Neighbours Cafe

Where and what

It doesn't get much more chilled than the garden at Neighbours Cafe in East St Kilda. What looks like a smallish (graffiti-clad) cafe on the corner of Chapel and Inkerman Streets reveals a real surprise once you head out the back past the coffee machine and counter into a large room with one entire wall opening out onto a lovely back garden. (There are plastic blinds and gas heaters for the cooler months). A former milk bar, it would seat only 25 or so if it hadn't been for owner Chen Rosenwald's al fresco revelation, which saw him rip down a shed and overhaul the back garden. It's all very laidback, and a bit like being at someone's - a neighbour's? - share-house backyard barbie. Albeit with a much healthier menu. There's even an outdoor loo. The cafe also occasionally hosts live music in the garden.

Where to sit

Past the window-seat benches for coffee-perching, there's a huge communal table and smaller tables, with stools, inside, a few tables outside and some customised milk crates scattered around the garden that serve as both cushion-topped stools and wood-topped tables.

Drink

Coffee is taken seriously, with Geelong-based Roastcraft's Cadenza blend and a changing rotation of single origins. Along with regular fruit juices there's the intriguing hot apple juice ($4) and Mayan hot chocolate with chilli ($4).

Eat

Neighbours' fare is a mix of fashionably healthy and decadently sweet - Acai Bowl frozen berry mousse ($9.90), quinoa porridge with coconut milk and honey with a peach, cherry and rhubarb compote ($10.50) and the huge Middle Eastern Brekky of challah toast, hummus, yoghurt, avo mash, quinoa tabbouleh, poached eggs and dukkah ($16.50) share the breakfast list with French toast (brioche dipped in egg and cinnamon, hazelnut fudge, maple syrup mascarpone and toasted hazelnuts, $16) and banana bread with espresso ricotta ($7.50) and the current apple-filled French toast special. These are alongside your traditional fare of eggs on toast, green eggs and ham and Bircher, of course.

The lunch menu is similar, with the seriously wholesome Raw Energy salad of lettuce, beetroot, celery, cucumber, mung beans and mixed seeds with tahini dressing ($15.90) and the Big Green, Chinese broccoli with lemon and thyme poached chicken but carnivores are catered to with the wagyu burger ($15.90) the slow-cooked lamb rump and a pretty mean Reuben ($14).

Who's there

Locals - often accompanied by their dogs and/or their kids - and backpackers, all mixing it in the backyard.

Why bother

It's all about the sharehouse-chic back garden.