The Cove Dining Co - Abbotsford

The Cove is situated in the heritage listed community hall of the former Abbotsford Nestle factory site with plenty of space and nice high ceilings. There’s a decent size verandah that opens onto a lawn and gardens, perfect for kids to run around, whom there are usually lots of. The service is generally pretty friendly and efficient and there’s almost always a table available.<br/ <br/ The food style is mod-Aus, with the usual cafe fair turned up a notch with some nice twists and plenty of housemade items.<br/ <br/ We’re fans of the house smoked trout with egg and hash as well as the chorizo and egg roll but there is a pretty large menu with plenty of good options.<br/ <br/ The coffee is Campos Superior and has very consistent over the past 2 years we’ve been visiting.

Take a seat on the verandah and enjoy a perfect Campos coffee along with a house made muffin or banana bread. Warm and friendly service within a beautiful old heritage-listed building.

Visited the Cove for a Saturday brunch for a private function. I loved this place from the moment I walked in. Cottage like interior with vintage decor and a gorgeous garden at the back. They have something for everyone on the menu. We had a set menu that included entree, shared 3 mains and shared 2 desserts. The entree was a selection of cold cut meats, marinated cheese, olives, salmon salad and roasted vegetables. To accompany was house made sourdough with butter which was delicious! Mains were pan fried barramundi with lemon, grilled chicken with celery, walnut, peas and radish and slow cooked lamb with beetroot, cous cous, almonds, raisins and mint. The lamb and fish dishes were delectable. Very simple ingredients were used and they all complimented each other. The grilled chicken was like a salad with mayonnaise, I wasn't much a fan of that one. Desserts were also very simple yet delicious. House made doughnuts with jam and marscapone and watermelon, strawberry and pistachio salad. Yum, yum, yum! Again such simple ingredients balancing each other perfectly. Can't wait to visit this place again.

Corn fritters are one of my favourite brunch items, but I’m often disappointed by limp, lifeless fritters. Not at the Cove though! Their Corn Mint Fritters are crispy, full of flavour and the bacon, avocado, beetroot hummus and poached egg flavour combo with them was spot on. My first latte was perfect, so I ordered a second one after my meal and it was way too hot and clearly burnt. Cool vibe at the cafe and friendly service. A great local.

Who'd've thought I'd actually try this place out?! It's so out of the way for me...you don't care.<br/ <br/ We went on a weekend for lunch. It's a bit awkward trying to find a table here...there are reserved signs everywhere but they're not particularly easy to spot. Anyway, when we did finally manage to sit down at the table, we checked out the menu, and there are a lot of tasty options on the menu. Usually, when I read through a menu, I'll probably like the sound of one or two of them, but this menu was brimming with options and creativity.<br/ <br/ When the food finally arrived, the portions are utterly huge! Oh, the butter came out cold though. Tore my bread right up. I reckon I probably managed to finish one-third of the dish before I palmed it off to my eatmates.<br/ <br/ I would like to come back in the future and try a few of the other dishes.