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.

Melbourne - Brunswick St, Fitzroy

After a very long day wandering around Melbourne, we ended up on Brunswick St, Fitzroy. We had planned to check this street out as we'd read about the variety of cafes, bars, and shopping and so were very keen to see what it was all about! We'd just gone to Queen Victoria Market (an amazing place and worthy of its own post!), and so we walked from there. Turns out that day we walked about 7km, for some reason we had an aversion to the trams (more likely, S thought places were much closer than they actually were on the map!).

We got to the very start of the street, and started to walk up it. For the first 500m there was really nothing and we were wondering why on earth we'd bothered as there was nothing here. We found a cool cafe called Slowpoke, a cool urban space in amongst gritty laundromats and abandoned buildings. The feature wall is very cool, made of recycled wood which doubles as shelves which gives the place almost a log cabin feeling. Its decorated with old bottles and knick knacks and it makes the place feel alot warmer amongst the cement floors and low lighting.

We ordered a coffee each and they came out quickly. As was becoming standard, the coffee looked great with the creamy swirls, as well as backing the aesthetics up with great tasting coffee. 

We had been walking for ages and so sitting down  here was just what we needed. It was peaceful, the staff were attentive without being intrusive, and they had local papers and magazines to read while we sipped our, again, delicious coffees. I wandered out the back to find the ladies, and discovered they have a tiny courtyard out the back, as well as little tables lining the hall leading outside. Very secluded and private, and really cute. Even the toilet was cute.

Slowpoke had a great looking menu and provides a quiet relief from the hustle and bustle of the main drag of Brunswick St. Should we live in the area Id say it'd become a local, for sure!

 

After Slowpoke we wandered further down the road to where the action was, and we were overwhelmed with choice! We checked out a shop called Polyester Books - Totally Weird Shit, which did indeed have weird shit in there - books, magazine etc, and the owner and her friend having a chat with weird too, not the kinda conversations that are conducive to a friendly shop environment! 

We found a warehouse selling crazy discounted Allanah Hill clothes, shoes, and accessories, plus a bunch of other things! I came out with a bag, shoes and a bangle for less than $50 and the shoes cost $45 of that! S got a fedora that hes been wanting for ages - trying to find one that suits him is hard, but we got one!

Walking down the road I was struck by how similar this area was to Amsterdam. The trams, the old buildings, graffiti, modern eye catching buildings in between... There were people on bikes and the general vibe was very similar, its just alot more spread out in Fitzroy than in Amsterdam! This is probably why I felt so at home here...

We wandered down the road and back again, and found a fab little place called Naked for Satan. S had read about a place that serves tiny tapas for cheap, and this was the place. These tiny tapas are called pintxos and are bite sizes morsels of goodness! These guys had shelves set up with both vegetarian and meaty bites - all a piece of baguette topped with something. They work on an honesty system, and all the pintxos are held together with a toothpick - you keep the toothpicks and based on how many you have, you pay at the end. Sometimes theyre only 80c!! Such a bargain...

The first plate we went with (L) had bread with; smoked salmon, onion and dill, caramalised onions, anchovie and olive, cream cheese, roast beetroot and walnut, and cream cheese, chorizo and chilli. They were all really nice, a fave being the onion and beetroot ones. S went back and had a couple more (R) getting the smoked mussel and chickpea puree, and roast veges, lettuce and balsamic. I dont like mussels anyway, so cant comment, but the salad one was fine. Nothing outta this world, but nice n fresh after some rich flavours. All up they cost us $16, which was decent. It would certainly be a better deal going there for lunch when you can get them for 80c! At the time we were there, it was pretty empty, but that was at about 3pm. We didnt really feel inclined to stay for a drink afterwards, but thats mainly because there were so many other places for us to go and explore! The story of how the place got its name is written on their kitschy menus, and in the middle of the room is a big copper distilling set up, which looks cool. The ceiling has all kinds of weird and wonderful creations hanging from it, looking like theyre made from scrap metals and bits and pieces. This would be a place I would come when I was poor and hungry, getting a few nibbles and then moving on - apparently when its busier they come around with hot pintxos which would have been great as all of ours were cold. A great place with a different angle!

