Tylers Milkbar, Preston

Tylers Milkbar is a cafe with a great deal of heart and a touch of nostalgia.  Upon entering it feels friendly and fun with retro baking and locally sourced groceries.  We've had such great meals there since first visiting mid last year and are always welcomed warmly.  Sisters Sam and Ali Fisher run the place with their mum helping with the baking.  They are friendly with a sense of fun and when taking orders they are always sure to check about dietary requirements.  The menu changes occasionally but always has lots of amazing toasties, sandwiches, baked potatoes, coconut bacon and an appropriately named "Epic" salad. 

The decor has a lot of orange and pink with a retro vibe that acknowledges that the Australian tradition of milkbars that infuses this place.  When I was growing up in the 1970s our milkbar was the general store where we knew the staff well and could buy anything from hot pies and pastries to mixed lolliies to swapcards to freshly baked sponge cakes to baking ingredients.  In a small town without a supermarket, we depended on the milkbar for basics such as milk, bread and newspapers.  

The glass display cabinet, the drinks fridge and the small area for shelves of locally produced groceries are reminiscent of the old school milkbars.  Tylers also has a modern touch with good coffee, vegan and gluten free options and an Indigenous version of kombucha. 

Sylvia tells me that I was the one who suggested Tylers Milkbar.  However it was Sylvia who went there first with a friend.  She ate lunch in the backyard and loved it.  You can see the backyard above with its bright orange umbrellas and the greenery along the fence by the stepping stone on the path.

Here is a close up of the garden with its splashes of orange.  The sign reads "unless you are a gnome, please keep off the garden".  It is the spirit of fun that you will find throughout the milkbar.

This is my first lunch at Tylers in July 2024.  I had Kasundi pumpkin soup with a cheese and coconut bacon toastie.  Sylvia had a vegetarian Top of the Morning Burger: fried egg, baked potato hash, grilled halloumi, jalapeños, spring onion, rocket & smoky mayo ($18).  It is not often these days that I come across a cafe with coconut bacon.  It was excellent as an extra in the cheese toastie that is made with sourdough bread from one of our favourite bakeries (Back Alley Bakes in North Coburg).  And it is a bargain at $7 for the cheese toastie plus $3.5 extra for the coconut bacon.  The pumpkin soup, a special of the day, was a lovely accompaniment.  And Sylvia loved the retro tomato soup mug so much that she has since bought one in an op shop.

While Sylvia quickly chose an iced soy latte, I wanted some more information about the cold drinks.  The staff explained that the Ooray Plum & Wild Hibiscus Gurbuchi by LORE 8 was a kombucha made from a tea of Indigenous leaves.  As a lover of kombucha, I was delighted to try it and was not disappointed.  It is my drink of choice at Tylers.
 

We always stop to look at the display of baked goods on the way to our table.  It always has more temptations than we can ever sample.  So much temptation!  Perhaps that is why only recently did I notice the loaves of bread for sale on the back shelves.

The baking display regularly changes but always is full of beautiful food and it has something for everyone:

• Tylers favourites such as "Very vanilla cupcakes" and "Someone's Birthday Cake".  The latter is slabs of vegan chocolate cake with lots of frosting and sprinkles.  Such a fun name for a cake.
• Home made versions of Aussie classics such as Monte Carlos (see further down the post) and "Kimston" biscuits from the Arnotts Assorted Cream packet.  The Kingston was my favourite with two slightly chewy oat biscuits  sandwiched together with a creamy chocolate filling.  The "Kimston" is based on the Kingston but named with a nod to Kim who bakes them.  They are bigger and fresher but have the wonderful oaty chocolate combination.
• Seasonal treats such as the Minty Grinch Slice.  I have not tasted this but it looked so cute with the candy eyes in the green minty filling.
• Interesting flavours that I want to try such as the Orange Cranberry Loaf (pictured above) and Rhubarb Raspberry and Ginger Loaf.
• Savoury bakes such as the Roasted Zucchini and Capsicum Breakfast Tart that I had recently (not pictured) and the Asparagus and Warrigal Greens Breakfast Tart that I would love to try.
  
  

This Sticky date pudding was shared with Sylvia on my first visit.  It was up there with the best of sticky date puddings!  It was fresh and soft with great flavour.  Most impressive was the dulce de leche frosting that was delicious without being really sweet.

In November we returned for lunch.  I had an amazing lunch with the humourous name "Oh Honey!" ($16).  It was a toastie with sweet potato, leek, goats cheese, hot honey and spinach.  Wonderfully sweet and salty, a little spicy and very messy.  I had to wash my hands after it but it was worth it.  Sylvia loved the Top of the Morning burger on the previous visit that she had it again.  I tried the Lemon Myrtle and Finger Lime Gurbuchi and it was good but I preferred the Ooray Plum and Wild Hibiscus version.

