Zucchero, Vic Park

Today we decided to take Tallulah to the zoo, and thought it would be a great opportunity to have a breakfast bite in Vic Park nearby. We chose Zucchero Espresso Bar on Albany Highway, but not because of the alliteration I promise! ZZZ! Renee and Tallulah were peachy keen!

Zucchero have a few seats near the front counter and a much larger, comfortable room behind. A couple of alfresco tables are also available. We sat in the larger room, to give very-active Tallulah lots of room to move (there is never enough room for Tallulah, but we persevere anyway!). The menu choice includes standard items like smoked salmon, capers and scrambled eggs on toasted sourdough ($16) and poached eggs in a tomato and onion reduction with parmesan and olive oil and toasted sourdough ($15). That was probably the most adventurous item on the menu. I chose the bacon stack with scrambled eggs and sautéed mushrooms on toasted sourdough ($15).

What came out was what could best be described as a safe dish. The eggs had no seasoning, the bacon rashers crispy. The mushrooms had a buttery sauce which was eagerly soaked up by the bread. A packet of butter was on the side.

Renee chose the brioche French toast, which comes with either a berry compote or banana and maple syrup (Renee chose the bananas) and thick cream ($14).

Renee enjoyed it, probably because it had plenty of sweet, sweet zucchero! I also ordered a soy flat white, with a dash of honey. The coffee was good. The 'dash' of honey was a small packet. The packaging was unavoidable; had I opted for regular sugar the only option was sugar cubes, each individually packaged!

The vibe of the place was hotel. The basic, stock-standard menu, food executed well but with no flair, flavourless scrambled eggs, packaged butter, sugar and condiments, it all adds up to a hotel experience!

We savoured the day by getting some takeaway macarons. While no doubt they are ordered in, it was good have have a selection of cakes and things. They were delicious. The flavours may or may not have been orange and pistachio!

The Verdict:
Coffee  3/5
Eggs (the meal!)  3/5
Service  3.5/5
Atmosphere  3/5
Total  12.5/20

Baby T's score: 4/5 (Tallulah enjoyed her pre-zoo brekky!)

Would we go again: No, we'd rather eat at a café not a hotel.
Website: on Facebook 

Bivouac, Northbridge

We love William Street in Northbridge, so whenever a new café opens up we always find some time to check it out. Bivouac is one such place, located opposite Ezra Pound. We love William Street!

Bivouac has two small tables on the street, a large main room and a smaller room towards the back. The café is adorned with artwork - it features different work every month. I like the grass beards! We grabbed a table near the back of the café and ordered our coffees - a soy flat white and a soy long macc. Bivouac do a great job with their coffees, and they are delicious! We waited in anticipation for our meals, hoping they would be as good as the coffee!

Bivouac have four breakfast choices on the menu, so I'm just going to go and list them all:

• Gypsy Baked Eggs - chorizo, potato, red pepper ragú, simmered egg & toasted sourdough ($15.50)
• Salute the Sun - avocado, ricotta & lemon on sourdough ($9.90)
• The Revolution - french toasted brioche, citrus ricotta, strawberries & pistachio ($14.90)
• Canteen Tray - grilled italian sausage, baked beans, scrambled eggs, toasted sourdough ($15.50)

Ross' meal - Gypsy Baked Eggs

Renee's meal - Canteen Tray

Both dishes looked good and we eagerly jumped in. I was looking forward to the baked eggs, but unfortunately it didn't taste near as good as it looked. The potatoes were undercooked and hard, and the ragú lacked flavour. Renee's Canteen Tray came with baked beans, scrambled eggs and Italian sausages. The beans, according to Renee, were too sweet. The scrambled eggs were cooked well but lacked pizzaz. The sausages surprised Renee the most; we are used to spicy Italian sausages served in other places, but the sausages on the Canteen Tray were not spicy. They were more like barbecue sausages.

We were disappointed with our breakfasts. That's not enough to deter us having good food, so to finish off we had some baklava ($6). It was outstanding! It was fresh, full of nuts and spices and rolled with honey. Noone told me I wasn't supposed to eat the clove on top of the baklava, but it still tasted good!

baklava

The Verdict:
Coffee  4/5
Eggs (the meal!)  2.5/5
Service  3.5/5
Atmosphere  4/5
Total  14/20

Baby T's score: 3.5/5 (Heck, Tallulah loves everywhere!)

Would we go again: We returned with friends for breakfast, and confirmed that the breakfast meals aren't that great! The dinners here look good though, and we think Bivouac would be great evening occasions!

Website: http://bivouac.com.au/

Wild Poppy, South Fremantle

Sorry for the lack of posts! We've been kind of pre-occupied but never fear we have been breakfast-ing all over the place and have some good ones to share!

