Proud Mary

-with extremely delicious potato hash, coffee, friendly staff and crowds on weekends

Sun 2nd/Sep/2018
Cloudy 12°C

Around 10 years ago, Nolan and Shari Hirte sold Liar Liar (another amazing restaurant) and founded Proud Mary in Collingwood, Melbourne, which has become one of the most popular café for brunch. The coffee beans at Proud Mary were roasted, grinded and blended at Aunty Peg’s, the home of Proud Mary in Collingwood. In both places, coffee lovers could choose cold drip, V60, AeroPress and espresso to enjoy the coffee. At Proud Mary, the information on the chalkboard was very helpful for people knowing the origin of beans and choosing their preferred flavour.  I ordered a latte which was extraordinary. The balanced aroma, flavour, and acidity just blew my mind.  

 

 

Don’t forget to order a cuppa coffee here!

New menu was released in October 2020; therefore, most dishes I ordered with my mates sadly disappeared expect their most iconic dish, potato hash. However, I would still briefly share me and my mates’ thoughts of those vanished dishes. For those who visited Proud Mary for their 1st time, Potato hash ($24) is the must!! The salty thick cut bacon perfectly matched the kale and radicchio and melt in my mouth. Golden and crispy potato rosti with buttery sauce was another highlight in this dish. No wonder everyone died for this dish so so much. It’s just unbeatable on the menu.  

The most popular dish at Proud Mary: Potato Hash

Next two dishes unable to order now were asparagus plus black rice ($19) and smoked salmon toastie ($19.5). Black rice with asparagus was a really special dish because it’s my first time to see black rice on the menu in Australian restaurants.  We loved this creative combination but found there was not so much flavour in black rice which couldn’t have a harmonious mixture with other ingredients. Besides, me and my friends all agreed that the portion was not big enough to meet the price. Perhaps this was the reason for its disappearance now. 

It's interesting to see black rice

After potato hash, smoked salmon toastie was my another commendation at Proud Mary (although you cannot find it now) (sad face).   Similarly, it’s great to see a mixture between different style in this dish. Salmon roe, my favourite, was the topping on the slide of sandwiches, which was rare at Australian modern cafés. Usually, salmon roe can only be seen on traditional Japanese food as a kind of luxurious topping. Furthermore, salmon roe should be uncommon in Melbourne because I nearly hadn’t seen any at traditional markets. I love the unique and fresh popping inside my mouth when shewing the salmon roe. Toastie was tasty with substantial filling. The only question for all of us was the dry salad separated from a big drop of mayo. When the waiter was serving the meal, I thought it was an egg, haha. The mayo was just too circle! Back to this dish, I was so confused about why the restaurant didn’t just glaze mayo directly on the salad. Yes, it looked fancy and artistic for me personally when there was white colour decorated on the wooden board. However, without any container, it was difficult to move the mayo from the board to the salad. Also, as the photo below, it would be uneasy to dip salad in the mayo. However, we still loved this dish and just believed in some improvement to make it better.

Smoked salmon toastie $19.5
Salmon toastie with mysterious egg-like mayo

Last thing impressed me was the service at Proud Mary. The server was super friendly and gave us useful advice as our first time here with a big smile. According to my observation, every server at Proud Mary always wore a smile when talking to customers. Really impressive! To sum up, Proud Mary is a restaurant I will recommend on weekdays.   

Info   
 Proud Mary  

Address   

  172 Oxford St, Collingwood VIC 3066,       

Australia

Opening hours 

   8AM~3PM from Mon to Sun 

-Price –

   About AU$27 pp 

-Website –     

 https://www.proudmarycoffee.com.au/ 

-Recommendation – 

  Coffee and Potato hash