Croque Madame

You are elusive Mrs S. I’ve tried to meet you several times and several times for some reason or another your doors have been closed to me.

There have been times where I would say I would not come back. If it wasn’t during Christmas/New Year break, it was lack of staff, or maybe just picking the wrong day. But today is the day.

The reason we have always wanted to try Mrs S is not unusual. The reason is because every second mention of a good cafe in Perth seems to include this place.

After a very short wait we are seated, handed the playful story menus, and explained that once ready you order at the counter. Luckily, ordering at the counter doesn’t take a long time but I disagree with this becoming a trend in many Perth eateries. My issue is there are plenty of staff to take food out so why can’t they take orders for breakfast. Comparatively, having to go and order at the counter for coffees, and then again for food, and then again finally for another coffee, not to mention again to get takeaway cakes, becomes cumbersome and unnecessary.

That being said, the staff here are very friendly and even though they only take orders at the counter and bring out food, they seem to have a good rapport with customers both regular and not. My first long black is over-extracted but still good, while my second ordered half full is much better.

As breakfast arrived, I impulsively grabbed my fork and plucked some of Sher’s scrambled eggs from her plate. Not just zoolander good looking, they were also incredibly tasty, instantly giving overtones of envy and overwhelming want to come back! While Mum and Catherine had poached eggs, all of them agreed that the slow cooked tomatoes and bacon were excellent, but the bread was a little too thickly cut.

Even though I wish I ordered the scrambled eggs,my Croque Madame was still good. Nice ingredients are used, but the bread again was slightly too thick and crusty, making it difficult to eat and adding too much crunch. In fact, often a Croque comes with the crusts cut off for that very reason. The chutney was nice, but not traditional, and the side salad was redundant. If I’m having a Croque, anything healthy is not needed.

The Maylands vibe here helps make Mrs S what it is. There’s a good collection of people for watching and lots of other cafes, bakeries and boutiques close by. While not everything was amazing, the food was delicious or close, and the coffee and juices excellent too. Our tastes of Mrs S’s treats as dessert later that evening turned out to be great too, putting it on the list for afternoon tea in future months.