In the interest of exploration, I chose the most interesting looking cafe for brunch I could on Zomato (and peaking at Google reviews too) and we tried this place on a Saturday morning. I expected a regular old hipster café, and that’s what it looks like with its cold drop coffee and delicious looking pastries at the counter. But we happened to try the breakfast bowls, and I loved the Asian influence. If they do just as well with their breakfast burritos, then this place is totally a winner.
Plus, it’s got a great vibe: a loyal clientele dropping by, many known by name, it seemed, dressed casually and with interesting tattoos and some with keep-cups for takeaway coffee. I decided to try a cold drip coffee; it’s been a while. It was like a delicious smooth iced coffee, no ice cream added. They give it to you in a cute little bottle and you pour it over ice yourself. Yum. Five bucks.
As I said, we both had breakfast bowls. The scrambled eggs and spicy braised eggplant (melt in your mouth) is the perfect thing if you’re avoiding starch and grains. With chili and spring onions on top, this was a nice dish ($14). Eggs scrambed are a favourite of mine; and they’re not always done well. These were.
For only $4 more, the bowl with perfectly crisp pork belly, a dash of fried onions, a fried egg and various pickles and veg, all on brown rice, was generous, and perhaps too much for one person. We did the obnoxious couple thing of each eating half of our bowls and swapping though which worked out…
We always go to Merchants of Ultimo as part of our Saturday morning shopping run at Harris Farms at Broadway, so it was good for a change of pace, and a new place to blog, and I was very impressed. Also, prices seemed just a little bit cheaper for everything on the menu, compared to Surry Hills!