Mrs S - Maylands

A hot sunday morning, the day after a 12km ride around the Swan River seemed a great time to go out for breakfast. I'd been meaning to head over to Mrs S in Maylands for a long time but have just never gotten around to it... Today we remedied that! I went with S, and Carolanne (of Carolannes Kitchen) and her fella, Mr T.

We were well aware that we may have to wait for a table, as is apparently commonplace at Mrs S, but we were happy that our wait wasn't long, about 10 minutes max. The guy who looked after us was really friendly and nothing was too much trouble, though I found the service a bit slow - it was pretty busy though! We ended up with a table outside, which I thought was going to be too hot, but there was a really nice cross breeze and it was perfectly pleasant! The table was a bit wonky but the little bottles with a single flower were a cute touch.

We arrived just between the lunch and breakfast changeover - so we missed out on their scrummy breakfast options, but were there in time for their lunch menu, which was fine, it was 11:45 after all! We were bought out glasses with ice and a bottle of water which we went through really fast, I think in total we drank 3 bottles between the 4 of us, and each time the water was replaced quickly.

We got the menus, which are Little Golden Books from everyones childhood, with the menu pegged onto the pages. A cute idea, and a good one since where we were sat it was quite breezy, the pegs did their job! 

I was tossing up between the peach, hazelnut and ricotta salad, and the watermelon and halloumi salad. In the end, I went with the watermelon, looking forward to the crisp and refreshing watermelon paired with the salty halloumi. S, predictably ordered the manwich, a pulled pork and beetroot relish roll with pickled cucumber and rocket. I toyed with the idea of getting this, but thought that it might be a bit much, I wasnt THAT hungry and Im trying to eat a more appropriate amount of carbs for my activity levels, and a big roll wasn't going to get worked off on this scorching Perth sunday! CA ordered the Croque Madame, and Mr T got the Manwich too (its an obvious choice for the blokes!) - read on for more about their choices later!

Our flat whites came out first, and we all agreed, it was great coffee. Like I often say in this blog, coffees are sometimes not noticeable to me, I drink them and I don't think anything of it, its not great, its not bad, I just drink it without thinking about it. This coffee however, warranted all of us at some stage to say how good we found it. It was creamy and rich, and I got a hint of chocolate in there. Easy to drink and a good temp for such a hot day! All of us agreed we could have had another one (though we didnt!). Its worth mentioning as well, that everyone else had better latte art than me! Mine was the least impressive heart on the table! I thought mine looked more like a bum than a heart. S complained that he didn't get a car on his, rather than the feminine heart.

Our food came out about 10 minutes after our coffees were finished, and I was eager to dive into my salad! It was a good sized portion with about 4 or 5 good slices of grilled halloumi. There was loads of watermelon, which was sweet, and had that soft, crisp, freshness that you can only understand when you bite into it. The halloumi was unlike any I've had before, and was leaning strongly toward the goat cheese flavoured side of the spectrum. This wasn't ideal for me as I don't like goats cheese, however it was mild enough that I could still happily eat it. It was combined with sunflower seeds and rocket, the dressing was mild and complimented the elements really well - it wasn't overpowering at all, there wasnt too much of it to make the salad limp, even in the heat of being outside. It was a very well thought out salad in terms of flavour and construction! Afterwards I felt satisfied but not weighed down, it was a perfect summer salad and I'm looking forward to trying the others!

The Manwich came out about 5 minutes after Carolanne and I had gotten our meals (and we were waiting very patiently indeed!), and the boys wasted no time tucking in. I managed to sample some of it, and it was pretty tasty - though I thought that the pork was a little dry, it could have been amazing with a generous slather of aioli or a saucier relish. I love beetroot, but found the relish was a bit subtle for my tastes. I would have loved it to be punchier, have more tang, more of a pickled flavour to work against the rich pork, but it was very mellow. The bread was great though, it had a beautiful crust and gave a very satisfying crunch when you bit into it.

 

Heres what Carolanne had to say about her and Mr T's dishes...

A trip to Mrs. S Café had been on the cards for quite a while since it opened back in November.  At a cake date with Jacqui last week, we both expressed our need to eat in Mrs. S and so we set up a double date breakfast.  We arrived just in time for the lunch menu to begin at 12pm.  

After only a 5 minute wait, we were seated outside on a perfect summer afternoon. Under the shade of Mrs. S’ awning it was a lunch I was very much looking forward to.  Mrs. S have a cutesy menu pegged into children’s Fairy Tale stories, mine was Snow White J The first thing that screamed out to me on the menu was ‘The Manwich’, a combination of pulled pork, beetroot pickle, cucumber slivers, rocket and mayo on a ciabatta roll.  ‘The Manwich’ was described by its muncher as a hearty meal consisting of a variety of contrasting but well matched flavours. Saying that, the pulled pork was a little dry and the beetroot could have been a tiny bit stronger. I opted for the Ooh la la ‘Croque Madame’, and for what is basically a cheese and ham toasty, it was quite lush. Paired with a fried egg, chives and tomato relish, it was no average toasty. The Çroque Madame’ is a bit heavier than a salad and not as filling as a Manwich.  Perfect for lunching on and paired with a flat white with an adorable heart shaped design.  Quite a moreish  coffee too, if only they were a little bigger.  In the future, however, I will definitely opt for one of their salads after ogling Jacqui’s Watermelon and Halloumi Salad with envious eyes.  Their menu has some irresistible sounding summer salads that would tickle anybody’s taste buds: Peach, Hazelnut and Ricotta Salad and Chickpea, apple and Pancetta Salad. I was informed that they had some supreme looking cakes inside, but on this occasion I had to resist taking a look for the risk of ordering one! Maybe next time to go with my salad ;)

The service in Mrs. S Café is really good. The wait staff were quirky, attentive and made sure we were all having a good meal. If you haven’t been to Mrs. S Café, put it in your diary!

I would love to come back to Mrs S and try more of their salads, and especially to get stuck into their breakfast menu! They had a delicious range of cakes to choose from at the counter, as well as fresh juices and great coffee. Next time, I'd like to get a table inside as it looks like a friendly, communal atmosphere, certainly different from being outside! If you haven't already tried Mrs S, then I think you should, it has an interesting menu, small range of dishes - but, I think, mostly well done. Just be prepared to wait for a table - its worth it though.