Cocomate Cafe

Cocomate Cafe is a Sri Lankan cafe and BYO restaurant at 9A Boileau Street in Keysborough, in a commercial pocket of Melbourne's southeast. It is the kind of place you go for a proper feed rather than a flat white: hoppers, string hoppers, roti and curries, plus a popular lunch buffet. Dogs are welcome at the outdoor seating, which makes it a workable alfresco stop for Greater Keysborough dog owners who want something more interesting than the food-court standard.

The dog setup

Dogs join you in the outdoor seating, which sits on the front premises and the footpath out front given the commercial street location. Only registered assistance animals go inside. Keep your dog on-lead and under control while you order, and bring your own water bowl and a mat for the ground, because neither is guaranteed at a working restaurant. The alfresco tables are close enough to the counter that settling a calm dog is easy; a busy dinner service is a different matter, so a settled dog matters more here than at a big cafe.

Worth knowing

The kitchen works through the Sri Lankan canon: koththu, rice and curry, string-hopper dishes and the fried rice that shows up on delivery menus, with review chatter concentrating on portion sizes and value. Being BYO, you can bring your own drinks, which softens the bill on a family dinner. Hours run Wednesday to Sunday from 11:30am to 9pm, with Monday and Tuesday closed, and the lunch buffet on weekends runs through to the late afternoon. Note the restaurant's own website has lapsed, so the active Facebook page is the reliable place for buffet times and updates.

Getting there and parking

The address is 9A Boileau Street, Keysborough, in the small commercial strip, with street parking along Boileau Street and the surrounding blocks. It is a short drive from both the Dandenong side and the Parkmore shopping strip.

Make a day of it

Before or after lunch, the Tatterson Park fenced dog park is the standout off-lead option in Keysborough, and the Roth Hetherington Gardens fenced dog park is the quieter alternative for a first circuit. If you are pairing stops, La Bella Pasticceria Cafe is the suburb's other dog-friendly table.

More options around the suburb are on the Keysborough destination page, and the full list sits in the VIC restaurants index.