Serotonin, a place I’ve been dying to go to for ages. It’s a bit of an institution on the vegan and health scene here in Melbourne. Specialising in food to raise your mood and boost your health through their creations. It is a bit off the beaten track over in Burnley, at least in relation to where we live, and that’s why it’s taken so long to to get there.
Last weekend Mim and I FINALLY decided that today was the day. We were out shopping on Chapel Street with her sister Alex. We knew we needed a good feed after spending hours going in and out of shops trying on clothes so off to Burnley and Serotonin we went. Their café is in a lovely location just by a park and they even offer you to take a picnic basket and eat their food in the park. How nice is that?
We walked in through the door and as soon as we got through the doors we were greeted by their lovely staff. We were sat outside on their swings! The best idea ever to have swings. A guy called Gabriel was the one who helped us during our visit and he was amazing! He got our menus and we told him about how long we’d been wanting to go and asked for his recommendations because we wanted to try EVERYTHING. We knew their famous pancakes were a must but other than that we had trouble deciding what to have on top of that. At this point we were starving. It was just before three in the afternoon and we hadn’t had lunch. Meaning we pretty much would’ve wanted to eat the entire menu because of how hungry we were, that didn’t really make the decision any easier.
We were leaning towards their new pizza, you guys know I’m not a massive pizza fan but it sounded unlike any pizza I’d heard of. It’s been made in collaboration with Simon Hill who does one of my favourite podcasts Plant Proof. Unfortunately it had chickpeas in the base and Mim is quite intolerant to them so I will just have to try it another time because we wanted to share food. After a lot of going back and forth we went for another new addition to their menu, the savoury waffles and we added scrambled tofu to it and also ordered a side of satay tempeh. How could you not order some tempeh with satay sauce? Yuuum!
We of course had to try some of their delicious sounding hot drinks while we were waiting on ur food. I had a peanut butter latte. Yup a peanut butter latte! How good does that sound?! And it tasted even better. What a great idea for peanut butter addicts like myself. Mim had a golden latte and it was lovely too!
I’m trying to find words to explain how good the food was and I don’t feel like there are good enough words to really give you an idea of how insane Serotonin’s food is. The pancakes were beautifully fluffy but moist at the same time. The cashew cheese on the waffles was so creamy and cheesy, I have no idea how the managed to make it taste that way. The scrambled tofu tasted amazing and the satay tempeh, that satay sauce was heaven. I could’ve eaten a whole bowl of that stuff. I don’t think the staff have ever seen to more enthusiastic customers. We couldn’t stop mmming and aaaing over how good it all was.
The food was devoured far too quickly and even though it looked like a lot it all somehow fitted in our stomachs without feeling overly full. We then got the very lovely surprise from Gabriel who asked us what dish we’d like to try next time and he gave us a card each with ten dollars off the dish of our choice next time we come in. How nice is that? Incredibly generous of them.
They were closing for the day at this point and we headed to the till to pay, the last people to leave. It’s a very tempting place around the till because they have all their beautiful cakes displayed just there. Mim and I were discussing the cakes and another guy who worked there gave us one of their raw lamington cakes for free. Wow, I’ve never experienced a place so caring and generous towards their customers and everyone who worked there seemed to love to be there. The positive vibes and energy is contagious.
Wow, wow, wow. I’m lost for words and can’t wait to go back!
