I can't believe I have lived in Coburg for years and years, yet I only discovered Half Moon a year ago.

It is nothing to look at. I've walked past it hundreds of times without even noticing it. There are a few tables outside, and even fewer inside. It gets very crowded at lunchtimes. They make the falafel to order, so you may have to wait a while if they're very busy.

But, OMG, the falafel. They are divine. Being made to order, they are hot and fresh and crunchy and spicy and wonderful. They haven't been sitting for hours inside a wrap, getting cold and stodgy, like you see them at a lot of fast food places.

If you are accustomed to Lebanese-style falafel, made with chickpeas, then Half Moon's may come as a surprise. They are Egyptian style, made with broad beans, and are green inside. And - at the risk of starting a war between Lebanon and Egypt - in my humble opinion the Egyptian ones are better.

They make about five or six different types of falafel wraps, although are happy to tweak them a bit if you want something slightly different from what's listed on the menu. Their most popular falafel wrap is the Half Moon, a traditional type filled with falafel, pickles, chickpeas, tabouli, yoghurt, and other yummy stuff. It's excellent, but my favourite falafel wrap is the Primavera, which contains chargrilled vegetables. It is truly fabulous. As soon as I walk into the cafe, whoever's behind the counter says "you want the Primavera again?" And now that I've said that, they'll know who I am if they're reading this, because I think I'm almost the only person who orders the Primavera. So much for trying to keep my identity secret here on WOMO.

No matter how busy they are, Sharif and Nabil and their staff are always friendly and welcoming. I cannot recommend this place highly enough. If you live anywhere near Coburg and you like falafel, you must try it. If you don't live near Coburg, it is worth crossing the city for. I've eaten a lot of falafel in my time, but I have never found better than this. It must be a strong contender for the best falafel in Melbourne.

Now, if they'd only open in the evenings, I could die happy. There's nothing worse than getting a falafel craving at 6pm after they've closed for the day.

Generally good bread, especially the pane de casa, and prices are very reasonable. Service is extremely friendly and the staff are always happy and smiling.

I do have one criticism, though. Buy a Tomato Twisted Delight from this store. Then buy one from Baker's Delight in Carlton. Put them side by side. You can SEE the difference - it is that obvious. Both stores are supposedly using the same recipe, but the Coburg store is really stingy with the tomato. It's mostly just dry bread, especially at the ends of the loaf. The Carlton store, in contrast, is generous with the filling, spreading a large quantity of it right through the loaf. Same with the other varieties of Twisted Delight. So I've stopped buying them from Coburg, and I only ever buy them from Carlton now.

Make that two criticisms. I wrote the above two days ago. Today I bought my usual pane de casa from Baker's Delight Coburg, except it wasn't the same as usual. It looked the same, and the crust was the same, but it was soft inside, almost as soft as a Vienna loaf. Pane de casa should be firm, dense and chewy, not soft and fluffy. This is the second time in the past year that this has happened. My guess is that the baker wasn't paying attention and mixed up a batch of bread dough using the wrong ingredients or the wrong proportions. But this is rare; usually the bread can be relied on to be good.

These criticisms aside, this is a fairly good local bakery. Normally I don't expect much from franchises - and I particularly dislike the breads at Brumby's - but Baker's Delight isn't too bad. Ideally you'd have an artisan baker in your area, but most of us don't, so this bakery is a fair alternative; it produces acceptable breads most of the time.

UPDATE 2 July 2012: I read the article below in my local paper, and I'm posting the link here because it deserves to be more widely known. Bakers Delight Coburg is giving away 25 free loaves of bread each day to ex-servicemen (and ex-servicewomen too, presumably). According to the store manager, "As long as you've put the uniform on, served our country, you can get a free loaf every day." See the article for yourself:
http://moreland-leader.whereilive.com.au/news/story/tell-us-coburg-baker-uses-his-loaf-to-help-diggers/

I think that's a really generous act on the part of the store manager. It's things like this that make me more inclined to support a business.