Last month we decided to hunt for a baby bike seat. We both wondered "where could one find some good ones in this city?" and we both said out loud "Fremantle!" And our search lead us to a café across the road from a bike shop - Wild Poppy, on Wray Avenue.

crab omelette

smoked salmon

 coffee coffee

nom nom

Wild Poppy is a super large café with a bustling vibe and friendly staff. And menu items like the following will pique your interest and your tastebuds. How about cheddar & spring onion waffles with bacon, eggs & herbed crème fraiche ($14) Or chili masala eggs, indian flatbread and tomato relish ($14)? We decided to have the peach-smoked salmon and ricotta with poached eggs, avo & potato rosti ($16) and wok-fried crab omelette with chili, ginger and oyster sauce ($18). So how were the meals? We were thinking that the smoked salmon would be the thinly-sliced orange variety, but it was not. It was a slab of salmon steak. This would not have ordinarily been a problem, except that Renee was well and truly over this type of fish for breakfast after a week of it in hospital in Japan (and yes, you may well question why we ordered fish for breakfast when Renee doesn't like fish for breakfast, but I did kinda push Renee towards it!) Other than the fish steak the poached eggs were good and the meal was balanced. My crab omelette was interesting - it had a flavour reminiscent of Thai food, all on a thin omelette. The different textures (smooth bits, crunchy bits) didn't work for me; maybe it was more of a lunch meal (and it was on the lunch menu!). We agreed that we should have gone for the spring onion waffles when we spied someone near us tucking into it. Major food envy!

We totally dig Wray Ave and have actually been there several times in the last week or so! Our friend Buffy opened a shop called Pekho (go check it!) and we also discovered an AWESOME new bar called Who's your Mumma? And we got our hair snippity-snipped into super styles by the ladies at Doo Wop (though we have our old hair in these pictures of us!)! We bordering on Wray Ave locals...right? Anyways back to Wild Poppy...! We both ordered soy flat coffees which were delish and we also had a sneaky piece of passionfruit cheesecake which was amazing! We both thought we give Wild Poppy another go and perhaps order more wisely and more to our tastes. But if you like fish for breakfast this is for you!

After breakfast we walked across the road and got the bestest baby bike seat ever for the front of your bike! On the way we spotted some super fun yarn bombing and a took a happy snap! Oh Freo we heart you!

note; this is in our carport & before we got our ladybug helmets!

The Verdict:
Coffee  3.5/5
Eggs (the meal!)  3.5/5
Service  3.5/5
Atmosphere  3.5/5 (though it must be noted Renee prefers smaller cafes which are more intimate!)
Total  14/20

Baby T's score: 3.5/5 (Tallulah sat in her highchair and let her folks eat their breakfasts! yay!)


Would we go again: Yes, we think for coffee, cake and maybe something less fish-y!

Website: nope you can find them at 2 Wray Ave, South Fremantle!

Cantina 663 again!

Living just around the corner, we grab breakfast at Cantina 663 at least once a week, and we scored it 17/20 last year. Just so you know, it's as good now as it was back then.

This morning we were greeted with a new breakfast menu. Try this: roasted mushrooms, pine nuts, raisins & parmesan. It comes with probably the best-tasting bread you will ever taste - grilled with olive oil. The whole thing was amazing & perfectly balanced; it was unbelievably good. Really. Renee had her usual - what is probably Perth's best scrambled eggs.

Actually, don't come. It's hard enough to find a seat on the weekend as is. Forget I said anything.

Mela, Perth

This weekend we joined the magnet hunt on William Street in Northbridge and Perth, where you can collect magnets from 24 boutique stores, galleries and bars in the area in honour of the 2011 WAMI Festival. The hunt started yesterday (21 May 2011) and is continuing all week. We headed down early to grab our magnets, but pretty soon started to get grumpy-hungry, and knew that we needed some brunch food soon! Luckily our favourite Indian restaurant was located in the heart of the magnet-hunting area!

What's that you say? Indian for breakfast? Well actually, yes! Mela offers breakfast and chaat (Indian stall food) on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays between 11:30am - 4:30pm. I've included a picture of the menu here so that you can all get your Google on because if you are anything like us, you have no idea what any of these dishes are!

After having the entire menu explained to us, we picked a number of dishes at random. We chose the mixed chaat (little dough parcels covered in tonnes of delicious sauces), dhai puri (egg-shaped shells filled with chickpea, chutney & yoghurt), channa bathura (light fried bread with chickpea curry) and aloo paratha (bread stuffed with potato curry).

channa bathura 

dhai puri at the front, and mixed chaat at the back

aloo paratha

It was all delicious! Think fresh, light and flavoursome vegetarian curries combined with coriander and yoghurt, soft and fluffy pastry - yum! And the best thing is that you can try several dishes at once and share them round. We spied several dishes which we didn't order today but would come back for!

mango lassi

And of course what is a good Indian meal without a mango lassi? We both had one and can report that they are very very good! Since chaat can be messy, we put Tallulah in a high chair so that she could continuously throw her toys to the ground, but it meant that we could both eat at the same time. Neither of us were willing to let the food sit there uneaten! We left with a couple of chocolate barfi sweets to eat on the rest of our magnet hunt!

