The Coode St Cafe

The Coode St Cafe in Mount Lawley, WA is open for breakfast and lunch seven days. We visited on a weekday for lunch.

The Club Sandwich ($12) was layers of bacon, chicken, lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise and, unusually, chopped boiled egg. I always associate Club Sandwiches with hotel room service. A toasted triple decker sandwich held together with skewers and serve with lots of hot chips or sometimes a handful of potato chips (crisps). The egg made this one rather unusual, and while it was filling it wasn't wow.

The Pumpkin and Fetta Tart ($12) was served with the salad of the day. This was my mother's choice and she was very happy with it.

The Coode St Cafe have some serious juices available on their breakfast menu. Some real kick starters and recovery juices. This is a Zinger Juice ($6.50). For an extra $1 it is served with a Beroca! This juice did have a real 'zing' to it; apple, lemon and ginger.

There was some serious dessert sampling to follow. The very friendly staff were happy to tell me that some of the cakes are brought in and others are made on site. This very unusual Citrus Tart had a pastry base, and a very citrusy filling that was not a custard as one expects but a heavy almond filling, and a layer or thick white icing. Being a bit fan of anything almond and having a very sweet tooth that loves thick icing, I found this to be the perfect end to the meal.

The black cherry muffin was served warm with butter, something I find very strange as I associate a muffin with a cake rather than a bread. It was very nice and tasted quite healthy and brany.

The chocolate chip brownie is hard to comment on. When you make a good one yourself, it is hard to find another that measures up.

The Coode St Cafe was a great lunch venue. It has a varied menu, with specials on the blackboard inside, water freely available and tables outside in the sun. Friendly staff made no complaint about making a plain toasted cheese sandwich for the kids.

Riche - Authentique Chocolat Belge

Those of you who have been visiting me regularly may have realised by now that I'm not a coffee drinker, but do know my way around a good hot chocolate. Having drunk so many and made many more I have become very fussy as to what I will accept and how I like it made. So much so that my husband at times has almost begged me not to order one as we both know I will be disappointed. He wont even offer to make me one at home now, so specific is my 'formula' that only I can make it right.

Which was why a return visit to Riche in Mt Hawthorn was high on my list of priorities during a recent family visit to Western Australia. Knowing how much I liked a good hot chocolate my sister had taken us there on a previous visit a year ago. I was relieved to find Riche where I had left it and apparently doing a roaring trade.

There are nine basic chocolates to choose from. There is also tea, coffee and cold drinks, but I didn't give them a second glance.
Beginning at the top and working down:

Inca Recipe - Ebony Liquor 99.4% cocoa infused with honey

Sao Thome 85% - the chocolate drink of my choice read like this from the menu: A rare dark chocolate that combines a subtle fruitiness with a richly varied assortment of aromas and remarkably fine hint of vanilla bourbon. As you can see from the picture above it is served with a small whisk so that all the chocolate can be melted into the hot milk. It was wonderful.

Bolivia 72% - hints of roasted peanuts

Ecuador 71% - hints of white grape

Peru 64% - wild berry

Costa Rica 64% - almond

Santo Domingo 55% - fruity and spicy

Venezuela 43% - caramel and nutty

You could also have your choice of chocolate mixed with liqueurs such as Sambuca, Vodka, Cointreau and Napoleon Brandy. These, too, had wonderful and exotic names as well as a full description on the table menu and the menu board.

They also serve coffee in beautiful cups, and all chocolates purchased in the store are packaged in their own carry bags.

The store owners are from Belgium and import these truffles as well as make their own.
All the cabinets and the floor are beautiful timber and it is a wonderful place to take a break and fortify oneself for more shopping.

Riche serves morning and afternoon teas, with a small selection of beautiful cakes as well as lunch from a small but typically French lunch menu.

Riche Authentique Chocolat Belge

Shop 3/148

Scarborough Beach Rd (cnr Flinders St)

Mt Hawthorn

(08) 9201 0099

Father's Day

At last I'm back. I've got lots of great photos and products to show you from my recent visit to WA, but first I need to tell you about Father's Day.

