Babajan

Babajan is a cafe on the corner of Nicholson and something in Nth Carlton. Ma gurl Bron took me there, she said “We are going to this awes place that I eat at ~literally~ erryday. You can sit outside in the sun (hen it isn’t minus 150 degrees with the dog, or go inside and ignore lyf. The staff are bae and the food is the best in any hashtag hipster area. We goin” And that we did. On the way she didn’t shut up about it which was A) annoying because sista was hungry, and B) amazing because it sounded epic. “The salads are amaze, and so are the pastries. They do this bagel thing that looks like a Christmas wreath (side note Crimmas is hella soon) and it has sesame seeds on it and I would literally drink sesame oil like water.” She didn’t stop talking about sesame oil for a v.long time.
We arrived and turns out she wasn’t lying. The chef has spent 20yrs werkin her way around the good places – from Gordon Ramsey kitchens to Easy Tiger (OMG it was the best Thai ever WHY DID IT HAVE TO CLOSE) – and you can tell. Not just because it’s legit beautiful food but cos she has worse A.D.D than me and her influence sounds like a list of my last few boyfriends; Thai, modern Australian, Greek, Turkish & Middle Eastern.
There’s pre-made salads and pastries there to #GRABnGO or you can order off the menu and be served by a hottie mchottie waiter. I had crab (singular, if it was plural I’d be at the docs) and it came with a cucumber coriander side salad. B-Dog had an almond croissant. It is important to note here that they DO NOT scrimp on the good ingredients – if it says it’s going to have artichoke in it then expect to artichoke on it.
We had the first bite of our meals at exactly the same time and at exactly the same time we yelled at each other ‘WHAT THE EFF OMG THIS IS AMAZING’. Fact because it was. We smashed a couple of cawffees in the sun, chatted to the handsome guy at the table next to us, patted some passing dogs and then shared the Persian Love Cake (gluten free because #melbourne) then we fell in love because MAGIC HAPPENS.