We had filled the holes in our stomaches, and were ready to wander. We passed plenty of generic looking menus, with a few interesting things, but we usually go for tapas and tasting plates, and finding something a bit different can be difficult because theyre very often all the same... We wandered past dingy looking bars that would likely have been packed at night time (when you dont notice how run down they are!), a place we didnt know if it was a garden shop or a bar, and a cafe/bar/restaurant that sold "thrice fried chips". Yes they actually used the word thrice. So we had to go in and have a go! The place was called St Judes and it had a really nice vibe inside, big shared tables and benches, green plants everywhere and there was alot of space. I had a local cider and S tried a new Polish beer they had started stocking, on recommendation from our waiter. Our drinks came out pretty fast, and our chips soon after. They didnt come with any sauce so we asked for some aioli, which they didnt have. They offered us mayo which was fine, but it never came. So we asked another waitress who looked at us like we were asking for something really weird. We eventually got it though... S wasnt a fan of his beer, just cos it was a bit tasteless, and my cider was fine, nothing to write home about. The chips, being thrice fried, couldve done with just the 2nd fry really... they were cripsy for sure, but a bit overdone. They needed more seasoning, and needed to be thicker, in my opinion... 

The rest of the menu at St Judes looks fantastic, and would head back for sure, for a more substantial meal, but would pass on the thrice fried chips in future! Unneccesary.

Finally, after more wandering, we ended up at The Alchemist, the lure of outdoor tables and tapas too much for us to resist! The prospect of people watching, tapas, cocktails and a clear balmy evening was just what we needed after such a long day. Our waiter was a friendly scottish guy who sat down and had a chat with us, asked us where we were from, what were we doing over here, what do we do... really friendly! We checked out the menu, both for tapas and cocktails, and needed a bit of time! The menu was seperated into single bites, bigger bites, salads, bar snacks, as well as degustations menus, and antipasto platters. To start off with we went for the bechamel, jalapeno and parmesan croquettes and the crostinis, with hommus, crispy prosciutto, chorizo, shredded apple, Japanese mayo & caviar. 

The croquettes were awesome!! I have missed these since I lived in Amsterdam, and while they werent the same as the ones I used to get from the snackbar, they were still great. They were nice and crunchy with a soft potato/bechamel inside, they were spicy and really peppery, and the cheese gave it something extra. We both loved it. I could have done with a little less heat or pepper, as it was a pretty dominant flavour, though a flavour we both liked! 

The crostinis were pretty great - the waiter told us we shouldnt share one, to definately get 2 as they go fast and we'll want more! I really liked these crostinis, however I thought there was a bit too much mayo, and my first taste of caviar resulted in me deciding I didnt really like it much. I hated how it pops in your mouth, it grosses me out just thinking about it! However the rest of it was really nice, the apple was needed to counter the saltiness of the chorizo and the rich mayo.  

I ordered a couple of sangrias from their cocktail menu - for $15. They have a cool cocktail menu set out like an alchemists lab, with the flavours and aromas listed. I thought the sangria was going to come in a big glass, which is what the menu implied, however it just came in a red wine glass... It was nice and I had a couple of them but Im not sure they were really worth $15. The food was really well priced however the drinks were expensive... The cheapest glass of wine was $10 so I figured I may as well go for the cocktail!

After a few drinks we ordered some more... the peking duck pancake and the patatas bravas. I didnt bother to take a pic of the potatoes because they were pretty underwhelming - cubed potatoes, fried, served with a mildly spicy sauce on the side. We could have ordered something way cooler - we were expecting spiced potatoes or something more exciting...

 The pancake was great though - pretty decent size and full of duck! It was seasoned really nicely, the hoisin sauce was tasty and it was packed full of tomato, cucumber and other refreshing goodies. Ill admit by this stage, Id had a few drinks and the nuances of the pancake are a little bit hazy... But I remember that I liked it!