Mind you, nothing will make me buy products I don't like, good cause or not. For example, I still won't be buying a Twisted Delight from this bakery, for the reason I mentioned above. Nor will I be buying those sweet buns with the violently pink icing, no matter how much of the cost goes towards breast cancer research. I don't want to be a killjoy about it; life would be a bit grim if you couldn't enjoy a sweet treat now and then. But there's a certain irony in trying to fight breast cancer - a disease which has been linked to the consumption of a high-sugar, high-fat diet - by actively promoting the consumption of a sticky bun high in sugar and fat. (Pink Tim Tams fall in the same category. Does no one else see the irony?) Frankly, I'd rather give my money directly to breast cancer research.

But as long as I do like the product (which is true of the pane de casa and several of their other breads), and it's a product I would have bought anyway from somewhere or other, then all things being equal, I will always choose to support a business that demonstrates community spirit over a business that doesn't. Coburg Bakers Delight has demonstrated this community spirit. Good on them.

I was surprised to see that @Ruthie from Pascoe Vale South had problems with delivery not being early enough. I live just down the road in Coburg, so it's possible we have the same driver, and my delivery always arrives in the wee small hours. I don't think it has ever been later than 6am, and often it's as early as 3:30am. I agree, @Ruthie, 9am is ridiculous and you had every right to complain, especially when the Aussie Farmers website promises it will be there before 7am.

I'm certainly not going to be out there at 3:30am bringing the bag in, so on warm nights, or even just mild nights, I put several ice bricks in the bag, to ensure the contents are kept cold. I've never had a problem with the food spoiling or animals getting to it.

I tried setting up a regular order for a while, but my needs were too variable, so these days I just submit a one-off order once a week or so. Despite this variability, the milkman has never failed to deliver exactly what I've ordered, except on one occasion a few weeks ago when he didn't turn up at all. I was straight on the phone the next morning to Aussie Farmers, who apologised and promptly refunded the money back into my account while I was still on the phone. They didn't know why the delivery didn't arrive, but their best guess was that the regular driver was sick and his replacement made a mistake.

Regarding the quality of the produce: the milk, butter and free-range eggs are all fine. No complaints whatsoever. It would be nice if the Greek-style plain yoghurt came in a size smaller than 500g, as the flavoured yoghurts do, but that's a minor quibble. It would be even nicer if the cream and yoghurt had longer use-by dates on them - they can vary quite a bit, and sometimes they are shorter than I had hoped for. And I occasionally order marinated prawns, which are fine, if a bit pricey.

Some of the other products I'm not so crazy about, although your mileage may vary. I've tried several breads, including the "gourmet" ones, and they're just ordinary. I can get far better ones at my local bakery. The sweet bagels don't taste like authentic boiled bagels to me, despite the fact that they're made by Glicks; they lack the chewiness that a bagel is supposed to have, and are more like a soft sweet bun with a hole in the middle.

And the meat pies I ordered were seriously awful, with big lumps of fat and gristle. Yuk. Never ordering those again. (The apple pie is fine, though.) I see that Aussie Farmers have added lasagnes to their range of products, and I'm interested, but after experiencing the horrible meat pies, I'm wary. I'd be interested to know what other customers think of the lasagnes.

I can't comment on their fruit and veg as I've never tried them.

Overall, I can highly recommend this service for convenience, for reliability (although perhaps that depends on which suburb you live in), for the helpfulness of the people on the other end of the phone, and for the quality of its milk, butter, and eggs. I've marked the Quality score down a little because some of the other products were disappointing. But if you want the convenience of home-delivered produce, and you'd like to help farmers and to make a dent in the profits of the Big Two supermarkets at the same time, I can recommend this service.

Graeme Wood has been my optometrist since 1983. (No, that's not a typo.) I think I was one of his very first customers. What can I say? A health care professional has to be pretty good for a client to stick with them for that long, especially when they're faced with competition from budget places such as SpecSavers and the like.

