Plonk! Beach Café, The Spit – Rating – 15.5/25

Plonk! Beach Café

After receiving many recommendations we finally decided to drop in to see what all the fuss was about at Plonk! (don’t worry that’s the last time we’ll put the exclamation mark after their name). Situated right on the water’s edge next to the Spit Bridge, we arrived on an eerily quiet weekend morning. Let’s put this down to the weather as we have seen this establishment bustling as we’ve driven passed before. No matter whether you’re inside or out on the deck-come-wharf, you will be able to enjoy the view here. Our waiter was quick to tend to us however we were the only people there. Note that breakfast is only served from 8am to 11am.

Pineapple and cranberry juice

“Are your juices fresh?”
“No they’re not”
“Do you have any smoothies?”
“No, no milkshakes or smoothies”
Pineapple and cranberry juice it is then, I declared! There is no drinks menu and with nothing offered other than coffee we settled on the above beverage. The mix was okay for what it was but regular readers and café frequenters would know that it takes more than a sparse selection of drinks such as this to leave an impression on us.

Benedict with bacon

Our food was cooked reasonable quickly and looked good on the plate. The eggs Benedict with bacon ($17) was served on some flavoursome (and easily cuttable) bread, the bacon was plentiful and the hollandaise sauce although thick, had been prepared very well and tasted great. The tomato was cold by the time it was served however and for this price it would have been nice to have something else on the plate, perhaps some avocado (normally $4.50).

Plonk! big breakfast

The Plonk big breakfast ($19) definitely was a mountainous offering. We weren’t given any options for the eggs however we assume they can be cooked any way. They were poached to perfection and fit perfectly on more of the delicious bread. Hidden beneath the eggs was a generous serving of trim bacon. The mushrooms were moist and well herbed but the beef sausages were quite flavourless.

Other highlights on the menu that could tempt us to return were the flapjacks with berry compote and maple syrup ($11.50), Plonk toasted granola with poached pears and honey yoghurt ($10.50) and Plonk vegetarian breakfast with grilled haloumi, avocado, basil and cherry tomatos. We’d definitely give Plonk another chance as the food was of a good quality but perhaps on a sunny day when the chatter of other patrons is enough to drown out the hum from the cars on the bridge. After your breakfast at Plonk we suggest taking the walk from Spit Bridge to Manly (or somewhere inbetween).

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