Saturday 13 February 2010

The Beaufort Street Merchant, Highgate

Flat Whites

Ross' Breakfast

Renee's Breakfast


This morning we woke up ridiculously early to unpack the last of the boxes (whoohoo! and yes, our new house is amazingly great!), but we decided to kick off the morning by exploring our new neighbourhood and stroll around the corner to dine at The Beaufort Street Merchant in Highgate. We've been here before for drinks (they do great Pimm's) and have been for dinner which is super-great (note: get the meatballs...amazing!) but we haven't been for brekky here for yonks.

The atmosphere is laid back and we grabbed a table near the windows in some deluxe comfy chairs - score! Downside: Ross pointed out the terrible music... people its the morning, we don't want to listen to your bass beats! (This is seriously one of our pet-hates...bad techno beats at cafés, we have been known to blacklist places and never return for this reason!) The service was not bad (on previous occasions is has been a little crap...) iced water was delivered to the table, coffee orders taken so off to a great start. But then the coffees came....they were really watery and Ross' was bitter and burnt and mine was average. Ross didn't touch his.

Now, lets get to the food! I ordered the Spanish breakfast which was grilled eggs, chorizo, potato and Spanish beans with bread to dunk ($19) and Ross chose the mushrooms bruschetta ($20). It was a pretty small menu about 8 items - toasted muesli, poached fruit & natural yogurt ($10.50), big belly breakfast (everything for $19), smoked Tasmanian salmon & avocado on grilled brioche with creme fraiche ($17). We agreed that the prices were a little more $ than we were used to...

My dish was impressively presented in a little skillet on a wooden board. The highlight of my meal was the delicious pagnotta bread and the herby eggs. Ross thoroughly enjoyed his - it was loaded with rocket and Danish feta and was well done - not a scrap remained at the end. But regardless of the food we were both a little disappointed with other aspects of The Merchant (coffee, music, etc) and agreed that you can get a better meal for less at other places which is a shame. We reckon we'll stick to dinner at The Merchant!

The Verdict

Coffee 2/5
The Eggs (the meal!) 3/5
Service 3/5
Atmosphere 3.5/5 (onced they changed the music!)

Overall 11.5/20

Would we go again?
Not for breakfast! We we'll be back for Pimms and meatballs!

Website: http://beaufortmerchant.com/

The Beaufort Street Merchant on Urbanspoon

1 comment:

Conor @ HoldtheBeef said...

Having had dinner and lunch here a few times, I've been keen to check out their breakfast. Actually, my last dinner here would make a beautiful breakfast - piles of smoked salmon with fennel and tasty other things I can't remember on toasted rye with creme fraiche. Might still check them out for breaky but first on the list is the Greenhouse!