Second Home Eltham

After hearing that a lovely Alistair Knox building was now the setting for a rather excellent cafe in Eltham, I was very keen to visit. Add to this the fact that friends and fellow bloggers had told me that Second Home Eltham was serving rather good food combined with my Autumnal love affair with the very picturesque Eltham, I booked a visit.

Parking was a trifle confusing as this cafe is set in a rather industrial area down a narrow road. If you don’t manage to snaffle one of the parking spots on site, then a leisurely walk will be in order.

I visited on a very busy Saturday morning. The spacious, light filled cafe was bustling and full and we were soon showed to the “lounge area” to wait it out for a table to be available. Luckily for me there was a fire going in their very stylish fireplace (previously spotted at Cannibal Creek Winery and imported from France I believe). Despite the promise of coffee, our orders were not taken and eventually I leaned across to the happy looking cyclists seated opposite me and asked for help. “Order at the counter” is apparently necessary if you are seated en couche. “No food for you” until you make your way to a table.

Hunger pains and quite a lot of noise (the cafe is one very large open space) culminated in a moment where I considered just walking out and heading somewhere else, but I am glad I did not as the food at Second Home Eltham was very, very good.

Eventually we were seated and we ordered the Eggs Benedict and the Ploughmans Lunch- an old family favourite and a bit of a private joke at my house. If a ploughmans is on the menu, it must be tasted!

They were both very good. Housemade pickle with a delicately sweet acidity took the ploughmans to new, very good places. Second home Eltham

Everyone drooled over my Eggs Benedict though and with good reason. Slow cooked ham hock, apple cider hollandaise and a parmesan, thyme potato stack all topped with two perfectly cooked eggs. One of the best eggs benedict I have ever tried.