Overall S and I both agreed that Brunswick St was our favourite part of Melbourne that we visited on this trip. It was alive, vibrant, had such a huge variety of shops, cafes, resturants, you could sit in any kind of place you felt comfortable and people watch for hours. There were a few places that I loved the look of, corner delis where you could get platters to order from whatever cold cuts and cheeses you liked the looks of, thumping live music bars, super cheap pizzas and pricey bistros. I loved it. It was a fantastic end to a first day in Melbourne!

Oxford 130 Cafe, Leederville

We stopped in here for a coffee the other day after breakfast at Sayers. We came in here because I've tried most other places in Leederville and was looking for something new!

The decor is arty, funky n a bit all over the place. Its a hard place to miss because of the psychadelic wall paper that fronts the street, and one bright orange wall with posters all over it. To me, walking past it seemed like a big of a Greens tryhard - you only need one Greens in an area as small as Leederville...

We ordered a skinny flat white and a skinny capp , after being ignored by one girl, who was making the coffees, and then served by a girl who looked a bit flustered and didnt crack a smile once. They dont take eftpos, so paid cash and went and sat on a bench seat by the window. There were about 5 people in the cafe, so it was pretty quiet. We had some time to have a look around at the decor before our coffees were ready, upon which they call out your order and you come and get it a la Greens -  however with so little people in there you'd think they might bring it to your table? They didnt seem to have much else to do, as there were 3 staff on.

Anyway back to the decor... they have some tonka trucks on a shelf, and action man figurines hanging from the lamps. There was a painting of Tintin on a far wall and the furnishings were "shabby chic" for lack of a better phrase. We were sat at a pretty banged up looking table, and outside were milk crates to sit on as well as little Ikea style stools. It seemed to me to be a bit try hard, confused... The staff looked like they were a bit too cool for school, hardly any smiles, moping around. The girl who came and took our glasses was wearing a white shirt and had been making coffees all morning I assume n she was looked mucky. Covered in cocoa, coffee etc... It just felt like the care factor of the staff was really low...

The food looked fine, but we only had a coffee. In all fairness the coffee was fine, I enjoyed it and would have another one, but I dont think Ill bother going back to Oxford 130, unless I was going with a mountain of work and I wanted to be cool and do it all in a coffee shop.

Tiger Tiger Cafe and Bar

The reviews on Urbanspoon are mixed about this place, with most people having negative experiences here, mostly due to the staff or the manager, which is unfortunate. It appears the negative reviews about the staff have been more recent, as the older reviews of Tiger Tiger are very positive.





Aesthetically, its really cool, its down an alleyway in the city and has a real op shop chic vibe. I loved the look of it... Your tea is served in cute mismatched vintage tea cups, your side plates for meals are, again, mismatched and vintage - which adds to the op shop feel of the place. Inside is warmly lit, with big red booth style seating against the wall, and chic metal/black chairs on the other side. Obscure, alternative and arty pictures, posters and paintings hang on the walls.



The menu is tapas style with smaller things like Tiger nuts ($5), bread and dips, chorizo with lemon, chermoula chicken skewers, chicken liver parfait, duck salad, and host of other things. There are share plates including a Ploughpersons, which looked nice. They have an extensive wine list, though the cheapest is $35 by the bottle and only have about 4 reds by the glass. Admittedly I didnt look at the white list, because I dont really drink it... It was quite expensive for drinks, and if you arent a wine drinker then you'll struggle because there was was only 3 beers (Weihenstephaner for $12, VB for $5 and another darker beer which was about $9 I think), and 1 cider. Hmmm....


But thats the generalities outta the way... Onto our experience with the place...


We had 3 scoopons, which entitled us to $180 worth of food and drinks. Booking was necessary, so on friday evening we rang up to book us a place and spend our virtual cash. I was told that they dont take bookings anymore, and they dont take scoopons on fridays after 5pm. When I told her (her turned out to be the manager/owner), that this condition wasn't on the voucher, she sighed and with an aggro tone asked me if I just wanted to do it my way then? Um... I just wanna use my voucher and your made up rules aren't written anywhere... She conceded, and booked us in for the following friday. It wasn't a good start but I assumed that maybe she'd had a rough day?

