Open Pantry, Ballarat
Hey, remember when I went to Ballarat earlier this year? One place I wanted to check out was Open Pantry, which is a cafe on Ballarat’s Bakery Hill. In addition to serving breakfast and lunch, they also stock a range of grocery and deli items such as cheeses, small goods, pasta and jams for purchase.
Unfortunately, we couldn’t fit it in on that trip, but I got my chance recently on our latest op shop crawl. One Saturday, Haz, Gaz, Winceee, Daisy, Mr R and myself piled into a couple of cars and took a drive to Ballarat.
It was a slow, slow start, when we all somehow managed to sleep in. So upon reaching Ballarat, we stopped for an early lunch / very very late breakfast, as most of the group hadn’t eaten (sleeping in = no time to eat). Half of us ordered breakfast, and half had lunch.
Yes, I did sleep in (I blame my alarm for not going off, yep) but I still managed to scoff down breakfast before leaving the house, so it was lunch for me.
I ordered the giant pumpkin and almond agnolotti with burnt butter and sage ($16.50).
It was pretty good, though it did need some salt to offset the sweetness of the pumpkin filling, which didn’t seem to be seasoned at all.
Gaz and Daisy were my lunch ordering buddies, with Gaz ordering a mushroom risotto.
And Daisy had a big bowl of minestrone soup. That soup looked so good – look how much stuff is in it.
The others went for breakfast, with Winceee ordering a plate of scrambled eggs and additional sausages.
Mr R had an open omelette, and Hazzie also had eggs – poached eggs – which I didn’t take a photo of, because, well poached eggs. Also, they were a bit over cooked, so there was no yolky p0rn shot to be had.
Open Pantry was pleasant enough, and it had a charming atmosphere. Based on what I observed, the lunch dishes seemed better than the breakfast ones (I did good with my order, pat pat).
Oh, and the op shopping? Uhhh… sadly this trip turned out to be a total dud (I bought $0.60 worth of cutlery ugh). Almost everywhere we visited was closed, despite Daisy calling each place on our list a few days beforehand to check closing times.
Oh well. It was still fun to get out of town with friends and go somewhere for lunch. Besides, it’s about the journey, right? 🙂
View Off the spork in a larger map
Open Pantry
22 Main Road
Bakery Hill,
Ballarat 3350
Phone: 03 5334 4007
June 30, 2013 @ 7:58 pm
What did I eat DD? 😛
July 10, 2013 @ 9:51 pm
You had poached eggs. I wrote that. :p
July 6, 2013 @ 9:53 pm
We are going to Franga again soon. Let’s do Ciao Bella again!!
July 10, 2013 @ 9:14 pm
Yes, let’s! Please!
July 11, 2013 @ 5:31 pm
Such good and hearty fare! Had a friend who went out there for work and was surprised to hear her report back with some good food option! 🙂