Sure, I could probably get cheaper glasses and contact lenses elsewhere. But I'm not particularly interested in shopping around. I get top quality, highly professional service here, from someone who has known me forever, always greets me warmly, and is never too busy to chat.

His receptionists are very good at spacing Graeme's appointments so that they start and finish fairly punctually. In almost 30 years of attending this practice, I've never had to wait for more than about 10 minutes past my appointment time. Sometimes I've been too early, and he's invited me in anyway. Can't say that about any of my other health care professionals.

In recent years I've begun to appreciate the fact that Graeme has undertaken much more postgraduate study than the average optometrist, and is qualified to diagnose more serious eye diseases. When I developed diabetes, I thought I'd have to start visiting an ophthalmologist for regular checks of my retinas. Not so. Graeme assured me that he is fully qualified to diagnose diabetic retinopathy (a common complication of diabetes). "So all those certificates on your wall are good for something after all!" I joked to him. More seriously, I'm delighted to still have this continuity of care after so long.

This service is run by Dr Michael Elek. I saw his ad in my local paper, and decided to use the service when I was temporarily without transport and my cats were due for their annual checkup and vaccinations.

Unlike other reviewers, I can't honestly say that my cats loved Dr Elek, or that they were completely relaxed with the idea of undergoing an examination and injection at home. As soon as he walked in, they knew something was up, and started yowling in distress. But then again, they don't like ANY strangers at all. They don't even like ME handling them when I have to give them flea treatments or tablets! So it was nothing personal. Dr Elek was as competent, caring and professional as any other vet I've met, and he carried out the task to my complete satisfaction. He also arrived bang on time, which was much appreciated, and his rates for the consultation and vaccinations were very reasonable.

I did think long and hard about whether to make him my regular vet. Traumatic as it is for my cats to have a stranger invade their home and start manhandling them, it's even more traumatic to be shoved in a cage, driven to the vet, and subjected to an equal amount of manhandling. So the idea of switching vets was very tempting.

In the end I decided to stick with my existing veterinary clinic, for two reasons: (1) continuity of care (they've known my pets since they were young), and (2) specialist equipment and surgical facilities should the need arise.

However, my decision in no way reflects badly on Dr Elek. Quite the contrary - I was very impressed. I can highly recommend him for people without transport, and for people who have pets that get extremely distressed when taken to the vet. You may not be able to eliminate their distress entirely, but this service can go a long way towards minimising it. He may not have the equipment to handle really serious problems such as broken bones or tumours, but for all the routine stuff, plus minor injuries such as bites and scratches, he seems to be perfectly well equipped. And let's face it, isn't it the minor and routine stuff that accounts for most of your vet visits?

Another situation where I think Dr Elek's service would be invaluable would be if you have a pet with a terminal illness. Having a pet euthanased is a gruelling experience for anyone who loves animals, and made worse, I think, by having to make that final trip to the vet. If your pet has always been fearful of the vet clinic, it's upsetting to think that their final minutes will be spent in the vet's waiting room.

Not to mention the fact that you probably want some privacy to do your grieving. Twice in my life I have stood in a vet's reception area sobbing my heart out while attempting to pay the bill, on one occasion holding the body of my cat, who had suffered a stroke and died despite the best efforts of the vet to save her. People are sympathetic, but it is embarrassing. I would have preferred some privacy and dignity. That's not always possible if the condition that made euthanasia necessary was sudden and unpredictable - for instance, a road accident that has caused serious, untreatable injuries. But in the case of terminal illness, the timing of the end is under your control to a certain extent, and that makes it possible to have some choice in regard to where it should occur. Consider this: if euthanasia were legal for humans, we wouldn't expect the dying person and their loved ones to trot off to their local GP's clinic and have it done. We'd expect it to be done at home. And we should expect no less, I think, for our pets.