Next friday I gave them another call just to reconfirm our booking. The guy I spoke to had no idea about it, and said they don't take bookings and they don't take scoopons after 5 on fridays. After explaining that I had arranged it last week with the manager, he said it was all sorted out. When I asked him if he'd like us there earlier, as I knew it got busy and I didn't want to make things difficult for them, he said no its fine, it'll all be arranged, and then hung up on me.


Needless to say I wasn't looking forward to going there, which is an ordinary way to be feeling about a night out with your friends! I was grateful they had made an exception for us though, even though we were only asking to redeem a voucher under the conditions that we purchased them with. Not a big ask?


We got there a bit early, and I told the waitress who I was and said I was happy to come back later as I knew I was early. They had a table waiting for us already (we got there about 40mins early), and she showed us in, saying to the manager "this is Jacqui", and then got some funny looks from other staff, and I overheard someone saying "ooh THATS Jacqui" as if I'd kicked up a huge stink about getting a table. Obviously we felt really uncomfortable. The manager came over and said "oh so you're Jacqui? *looked at her watch* bit early..." and walked off.


Wow.


We got menus, they offered us some drinks, nuts/bread to start off with etc, then our friends arrived, and from then on in we didnt really feel like we got much attitude from the staff, they were perfectly civil and did their job.


I was drinking the shiraz which was nice, served in glasses which look like a normal wine glass without the stem, which I liked. Being a red drinker, there isn't as much importance placed on how cold the wine is, however my friend who drinks white doesn't like them because the heat of her hand makes her wine go warmer, faster. Fair point. Have a look at this article to decide whether or not you think a wine glass needs a stem...

Anyway... someone was hungry so they ordered the grilled chorizo with lemon, chermoula chicken skewers and the duck salad. The chorizo came out as fat little sausages that spat fat at us, looked a bit undercooked but were tasty, served with a lemon wedge. The chermoula chicken skewers came out with 4 servings, drizzled with a yoghurt dressing. They were nice, tasty but very dry, and a bit stingy on the chicken. I would have liked to have seen chunks of chicken rather than a tenderloin sliced in hald and threaded onto a skewer. Duck salad was nice, but I hate coriander so didnt eat much of it. The duck was cold, and it was light on the meat, but it was nice. The duck meat wasn't as strong as I've tasted it before, but sometimes I find duck a bit overpowering, so I was pretty happy with the mild flavour.


One of the girls ordered a latte which they said was really nice, came out well presented and looked good, but we werent really there for coffees.


It was time to pay, and we were off. The night had been good, even though we'd copped a bit of attitude from the staff. One of our friends had his own tab and when he went to pay, his bill was pretty big... Turns out they'd been putting some of our drinks, on his tab. He was paying for everything whereas we had vouchers, so they were pretty much trying to scam a bit of money out of us... The waitress, again, got snarky about it saying how good a deal this was etc and that he should have just said it was wrong. Obviously a bit pissy they'd been caught out. They then tried to tell us that we could only use 2 of 3 scoopons, because that was part of the terms and conditions. One of the girls argued about it, and we managed to get it sorted. But again, Tiger Tiger tried to change the rules without telling anyone, so that the game suited them. When we went to leave I apologised to the waitress for the inconvinience, and that my friend can be a bit of a stickler for value (she did argue a bit...). She half smiled and rolled her eyes at me.


Tiger Tiger has the potential to be such a cool place. The decor is funky and cool, the wine list is good, though expensive, and the menu looks good, and tasted pretty decent. However the staff are awful. They treat you like they're doing you a favour by letting you be seen in such a cool cafe. Its such a shame as I really wanted to have a good experience here but I didnt really. I want to love it, but I cant because the staff were so aloof and snarky.


I won't be going back to Tiger Tiger...


Photos c/o The Travel Project, and Lonely Planet.