Marco's Cafe, Boronia

We were at Boronia Central, looking for a lunch spot after doing an errand. There were some options but they were struck out for some reason or other, until we saw Marco's Cafe. It is next to Woolworths so it gets lots of foot traffic. It is one of the few cafes on the strip that has a reasonable sized interior to accommodate dine in patrons. 

We ordered the Big Breakfast and Chicken Parma - I'd forgotten how much they cost, but I remember thinking for the price it was a reasonable portion. The prices on delivery apps are $19.50 and $19.90 respectively. (The Facebook page has been updated with the menu which shows the price as $14.90 each).

I was pleasantly surprised at the portion of the big breakfast. It was big! Three eggs, 1.5 slices of heavily buttered toasted bread, two sausages, three rashes of bacon, a hashbrown, some grilled tomatoes and mushrooms. I had difficulty finishing all of it. The eggs were perfectly cooked, the sausages and bacon are standard fare, hashbrown was crispy and the tomatoes were very sweet which makes the mushrooms an after thought. 

This is the Chicken Parma with chips and salad. Standard fare chicken parma, crispy chips and a garden salad. The portion is so large that we could only finish half of each plate and got a takeaway box for the rest. 

 The cafe is very much a mom and dad owned and run business, with both of them working in the kitchen and at the counter. Marco (I assume) is not very smiley, and there is confusion at the beginning with the menu and method of ordering (there is a menu in a plastic stand thing on each table, except ours, you order at the counter) but they were very obliging when we asked for a takeaway box and I can see they have good rapport with their regulars, even throwing in free cookies with coffee orders. 

The food is nothing to shout about, definitely not the jazzed up, insta type food. It's home brand white bread toast, home brand bulk buy bacon type food. It is honest, unpretentious food at very reasonably priced for the portion provided and I love that about this place. The recent reviews on Google on this cafe based on sub par experiences that are in part due to delivery services were not representative of our experience. Many restaurants have been impacted by Covid19 and we were glad to be able to support a local establishment.