and Elio’s is a welcome addition, a flexible place for business coffee or a shopping break, after-work spritz or pre-theatre oysters, and definitely a slap-up dinner with friends. Elisa Mariani and her brother, Adam, started their business life together at Richmond’s Mayday cafe; they own casual CBD venues Greta and Maverick. This is their grown-up restaurant, set on a laneway corner in a handsome Victorian building.
Previously home to a sushi train, this split-level spot could feel like a rabbit warren w.
