Oakleigh - Cafe Scene

Oakleigh is 15 km south-east from Melbourne and it is a suburb with a strong Greek cultural influence. The very first thing you see when you come out of the Oakleigh train station is the Oakleigh Junction Hotel. It is one of the oldest buildings in the suburb.

Oakleigh has a Central Business District with an abundance of butchers, bakeries, beauty salons and specialty shops selling sweets. There are also multiple laneways with Greek-themed cafes.

But it is at the pedestrian mall which connects to the Centro Shopping Centre and the train station, where we found all the activities are; cafes, restaurants and retail shops. There were lots of people about, buzzing in and out of the shops or sitting outside the many cafes having their breakfast or coffee and catching up.

And the reason for coming to Oakleigh, one Saturday morning is its cafe scene and for breakfast at the Nikos Cafe. Next to the cafe or as part of the cafe is its very own cake and pastry shop; Oakleigh Quality Cakes.

If you ever not want to be tempted by the sweets and cakes that were on display, this is certainly not the place to be. The colours, smells and variety of cakes on offer are enough to make deciding what to take home for afternoon tea, a very difficult thing to do. Tempting to buy a piece of everything on display but alas, there is only so much one can eat at a time.

You got to try the pistachio roulade and the baklava, among the few we decided on. Sorry, no photos. Finished them before I thought of taking a photo for this posting.

I digress. Check out the breakfast. Generous portions with fresh Greek salad. Coffee is also very good.  We thought it best to skip lunch after this. After all, we got to make room for afternoon tea.