Seddon Village is ever-changing from sleepy suburban strip to hip hangout. This week we said goodbye Seddon video store, hello industrial chic cafe .

The large space has been transformed into a funky daytime venue (liquor licence and night trading coming later) which also happens to be one of the most family-friendly spaces I’ve visited in a while.

The front dining room is huge, with white exposed brick, a black pressed metal ceiling and pops of yellow in the furniture and the crockery. For those who want some privacy there’s a glass-in room facing Charles Street which is separated by a sliding door. If you don’t have kids this is a great place to hide away!

Around the right where there’s another room with more tables and one side that looks out onto the courtyard. This is the least appealing of all the dining areas but it does ok with an awkward space.

The courtyard is where really comes into its own. It’s spacious and sunny, with sea blue beanbags upon lush fake grass plus child-friendly elements such as a sandpit and toys.

On Monday to Friday the breakfast menu starts at 7am-11:30am, with a rather inconvenient 30 minute gap before the lunch menu starts at 12pm. On weekends the breakfast menu is available all day until 4pm.

The breakfast menu is a fairly run-of-the-mill list of cafe standards and in fact the lunch menu looks much more exciting with items such as barramundi and confit duck featuring.

As far as smashed avo goes ‘The Avo’ is pretty good, with generous lashings of avocado with cherry tomatoes, marinated feta, slices of cold smoked salmon and two perfectly poached eggs. It’s comforting and pretty without being thrilling – and probably a few dollars more than I’d expect to pay at $20.

The banana bread is a hunk of gently spiced cake with segments of poached pear, a passionfruit half and a dousing of overly sweet honey cinnamon yoghurt. The banana bread is delicious without all the accoutrements and I think solid value at $12.

On our weekend visit  was full by 10am so I recommend an early trip. The space is large but there are not enough wait staff when the place is at capacity so the timing can be a bit off – our food came before our coffees and as the place got busier the wait got longer. Our dirty plates were not cleared for a long time. Hopefully these small blips will be ironed out once they settle into their new digs a bit more.

, 81 Charles St Seddon

Monday to Friday 7am – 4pm

Saturday & Sunday 8am – 4pm

On a cold and windy morning the first thing that struck me as I entered Seddon was the bright airiness of the decor. Pushing over the door was like basking in a dose of Scandinavian sunshine – the kind that illuminates the sky for 22 hours in a day. It made me feel happy to be inside, away from the gloom of the grey day.

is housed in the old Seddon post office and all of the drab red Auspost insignia has been replaced with whitewashed walls, creamy mellow turquoise tiles (with matching coffee cups and saucers stacked on the Synesso).

The small space was set out with a soft white and blonde wood colour palette, somewhat reminiscent of an IKEA display – we have those white chairs in our house! I particularly liked the high communal table which afforded an expansive view of the Victoria Street landscape.

The breakfast menu was 50% eggs and 50% everything else, with most of the usual suspects. We ordered sweet corn fritters with smoked salmon, ricotta zucchini salsa and pine nuts ($16) with an added poached egg [$18.50] and the mocha brioche French toast ($15).

The presentation of both dishes was very artistic. My plate contained two fluffy pancakes with sweet corn studded within, topped with a large heap of salsa sandwhiched by a thick slice of smoked salmon. It was a vibrant and well-balanced dish in terms of flavour though the temperature of the salsa was uncomfortably stone-cold. I suspect that it’d been pulled out straight of the refrigerator and thus created an unappetising cold blast to the tongue after the warm fitters. The salsa would have married better with the rest of the plate if it’d been served closer to room temperature.

The mocha brioche with caramelised nectarines, a smattering of candied hazelnuts and marscapone was a better dish in terms of combination of flavours and textures. The brioche was soft without being soggy, with just a subtle hint of espresso in its dough. A generous serve too for the price.

also serves coffee is by Five Senses, tea by Chamellia and bread and pastries are from Noisette.

was a lovely space and I’m sure a welcome addition to Seddon’s café’s strip. The ambience was calming, the service friendly and the food was standard café fare done well – hopefully they will be bolder with more experience and expand their menu to include more adventurous dishes.

158 Victoria St, Seddon 

Mon, Wed-Fri 7am-4pm

Sat, Sun 8pm-4pm