Platform 3 Eatery & Bar
Box Hill Central, Shop 48, 1 Main Street, Box Hill
03 8658 2293
Bar Food, Cafe, Modern Australian
$$
Food
- Just Baked Eggs
- What Vegetarian?
- Black Benedict
- Brioche French Toast
- Purple Stack
- Traffic Sliders
- Pink Lady Shake
- The Hulk Shake
- Snow White Shake
The Good
We quite enjoyed the Brioche French Toast, which was the only tasty dish of the whole ordeal. With an exceptionally eggy flavour, the toast was fried to a nice crispy outer yet remained incredibly soft and spongey inside. The crunchy caramelised bits were well complemented by an appropriate amount of sweet syrup drizzled on top and contrasted by the tartness of the berries. Well balanced and tasty, we could only wish that this standard was translated through all the dishes.
The Mediocre
We found the Just Baked Eggs to be unspectacular and rather pedestrian. Slightly salty, the baked beans tasted a grade above the canned stuff, and was complemented by chunks of chopped up sausages. The egg was unfortunately overcooked on this occasion, which meant that the yolk failed to flow into other components of the dish.
The Bad
Despite looking quite spectacular, the Black Benedict failed to deliver. Exceedingly dry, the croissant felt lacking in all the qualities that make a good croissant. Not only was it exceptionally dry, the texture felt crumbly as opposed to flakey. Coupled with the denseness of the pastry, this was one bad croissant, regardless of its colour. Within, we found over-cooked poached eggs that failed to be runny, drowned in an exceedingly thick and salty hollandaise sauce. This was also coupled with, once again, very very salty ham. Disaster.
The What Vegeterian? was nothing but a failure. Extremely salty mushrooms were served alongside baby spinach. While the spinach was definitely tasty, same can’t be said about the mushrooms which, due to the over-saltiness, were literally inedible. The sourdough toast was flavoursome and inherited some flavour from the truffle oil, though could definitely use more toasting.
The Purple Stack was absolutely disgusting. Overcooked and slightly charred at the bottom, each pancake was dense and exhibited a chewy texture that was accompanied by a repulsive and unnatural aftertaste, nothing like you’d expect from fragrant and natural lavender. The berry compote was unremarkable and could’ve done with more honey accompaniment. The only saviour were the fruits, which were thankfully fresh and unadulterated.
The Traffic Sliders were another long-awaited disappointment. Arriving at our table a good one and a half hours after being ordered, the result was less than impressive. Unmelted cheese and watery sauce was a common theme amongst the sliders, as were the colourful but dry buns. The protein within weren’t of high quality, with the fish bland and flavourless whereas the so-called ‘beef’ patty was burnt on the outer, mushy, highly processed and tasteless within. This was accompanied by the saddest looking chips on earth, over-fried to hell and clearly tasted of old oil.
To top things off, the service was atrocious. The first of the drinks trickled to our table a good half an hour before we ordered, with each one arriving 10 minutes apart. It was one and a half hours after ordering that we received the final dish. Coupled with a wait staff whose English skills were barely conversational and the words coming out of their mouth incomprehensible, you start to wonder if there’s a communication breakdown somewhere….
The Verdict
Over-salting everything and extremely flawed execution seems to be a common theme at our breakfast. While extremely ambitious on creating innovative dishes, Platform 3 failed to deliver on even the most basic breakfast items like Sauteed Mushrooms, Pancakes and Baked Eggs.
We must learn to walk before we can run, and Platform 3 Eatery & Bar has tragically skipped the walking part and fallen flat on their face.
Would Penguin Eat Again?
With the brunch scene this strong in Melbourne, the poor food we were served hardly warrants a revisit. I definitely can’t recommend anyone to try, nor will I be back.
Penguineats was invited to dine at Platform 3 Eatery & Bar.