Clover Cafe, Annandale – Rating: 19/25

Clover Café

You’ll be forgiven for regressing back to your childhood when you visit Clover Café. From the aeroplane mobile to the bowl of free balloons at the counter, there are touches of young innocence everywhere. The seating inside consists of a long communal table and several tables against the wall which themselves are quite long. This encourages strangers to sit together and hopefully realise that interesting conversations are just a shared table away. We seated ourselves on this cold and rainy Sunday and our drink orders were quickly taken. We had to wait a while before our food order was taken and the food and drinks seemed to take longer to arrive than we’re used to.

Skim decaf cappuccino

Flat white

The Skim decaf cappuccino ($3) and flat white ($3) had mixed reviews. The former was slightly cold and didn’t live up to our expectations. However the latter impressed our guest who decided to order another. It also looked more appetising as you can see in the delicious photo above.

Watermelon and orange juice

The drinks menu is small but contains what we believe to be the essential breakfast beverages. As well as the selection of coffees and teas, there are cold drinks such as iced coffee ($4.50), iced chocolate ($4.50 or small for $3), iced mocha, affogato or Virgin Mary ($4.50 each). For Dane, the fresh juices are where it gets interesting with offerings such as apple, carrot & ginger, carrot, celery, ginger & orange, watermeleon & orange and plain orange ($4.50 per glass). The watermelon and orange juice was a great combination: freshly squeezed and cold it is highly recommended.

Fruit toast

The fruit toast ($3.50) is served with butter and jammies. It lived up to it’s name and was bursting with fruit including apricots and sultanas. We would have liked a bit of extra butter as it quickly melted over the thick first piece.

Rabbit toast

Can you see an animal shape in the toast above? We had a hard time time deciphering it too. The Rabbit toast ($3.50) again with butter and jammies was reasonably priced but was cut too thin and lacked the texture of gourmet bread we have come to expect in Sydney. There also lacked a choice of jam flavours. We were given a jar of Hanks Mixed Berry Jam almost as an afterthought.

Poached eggs on toast, prosciutto, tomato relish and Pecorino

The cooked dishes made up for any disappointment with the toast. We relished every bite of the poached eggs on toast, prosciutto, tomato relish and Pecorino ($12.50). The dish is made even more flavoursome by adding slices of fresh tomato, spinach and balsamic. The flavours worked superbly together and made this a meal that we would definitely order again.

At the end of the meal the owner came around to personally check on our table and the charm of Clover grew on us. It you’re keen to try this cafe we recommend the cooked dishes. Leave the toast and jam for a lazy Sunday at home.

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