Penta - Elsternwick

Penta in Elsternwick is killing it in the social media game and it was about time I tried it for myself. The wait was only 20 minutes on a Saturday afternoon.

Chai Latte ($6.50)

Grilled Shawarma Chicken

 I got the Grilled Shawarma Chicken Salad ($22). It was a warm grain salad, with farro, red quinoa, sorghum, cranberries, pomegranate, fetta, herbs, spinach, pepitas, and sumac labne. The grain salad was just so delicious! So many different textures and a really generous serving of the labne. i was really impressed. The chicken was a tad dry so that stopped this from being a 10/10 dish.

Penta Benedict

 Quynh got the Penta Benedict ($19) which had braised beef cheek, watercress, poached eggs and jalepeno hollandaise on sweet potato waffles. This was pretty good too. A bit on the heavy side but lucky we split our dishes 50/50 so we had the best of best worlds. I would've liked the sauce to be a bit more acidic to provide some relief though.

How can we go to Penta and not get their famous Nutella Panna Cotta ($19.50). This was accompanied by a nut banana sushi, honey joy crumb, strawberries, pomegranate molasses and torched marshmallows.  The pannacotta itself was wobbly and a great Nutella flavour. You can't go wrong with Nutella. It was elevated by the other components. I only did not like the nut banana sushi as it had a weird texture but Quynh didn't mind it.

3 dishes for 2 please!

Overall, Penta was a pretty good experience. I can understand why it is so popular and the dishes are very instagrammable. The grain salad was on point and I think I will be ordering them a lot more from now on when I eat brunch. The service was decent for a pretty busy Saturday. I would definitely be keen to try the other cafes the owners run.


Taste: 8.5/10
Presentation: 9/10
Service: 7.5/10
Value for Money: 7.5/10