Anyone who has worked in a restaurant knows that a dirty apron is best avoided. Clifton Hill newcomer Dirty Apron is the exception to the rule, despite it's unappetising yet memorable moniker.

First-time owner and frontman George Tsagouris, who cut his teeth at his uncle's Box Hill cafe Fifty Birds, took over the abandoned butcher's shop late last year. It's now a smallish square dining room of 25 seats with exposed brick walls, a coastal-green trim and spruced up tiling (c.1970), that's been humming away since mid-April.

Tsagouris has brought in George Smyrnios, of Carlton's Vertue of the Coffee Drink, to head up a lengthy all-day menu where most of the savoury options are egg-based, but there's orange-soaked bircher, blueberry hot cakes and burgers, too.

You won't go astray with a plate of "super greens" – sweet crescents of Japanese pumpkin, steamed rather than roasted, served with lightly sauteed silverbeet and a splendidly magenta beetroot puree, a combo that would be just as happy next to a Sunday roast as two poached eggs.

A herby chimichurri sauce gets a good workout. We first see it on a dish of sweet potato and quinoa fritters (a generous serve of three soft torpedos with a crisp crust, topped with pickled zucchini ribbons and a pair of poachies) and again with thyme-scented mushrooms and feta on multigrain (unbuttered – why would you give anyone unbuttered toast?)

Tasty, yes, although those mushrooms would have been more impressive whole, instead of sprinkled about the plate in wedges. On a side note: the poached eggs here are pitched as "green", referring to the luminous pea dust sprinkled atop and not the Ararat-based egg farm.

Sweet tooths will be tempted by the cake cabinet. Tsagouris' mum makes an impressive display of retro treats (go for a Cornflake cookie) and your hazelnut spread obsession will be sated by Nutella-stuffed cruffins from Fitzroy's Eat a Scroll. On Saturdays there are Nutella-filled doughnuts, too.

There's good espresso from West Heidelberg's Gridlock Coffee Roasters but no specialty offering … yet. I'm holding out hope – unlike the rest of the inner north, Clifton Hill isn't awash with great cafes, but Dirty Apron is helping to fill that void.