You may be lucky and have a vet who is willing to make a house call to euthanase your terminally ill pet, even if they don't normally make house calls. (I was lucky to have such a vet; see my separate review of Coburg Veterinary Clinic.) But if you don't, then I think Dr Elek's service would be a godsend. Your pet can die in its own familiar environment, and you can do your grieving in private rather than in a clinic surrounded by strangers. I don't know for certain that Dr Elek is equipped to perform euthanasia, but I would expect so - there is nothing about the process that requires it to take place in a vet surgery. Certainly, if you are in this situation, you have nothing to lose by phoning Dr Elek and asking.

I'm going to keep Dr Elek's number as a backup plan if I'm ever again without transport and my pets need treatment. For my next generation of pets (whenever that is), I'll consider using his services from Day 1 so that he can provide the continuity of care that I want my pets to have.

I switched to this veterinary practice as the hours suit me much better than at my previous vet. They are open from early morning to late evening, and for several hours on Saturdays, and until recently were even open on Sundays.

On the plus side: the team is large; it would need to be, to cover those hours. At the time of writing, according to their website, the team consists of four vets, seven vet nurses and two receptionists. The care they have provided my pets so far is very good. They are extremely proactive and cautious, and you get the feeling that not much escapes their notice.

I'm particularly impressed by the fact that every time my pets have had a procedure done under general anaesthetic - even something minor such as teeth cleaning - I have ALWAYS, without fail, received a phone call from one of the nurses at about 7:30pm on the evening after taking my pet home, just to make sure my pet has recovered from the anaesthetic OK and that there is nothing that is causing me concern. I don't recall any of my previous vets doing this. You know how sometimes an animal may seem not quite their usual self, perhaps just a bit subdued, but nothing you can really put your finger on, and you consider phoning the vet to ask if this is normal, but you'd feel a bit silly if you did, and they're probably closing for the day anyway and you don't want to bother them...? That follow-up phone call from the vet nurse gives you permission to bother them. It gives you the opportunity to raise anything that is worrying you, no matter how trivial. This is tremendously reassuring.

On the minus side: you pay for all this. Boy, do you pay. My vet bills have increased astronomically since I switched vets. Part of this is due to the fact that both my pets are now on special Hill's prescription diets to treat certain medical conditions: no more supermarket pet food for them, apparently. But even routine things such as vaccinations and checkups cost a lot more than they did at my previous vet.

I fully expect that when something is seriously wrong - suspected cancer, say, or kidney disease, or your pet being hit by a car - then the tests, xrays, and treatments will be very expensive. I'm prepared for that; I've owned pets for several decades now, and I've always kept an emergency fund for this kind of thing, just in case. But never in my life have I had to dip into that emergency fund purely to pay for all the routine stuff, which is what is happening now.

And there's a little nagging voice inside me that wonders whether they are occasionally guilty of over-servicing. I'm not certain; I can think of good reasons for all these tests, and I'm the type of person who tends to err on the side of caution anyway - but still, I wonder...

The other thing that irks me more than a little is the constant flow of computer-generated reminders, not only for vaccinations, but for worm treatments, flea treatments, dental checks, and what have you. Give me some credit, please: I know my pets need flea treatment every month, I know when I've run out of the stuff, and I don't need you reminding me. A single annual reminder for a general checkup, vaccination and dental check will be quite sufficient, thank you. Not to mention the fact that the reminders are never coordinated. My pets get very traumatised by a trip to the vet, so I try to keep the number of visits for routine stuff to a minimum and do as much of it as possible in one hit. It's very aggravating that Pascoe Vale sends a vaccination reminder one month, a worm treatment reminder the next, a dental check reminder the next... for heaven's sake, coordinate your computer system and combine as much as possible into a single reminder. Among other reasons, just think of all the postage that will be saved - postage that I bet we, the clients, are paying for. I've mentioned this to the receptionists, but their response is that the reminders are computer-generated and posted from head office (wherever that is), and there's nothing they can do about it.

Overall, I can recommend this practice, but only if you can afford it. If your budget is tight, you'll want to shop around for somewhere cheaper, but you may have to sacrifice some convenience.