We could not resist sharing a home made Monte Carlo after lunch.  On instagram it was described as "honey & butter cookie filled with whipped cream cheese and raspberry grappa jam".  This was a triumph of flavour over sweetness.  The Tylers version was far superior to Arnotts.  The indoor cafe space has a small shelf of foodie books that I quite enjoy checking out to browse during each visit.  On this occasion, I enjoyed reading Eamon Donnelly's Milk Bars Book Vol II. 

In December when we visited I was delighted that there was a new salad on the menu.  It was so good I begged one of the owners to keep it on the menu and was glad to hear it was popular.  It was called the EPICCC Salad from a Jessica Prescott cookbook and had "roasted corn, chickpeas, sweet potato, smoked almonds, spinach, ricotta salata, coriander, pickled red onion with house-made chipotle dressing and lime."  I left my coriander on the side, could have had slightly less spiciness but found it such an enjoyable and satisfying salad, especially with the smoky addition of the optional coconut bacon .  At $18.50 plus $3.50 for the coconut bacon, this is a fantastic choice for anyone who wants to see how good salad can be and suits those wanting healthy food with vegan and gluten free options.

At the same lunch Sylvia had a cheese and coconut bacon toastie because they are amazing.  She drank an iced soy strawberry matcha and I had the Festive Spritz which was a spiced orange and mandarin syrup with rosemary & thyme served over sparkling water.  Our drinks were pleasantly icy on a summer day and we had special sweet treats for the festive season.  The vanilla cupcake was very cute with a green Christmas tree piped on it and the toasted spicy gingerbread with butter was just delicious.

On a visit in March, Sylvia had her favourite cheese toastie with coconut bacon and I tried the Tyler's Lemony Tofu Roll ($15.50).  It was described on the menu as "Just like Mumma's, but tofu! Lemon & herb roasted tofu with mayo, celery, seeded mustard, dill, cucumber, spring onion & alfalfa on a soft, buttered roll."  It was based on a lemony chicken roll but updated to be vegan with a gluten free option.  I enjoyed the generous green salad and mayonnaise covered chunks of tofu in my roll. 

It was a cool day so I warmed myself with a pot of Digestive Tea by Beit e Shei with the flavours of liqourice, peppermint and fennel.  It was a pleasing combination of herbal flavours.

In early April, we had a quick visit where we ordered and paid as we walked in.  Sylvia had her favourites: a cheese and coconut bacon toastie, an iced strawberry matcha and a vanilla cupcake with cute pink frosting.  I had the French Onion Toast ($19).  This was described as "a grilled cheese toast with French onion dip, mushroom medley, dressed leaves".  I was pleasantly surprised at the pile of fried onions under the blanket of melted cheese and I really loved the beautifully cooked mushrooms.  It was an unusual but great variation on a cheese toastie.

Our last visit was last weekend on Good Friday for their annual Easter egg hunt.  Tylers places paper Easter eggs around the nearby streets.  Customers search for the eggs and take them inside for a prize.  At first we thought we would never find an egg.  Then we found the one in a tree.  In the above photo the egg looks huge but actually it was quite small and hard to see.  We almost missed it.  Then a couple in a car stopped to tell us they had seen an egg when driving past.  It look more searching to find that second egg they alerted us to and then soon after we found one more.  We left the third egg as it seemed like two was enough for us.

These two dense and intense Chocolate brownie with swirly frosting and sprinkles were our prizes.  They were so good, almost chewy.  It was fun to watch a pair of cute little kids with their brownie prizes sit at a table and dig in with excitement.  Tylers was pretty busy but we were shown to a couple of stools at the window bench.

Sylvia had the Sourdough Crumpets by Holy Crumpets served Canadian style with Fried eggs, tofu bacon and maple syrup.  It comes as either a single or double serve but a single was enough for her.  She raved about how good they were.  I love a cafe that serves crumpets.  We have been very tempted by a dish called Princess Peach which comes with whipped honey ricotta, good ol' canned peaches, ginger biscuit crumb, maple syrup, olive oil & thyme glaze served over a hot crumpet.  We were sad it left the menu before we had a chance to try it but Sylvia assures me it is on the menu from time to time.

 

To drink, I had my favourite Gurbuchi and Sylvia had an Iced soy strawberry matcha.  As a matcha enthusiast, she has noted that the matcha has got better since she first had it.  You can see how good her matcha looks in the above photo.  She also had a really cute vanilla cupcake with a mini Easter egg on top.

This is a fun and welcoming place that is a family affair, where they know their regulars and have community events like the Easter egg hunt.  On their facebook page, they rightly claim to be "reimagining the times where the milkbar was a meeting place for the community".  We will be back soon for the retro vibe, the delicious food and the friendly welcome.

Tylers Milk Bar 
656 Plenty Road (near the corner of Tyler Road)
Preston, Victoria 3072
Open: Mon-Sat, 7am-4pm
https://www.tylersmilkbar.com.au/