Scrambled Eggs

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Porgie + Mr Jones – Hawthorn – Sunday 3 May 2015 – Breakfast

Golden folded scrambles with goats cheese, chilli + basil on grain toast

Golden folded scrambles with goats cheese, chilli + basil on grain toast with a side of bacon

It is okay that someone is on their second day of service. It’s not easy finding waitstaff and everyone has to start somewhere. Support should be given to the newbie, and mistakes corrected. Initial training wouldn’t go astray either, like familiarity with the food and drink offerings.

There is a gap here and I’m not blaming the new waitperson. I am going to blame the support, and overall structure of Porgie + Mr Jones which was once at the top of its game and seemingly now is resting on its laurels.

I asked what the single origin is and got a blank look so I said I thought I saw on the board that there is one offered. Our waitperson apologised and said they didn’t know what a single origin was and would check. All fine. When they confirmed there was one, I duly ordered it.

My golden folded scrambled eggs with goat’s cheese, basil, and chilli came out neatly presented. Each mouthful was delicious, especially those with a good helping of the gorgeous goat’s cheese. I had a side of bacon that was nice and crispy, and adding it certainly didn’t take anything away from the other flavours.
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Catherine and her Mum tried the McPorgie which I had recommended to them. A while ago I could have sworn these were cooked fresh to order, but these days they certainly are not. The flavours of the Emmental cheese, ham off the bone, and scrambled eggs, are still nice inside the muffin, but not amazing. The egg is a little greyish inside confirming they are not fresh, and they are not consistently warmed inside either. When I used to order them they came out almost steaming with fresh golden scrambled eggs (like mine today) that melted the cheese into a gooey consistency.

Prior to receiving our food I started to wonder where my coffee had gotten to. I ordered as we had sat down, even before Catherine and her Mum ordered their juices. It eventually arrived after I asked (the table seated ten minutes after us already had their lattes so I knew it had been missed) but the juices didn’t come until after all of us had finished or were close to finishing our meals.

The second waitperson we had asked just expected they’d arrived (fair enough), but realised they were missed again just after we’d had to ask a third waitperson. It couldn’t have been an issue on juicing with at least one because it was out of a pre-packaged juice bottle (for $7). While Catherine’s Mum’s green kale based juice didn’t leave a sour taste in her mouth, the wait left had one in mine. We don’t often get an opportunity to take her to breakfast, and were a little embarrassed at placing our trust here.

I’ve been to Porgie at least five times. It is generally good, and started off great years ago, but you can’t have issues like this, not offer any apology or explanation (between three waitstaff), not offer any consolation whatsoever, and expect for me to come back. This type of thing only slips through when there is a more prolific issue underlying the operation of a cafe. There are too many other great cafes around Melbourne to let this experience pass through to the keeper.

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Mrs S – Maylands – Saturday 31 January 2015 – Breakfast

Croque Madame

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.
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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.
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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.
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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.

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