As it is my responsibility to pick the location for breakfast on Father's Day I chose the Jackman & McRoss Bakery in Battery Point. Of course this is totally self serving as I wanted to eat there, but my easy to please husband was more than happy. A friend had mentioned this bakery as a place we should visit and I had accidently driven past it on the way home one day, so quickly pulled over and went to investigate.

Buttermilk and Raisin Loaf $7.20

This was the highlight of our visit, so much so that I bought one to take home. The loaf had been sliced, but not all the way through, and then warmed in the oven until it was crunchy on the outside and soft and steaming on the inside.

Chorizo sausage, gruyere cheese and caramelised onion, wrapped in puff pastry with homemade relish $6.50

This was one of those really spicy chorizo sausages and my son couldn't eat it. It was certainly very spicy but we ate it for him. Not many onions in it though.

The egg and bacon and tomato pie with homemade relish ($6.80) was delicious. The pastry was crispy and the filling had plenty of bacon and a not quite set egg.

Other menu choices include croissants ($4.50), different varieties of brioche ($2, $3.50), danish ($4.50) and a hot smoked trout, bok choy, dill, horseradish and capsicum frittata ($7.50)
There is no traditional bacon and eggs as this is a bakery first and cafe second. Apart from the printed menu there was a black board menu with variations of pies and breads. There were the usual coffees, hot chocolates and a choice of 19 different types of teas. It was almost all tables for two inside and I wondered if that meant most of their patrons grabbed a quick bite before heading off to work or the Saturday markets.

Make sure you check out the bakery section and all the cakes before you leave. There are some lovely breads and one of the few places I have seen a fresh brioche loaf.

Jackman & McRoss

57-59 Hampden Rd

Battery Point

6223 3186.

The Beach House - Sandy Bay

Every second Monday, A and I meet with our 'little people' and catch up over morning tea at a cafe we haven't tried before. Today we went to the Beach House. I had forgotten it was there, hidden behind a thick hedge, the ground floor of a block of elegant apartments overlooking the water in Sandy Bay. We arrived at 10am, and while it was only 7C outside, the sky was blue and the sun was warm. Two diners had decided to brave the outdoor tables, sheilded from the carpark by the afore mentioned hedge. This will be a lovely place in summer, but we went inside, not brave enough to endure the cold with little kids.

Walking into a large carpeted interior, empty except for a coffee drinker in the far corner, we decided on the wide lounge chairs by the built in artificial but stylish gas fire. It wasn't on, but one could imagine how cosy it would feel at night.

After deciding on a second breakfast I ordered at the counter. The only hiccup in an otherwise pleasant experience was the lack of smiles and the difficulty in getting a baby hot chocolate, rather than a baby chino. Once that was sorted and the kids entertained with toys, everyone was happy. The drinks arrived quickly as did the food. The latte was thick and delicious and the little people loved their drinks: a babychino served with sprinkles on top and a baby hot chocolate with a big marshmallow.

Danish Raisin Toast. This was advertised as thickly cut, and contained nuts as well as fruit. It looked great but was suprisingly bland.

The Ricotta Buttermilk Hot Cakes were served with a banana and caramel sauce. There were 3 hot cakes the size of typical pikelets, they were fluffy and delicious covered in the caramel sauce.

The Hash Brown was the best of our selection by far. Possibly reheated in the deep fryer, that didn't matter. It was crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside and full of flavour. We could have eaten many more of these.

Also on the menu was Vanilla Scented Yoghurt with a Stewed Fruit Compote, Eggs Benedict, and a mushroom dish served with goat's cheese and truffle oil.

I didn't get a chance to have a look at the lunch and dinner menu as between two active kids and meals that arrived very promptly we didn't have time to fill.

I'm glad there is a stylish cafe open all day close to a park where we often take the kids, this will be a nice way to round out a weekend afternoon.

The Beach House
Open breakfast, lunch and dinner
646 Sandy Bay Rd, Sandy Bay.