Platters Cafe & Bar

Platters Cafe & Bar is an all-day breakfast and lunch spot at Shop 1/67 Main Hurstbridge Road, in the shopping strip by Diamond Creek station. It does the big country-cafe menu properly: chicken parmas, burgers, generous breakfast plates and house-made cakes, with a small bar for wine and beer later in the day. Dogs are welcome at the outdoor footpath tables out front.

The dog setup

Dogs join you in the outdoor seating area, leashed and settled, because the tables sit directly on the footpath where shoppers and prams pass close by. Staff are known for being accommodating with dogs and their owners, and the tables are roomy enough for a water bowl. Bring your own bowl to be safe; it is a footpath setup rather than a dedicated dog courtyard.

Worth knowing

The kitchen is known for serving sizes as much as anything: chicken parmas and burgers with the lot come out big, and the chilli scrambled eggs have their own following. Coffee, teas, almond croissants, soups and thick shakes round out the list, and the bar pours wine, beer and cocktails for weekend lunches. Hours run roughly 7:00 am to 3:30 pm daily, with occasional variation on public holidays, so check ahead for a late-morning plan on a long weekend.

Getting there and parking

The cafe is a short walk from Diamond Creek station on the Hurstbridge line, which makes an arrival on foot with the dog easy. Drivers can use the street parking and shopper car parks around the strip, which are free but tighten up on Saturday mornings.

Close by with the dogs

Diamond Creek Fenced Dog Park is minutes away on the same road at Diamond Creek Reserve, with a fully fenced run, agility equipment and water stations, so a park lap before brunch is easy. Di Pietro's Cafe and Piccolo Meccanico are other dog-friendly cafe options in the same precinct.

More options are on the Victoria dog friendly cafes guide and the Diamond Creek destination page.

Pepsi: the fenced dog park is up the road before you hit the shops, so do the run first. A tired dog sits still under a parma table, a fresh one does not.