The Verdict:
Lassi  4/5
Chaat (the meal!)  4/5
Service  3.5/5
Atmosphere  4/5
Total  15.5/20

Baby T's score: 3.5/5 (With it being easy to get in and out, Tallulah was quite happy with the experience)

Would we go again: Yes, there are plenty more chaat delights we would come back for!

The Attic, Fremantle

Follow the bicycles and chalk pavement signs and you will find yourself at The Attic Cafe in Fremantle, one of the coolest places we have been to for a long while. Attic has a counter on the ground floor - all of the seating, except for a small table on the street, is on the next level accessed by a narrow flight of stairs. There are old-school seats, couches and tables like my grandparents have, combined with floor lamps and what can best be described as "suitcases and lights hanging from a rope" which created a great dimly lit vintage vibe, much like an Attic. Funny that! A row table lines the edge of the void, where you can view the counter below - this is where we sat since all the other places were taken! We grabbed on tight to Tallulah and made sure she didn't fling any objects over the edge!

avocado, white cheese & lime on toast

shakshouka with mondo chorizo, tomato reduction & black olives

Suitably impressed with the ambience we had a look at the menu. They offer a number of not-your-usual-breakfast items like thyme-roasted mushroom & herbed labne on toast ($12). I liked the look of the green wrap with eggs, spinach & avocado ($12) but they had run out (it was busy!) so I instead ordered avocado, white cheese & lime on toast ($12). The Attic has three different types of shakshouka and Renee chose it with mondo chorizo, tomato reduction & black olives. Both of our dishes were good, real good. My toast came with spinach & mint which brought it to life. Renee thought her spinach was unnecessary and put it on the side. The winner with both dishes was the bread, which might have been a rye sourdough? Whatever it was, it was soft & thick as well as tasty. We also noted on their menu that they also do gluten-free option.

masala chai

soy flat white

The Attic have a few fresh juices available. They also have a pot of masala chai and invite you to have a taste test which we did. It was good and nicely spiced, and I can certainly imagine having a large mug of it on a cold wintry day. We instead had our regulars, the soy flat whites, which could have been slightly more soy-creamy but otherwise was a well-made coffee, and we both went back for seconds! Renee thought hers was perfect!

chocolate & beetroot cake

We couldn't leave without having some cake, and so we grabbed a slice of chocolate & beetroot cake. It was good, but we regretted not getting some cream to accompany it!

The Verdict:
Coffee  4/5
Eggs (the meal!)  3.5/5
Service  3.5/5
Atmosphere  4.5/5
Total  15.5/20

Baby T's score: 3.5/5 (Tallulah loved to look through the grating to the counter below, especially when her dad was ordering!)

Would we go again: Yes!

Website: http://www.theatticfremantle.com.au/

Piccos Kitchen, Maylands

This Easter we decided to check out Piccos Kitchen, on Peninsular Road in Maylands, nearish to Tranby House. It looked a bit strange being in a group of shops, set above the carpark, but its the inside that counts, right? But we've learnt not to judge a book by its cover! Lots of locals seemed to drop by for takeaway coffees. However we were perhaps the youngest people by maybe by 30 years or so.

Piccos had a good menu with bacon, eggs & Brie butty ($12.50) and roast field mushroom w. rocket, feta & tomato confit ($16.50).Renee started off with her usual soy flat white which she didn't finish as her meal was intense. I felt like a chai tea, which was good.

Food-wise, I chose traditional organic porridge with stewed rhubarb & raw honey ($12.50) - this was ok but a little bit gluggy - it needed more honey to make it palatable. Renee had an Easter moment and decided that the hazelnut pancakes, chocolate sauce and vanilla poached pear ($15). This was a pure chocolate indulgence - the plate had heaps of sauce, and the pancakes were full of the same sauce. It completely overpowered everything and it was impossible to work out what the flavour of the pancakes were - the sauce could have been in a jug instead. The pear was cold; Renee thought it might have been nicer warm. It was one of those meals that sounded good on paper but in reality didn't really work. It was definitely more a dessert than a breakfast dish!

Piccos' is probably a good takeaway coffee place but the food wasn't for us. Overall, we thought that Piccos was your average fare breakfast - there are better places to go for breakfast on 8th Ave for a similar price.

Renee's hazelnut pancakes

My organic porridge with stewed rhubarb and raw honey

The Verdict:
Coffee  2.5/5
Eggs (the meal!)  2.5/5
Service  3.5/5
Atmosphere  3/5
Total  12/20

Baby T's score: 4/5 (Piccos is nice and spacious with lots of room for Baby T, the staff loved her too! It would be tricky getting a pram to the raised entry from the carpark though)

Would we go again: No. Don't stop riding here, continue onto Claisebrook!