Saturday 16 January 2010

Greenhouse, St Georges Tce, Perth

Greenhouse Takeaway Window!

Ross' Breakfast

Renée's Breakfast

Greenhouse is Perth's latest "sustainable" restaurant/bar - it features roof-top gardens, recycling of water, worm farms for kitchen waste, recycled furniture, etc. The Greenhouse was originally installed in Federation Square by designer Joost Bakker, but unlike Melbourne's Greenhouse this one is a permanent feature at the new Enex100 on St Georges Tce in the heart of Perth's corporate strip. It's instantly recognisable by its 4000 terracotta pots fastened to the outside walls, and we decided to try out their breakfast.

We had previously been for drinks just after it opened and we promised we would return to try out the delicious looking menu. We really loved the decor and enjoyed the use of recycled objects and wood(recycled from the old Greenhouse). I loved the row of alcohol bottles hanging over the bar on blue rope. Overall the vibe is laid back with a splash of clever design.

The Greenhouse offers a array of classic favorites like eggs and soldiers ($10), staples such as pancakes ($11) and eggs & toast the way you prefer ($10) and some interesting alternative options like watermelon, strawberry & labne rosewater salad and brekky pizza. Ross was worried that like many organic restaurants, the Greenhouse may be all about the concept, enjoyed by people who liked to think that they are eating sustainable even if the food was border-line uneatable. How wrong he was!

As it was the first time at Greenhouse I decided to go for my all time favourite brekky combo: poached eggs with a side of spiced beans. Ross decided to test out the poached eggs as well but with a side of wild mushrooms and potato bravis. We both orders flat whites. As a rule of thumb I find if a place can't do a good coffee its rare we'll return...really there is no excuse!

Luckily for Greenhouse they served up a decent cup of coffee, along with cute foam patterns! But it was the poached eggs that completely won the day; we had never seen any eggs cooked like this before. Poached eggs as a general rule are either soft so that the yolk spills all over the plate when you cut into them, or they are overcooked with a solid yolk. Greenhouse's eggs came out looking wobbly, but when we cut into them we found the yolks had a creamy consistency - and they tasted amazing!!! They were simply divine! The eggs, free-range organic from Margaret River and are poached in their shells. Our waitress confided that she doesn't think she will ever get sick of them, and we can't blame her!

My spiced beans were tops with just the right amount of spice and Ross said his mushroom were excellent (just for the record I detest mushrooms as much as Ross detests tomatoes....!). The potato bravis were alright but it was a bit like having wedges for brekky and not really our cup of tea.

The service was a little slow at the start- took a while to get menus (oh, and they will show you to a table, don't just sit down as you might be told off.....) but once we ordered it was pretty quick coming out and we couldn't really fault them!

We'll definitely eat at the Greenhouse again; it was a bit of a bitch to find a park but overall a great experience.

The Verdict

Coffee 3/5
The Eggs (the meal!) 4.5/5
Service 3.5/5
Atmosphere 4/5

Overall 15/20

Would we go again?
Yep just for those eggs...they were amazing!

Website: http://www.greenhouseperth.com/

Greenhouse on Urbanspoon

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Poached... in their shells? How is this possible?? I've heard good things about this place, and even if their bread does look a little boring, I'll have to try it out.

There's a cafe at the end of my street that does wonderful coffee, but couldn't cook a poached egg to save their lives. I consistently ask for them under done, and they're consistently rock-hard little nuggets of unhappiness. Eggs? They're just not that hard to get right, imo.

Renee said...

Thanks for being our very first commenter! yay! I have no idea how to poach an egg in its shell but we were really impressed! The bread does actually look kinda boring in our pics but it was homemade and tasted delicious!