Dr Chiang took good care of my previous generation of pets over several years. For my current generation, I've changed to another veterinary practice, not because I was unhappy with the care here, but because the opening hours no longer suit me. It's a one-vet practice - or at least it was when I was a customer - and there are only so many hours in a day that one person can work. My current vet is open from 8am to 8pm and until recently was even open Sundays. A one-person practice can't compete with these hours.

I still miss Dr Chiang, though. He has a friendly, warm, gregarious personality, and he obviously cares very much about his patients.

The reception area at this clinic isn't as flashy-looking as many places are these days, nor does it have as many products for sale, or other bells and whistles (e.g. no eftpos facilities).

But they make up for it in two significant ways. One is that the prices are very affordable, because you're not paying for all the flashy overheads. The second is that I never felt that Dr Chiang was trying to over-service my pets, or push expensive products on to me.

So if your budget is tight, and you don't mind opening hours that are more limited than those of large practices, then I can recommend this business.

I want to mention one incident in particular which demonstrates what a kind and caring person Dr Chiang is. My 15yo cat had terminal cancer. Dr Chiang had said he believed the tumour was inoperable, but he referred me to the University of Melbourne vet clinic at Werribee for a second opinion. They agreed with him that it was inoperable, and I'd been giving my cat palliative care for over a year. He'd been doing well, but in the final days the tumour was invading his throat. He could no longer swallow easily, and had stopped eating. I knew the time had come, but I just could not bear the idea of putting him in a cage and taking him to the vet for the last time. I had always intended to be with him at the very end, no matter how hard it was, but I did not want it to take place in a vet surgery. The car trip to the vet and the wait in the waiting room might only have been half an hour, or even less, but I did not want those last minutes to be stressful ones for my cat. I spoke to Dr Chiang about this, and he very kindly agreed to make a house call. He doesn't normally make house calls, but I'd been a long-term client of his, and my cat was dying, so he agreed to make an exception. I am very grateful to Dr Chiang. It meant a lot to me to be able to have my cat die in my arms at home, in his familiar environment, free from fear, rather than in a vet's surgery, a place he has always been frightened of. Thank you, Dr Chiang, for helping make it a little bit easier at the end.

I live too far away to use this practice as my regular vet, but I have twice been referred there by local vets for specialist treatment for my pets. Both times the service has been outstanding.

The most recent occasion was when my 14yo cat had a recurrence of a mast cell tumour on his face which my local vet said was inoperable, and he referred me to Dr Linda Abraham at the Melbourne Uni clinic in Werribee to see if there were any other treatment options. Dr Abraham agreed it was inoperable, and she also detected a heart condition which I had been completely unaware of. However, she felt that there was a lot we could do to relieve my cat's symptoms and make him as comfortable as possible in the time he had left.

With her help and advice, I was able to give my cat palliative care, and together we kept him alive, happy, and relatively comfortable and well for just over a year. I know he was happy and free of pain most of the time, because he still wanted to play, almost every day. A sick cat doesn't want to play.

During that time, I would visit the practice with my cat occasionally, but mostly we consulted by phone. I would phone Dr Abraham every week or so to report my cat's progress and discuss with her whether we should adjust his medication. She was never too busy to return my call, she never charged me for this phone advice, and she was kind, encouraging and supportive during what was an extremely stressful time.

Finally, 13 months after diagnosis, my cat could no longer swallow and I had to get the local vet to call round and euthanase him. When she heard the news, Dr Abraham sent me a sympathy card. I was very touched by her kind gesture at this awful time.

I notice Dr Abraham is still practising and lecturing to students at Werribee (she is a senior lecturer at the university), and I would not hesitate to recommend her. She is everything a vet should be: skilled and gentle with animals, and endlessly patient with their owners as well. Dr Abraham, if you're reading this, thank you. I realise you couldn't cure my boy, because nobody could, but you gave him one more very good year of life, and for that I am grateful.