La Paloma

I come here often for a quick, delicious lunch.
The two veg savoury options are great. The rolls are delcious (they come minus the pastrami) and so is the tortilla, served with a side of salad and bread.
Fast service and friendly staff. I never understand how they remember all the orders without writing anything or asking where you’re sitting, but it always seems to work out fine!

La Paloma is a small café with a small menu. In all the times that my wife and I have been we’ve only eaten four things, and often these will sell out.
Their rolls are serious and will work your jaw. On them are cheese, tomato, cucumber and lettuce with zingy avocado and fresh mayonnaise.
Their tortilla is lighter: a cold slice accompanied by a dressed salad with olives, pickles and whole chillies as well as bread and butter.
I get the feijão when it’s available. These grim beans and rice taste confoundingly bright and their recipe continues to elude me.
Their churros have a hefty dollop of dulce de leche and the taste of quality eggs. I find they go wonderful with their strong long blacks.

Good things doesn’t have to come in flashy packaging!
Great bohemian rustic interior, looks like all original, not a lot of additional «designer» interference and is as cool, relax, cossy and classic eclectic as it can be; it’s another era, where slower phase and more to life is required there.
Got to love that «cracked effect» white marble foor …
It’s not a big place, so stay away in the busy period if you are coming with the troop and enjoy your lattes, next time we will make sure to try more of your anything with your «fresh» avocados menu; they look ravishing. I must admit I did try the simply amazing not overly presented Caramel Churro.
A word of warning, if you don’t like Argentinian soccer team and their heros; Maradona, Teves or Hawthorn footy team, Bob Marley and Latino music played on their turntable, stay away … LOL

If you don’t feel like going to La Paloma for great coffee and breakfast empanadas, then go just so you can have a look at the barbershop next door. You get a hint of what’s going on from the photo i put up, but it can’t possibly give you a feel for what’s really going on. The entire shopfront is covered in photos and pictures. This is the same inside the shop as well. Many of them are badly photoshopped which makes it even more interesting. I would wager that you couldn’t possible go without spending at least a few minutes enjoying this completely original art installation.
Anyway back to La Paloma. As i previously mentioned they do awesome empanadas. For breakfast. Little parcels of meaty, olivey, eggy goodness. You get 3 for 10 bucks with a bit of salad. It really makes a plate of eggs on toast with a bit of bacon look like a pretty lame breakfast suckers.
They also make a pretty awesome dish of baked eggs in tomato and capsicum and stuff with chipolata like sausages. I can’t remember the name. It was something like Shakira, but clearly that’s not the name. It was pretty tasty but like Shakira a little lacking when compared to what else was available (read: empanadas)
A couple of my friends had the tortilla. That’s spanish tortilla with potato and egg and onion and i think they may have added some spinach. It looked pretty good but i didn’t try it. I guess that give’s me another good reason to go back (like I needed one)
The service is ok. It’s definitely hit and miss, but in a way it adds to the experience and i definitely wouldn’t say it’s a bad thing. Whenever we asked for something we got it. They just seemed to struggle a bit with a table of 7.
To summarise. I rate it.

Best churros in Melbourne !!! Get them before they sell out ! Cute café, love that they play vinyl records and don’t have a proper till, retro :)

A simple hole-​in-​the-​wall café keeping it real (and cheap) with Spanish flair.
There aren’t any hard decisions to be made. The menu is short, so short that there isn’t really a menu, there are fresh bread rolls with various fillings to choose from and the coffee is really very good. The rolls are made in front of you at the bar so you know it won’t have that tinge of it-​has-​been-​in-​fridge-​all-​day taste.
If you’re new to the place and you’re not vegetarian you have to try the Paloma roll — avocado, pastrami, mayo and salad, and of course a coffee beverage of some kind. If you happen upon Paloma on a Friday, there are also empanadas to be had, and though I’ve never been here on a weekend, I understand there is a slightly greater variety of Spanish fare to enjoy.
This is the kind of place you can hang out in by yourself, maybe with a book in tow, and it would feel perfectly natural. Oh also, the records they play in here are fantastic, so maybe forget the book and just sit back and tune in.

It means ‘the parrot’ in Spanish, and I cannot work out why. Nailed to the telegraph pole outside are children’s toys and play equipment and I cannot work out why.
What I can work out is why someone would come back to the same place day in day when there is little variety on the menu. It is this fact that you will come back. For you have tried everything on the menu only to discover that it is ALL good. There is no wrong choice, you will be impressed with whatever simple meal with a Spanish twist is served. You know the coffee is good, you can see everyone enjoying.
After a while you notice that all newcomers become locals in a matter of days. The crew running the place keep a tight ship with a cruisy swagger, a confidence and ease that it all works and will keep working. Breakfasts and lunches a plenty with coffee as good as it gets.

I gotta agree with Sophie L on this one. I can’t believe I didn’t find this one until so recently. With so many cafes in the inner north of the city these days, especially around Brunswick and further east, they really have to work hard to differentiate themselves from one another. The best thing about La Paloma is that they just don’t work hard.
This place is super relaxed and it just feels kinda right. Sure, there’s the too loud talking bloke in the Kappa jacket and a few screaming brats, but that’s the point of the place. It screams: ‘come in, relax, enjoy yourself. If you need anything just holler. I’m up here chatting with my buddys at the bar.‘
Also, they do fucking radical sandwiches stuffed full of cheese, salami, avocado and salad for about six bucks! Seriously, this place is worth a look.

I’d been living in Brunswick for a whole year before I managed to stumble across La Paloma. By the time I discovered what was soon to become my favourite local café, my lease ran up and that was it, I was out of there. Nothing annoys me more. I had some rather romantic scenarios in mind, of myself stopping by this cute little Spanish inspired café each morning. Reading my book in the sunshine, whilst conversing fluently with the handsome stuff (in Spanish obviously). And so on and so forth. But alas, it was not to be and now I must tide myself over with the occasional visit.
Long a mainstay for locals, since featuring in the inaugural Cheap Eats Guide La Paloma has only been growing in popularity. It’s beauty lies in the its simplicity; a small café with a limited but concise menu. The absolute standout is the Paloma roll, a fresh sourdough bun with lashings of fresh avocado, pastrami, salad and mayo. It seems that at any given time, the majority of the café are munching on this special namesake. With the Paloma roll costing a measly $ 6.50 and the rest of the Hispanic flavoured fares coming in at under $ 10, there is little wonder that this café is so popular with Brunswick’s broke hipster population. But if the somewhat bare menu is a little too simple for your tastes don’t despair just yet, La Paloma serves empanadas on Fridays and a selection of spicy South American dishes on Saturdays.