…At Perry Lane, Paddington – Rating: 18/25

…At Perry Lane

At Perry Lane Facebook page notes that this café has unfortunately shut down. It has not been replaced by Not Just Coffee.

…At Perry Lane is one of those cafés that only locals or ‘on-foot’ explorers would find. Tucked away on the very narrow Perry Lane, it has a very tranquil location in the very trendy Paddington. The café is split over three levels: kitchen and WC at the bottom, the courtyard at street level and balcony & indoor gallery above.

Upstairs, inside

We found the waitstaff to be very attentive throughout our visit. Service was immediate, attentive and friendly with chilled water delivered straight away.

Treats for Hugo – very pet friendly

As we entered I (in hindsight, foolishly) asked whether pets were allowed. They most certainly are! On the menu are two dishes for pets: frothed skim milk & liver flakes ($2) and Lucky Dog with egg and liver flakes ($5).

Flat white

Enough on the pet aspects… onto the food and drinks! We found the coffees to be outstanding. We mainly ordered flat whites & skim flat whites ($3.50) which were so good we went back for another round. The only letdown was the skim cappuccino ($3.50) which came out as a flat white as well – most likely nothing more than a simple misreading of our order.

There is also a huge selection of teas (English breakfast, Earl Grey, chamomile, green, peppermint, lemongrass & ginger, botanical and China jasmine) ($4 each), freshly squeezed orange or tropical juice ($5 each), as well as milkshakes ($4.50).

Poached eggs on Turkish toast with tomato relish and side of bacon

The free range eggs ($9.50) are available either poached or scrambled and served with Turkish toast and tomato relish. All vegetarian dishes on the menu are designated so with a “V” making it very easy for vegetarians to find something suitable (including the menu item vegetarians do it better (poached eggs with avocado, grilled mushrooms, roasted tomato, rocket & parmesan salad with toasted sourdough and relish, $16.50)). One guest, J, added bacon ($3) to her order. Spinach accompanies the dish on the side with a small amount of mayonnaise underneath. J found it hard to fault any of the items on her plate – lean bacon, perfectly poached eggs, fresh spinach and the sweet which worked well with the eggs.

Breakfast wrap

I like to think of S, our other guest, as being Sydney’s wrap and bacon & egg roll specialist. We all knew that he would order the breakfast wrap ($12.50) as soon as we looked at the menu. The wrap is absolutely packed with scrambled egg, bacon, avocado, roma tomato and spinach again with the side portion of tomato relish and spinach on the mayonnaise. S found the avo and tomatoes to be very fresh but suggested that the relish should be included inside the wrap as it needed the sweet flavour to bring it all together. He was overall very impressed.

Baked eggs with grilled chorizo, creamed spinach and tomato relish on sourdough

Aside from the large all day breakfast menu, At Perry Lane also features a seasonal menu. The Autumn 2011 menu has organic whiskey porridge with poached rhubarb ($13.50), Croque Madame with prosciutto, Gruyere cheese, Dijon mustard, fried egg and toasted ($12.50), club sandwich with chicken, bacon, tomato, rocket and aioli ($14.50). The final dish on the specials menu was the baked eggs with grilled chorizo, creamed spinach and tomato relish ($13.50). This guest also requested bacon on the side. She would have liked the main component of the dish to have been baked longer as there was a lot of liquid left by the time she finished (including a decent amount of egg). She enjoyed the flavours but would have preferred more chorizo and less of the relish.

Perry Lane breakfast

I was stumped as to whether to order the Croque Madame or the Perry Lane breakfast ($16.50) but our waitress recommended the latter. The grilled mushrooms were a table hit – a large fresh mushroom that was well cooked and deliciously moist. While I found it very difficult to fault this dish as everything had been prepared very well, there was also nothing that stood out about it – no spark. As J had reported, the tomato relish and egg was a good combination. The avocado and lean bacon were delicious but the chorizo did lack some punch (so perhaps even if there had been more in the baked eggs, it still wouldn’t have added much more flavour). Despite enjoying this dish, I’m keen to return to see what I have missed with the Croque Madame.

Pear and raspberry bread with homemade honeycomb butter

Call me greedy but I was keen to try the pear and raspberry bread with homemade honeycomb butter ($6). The bread was lightly toasted but we would have preferred it a bit warmer. To our surprise it tasted very much like banana bread and it was only occasionally that we had the flavour hit of a raspberry here and there. The flavour of honeycomb butter was surpassed by the bread itself and not as mind-blowing as I expected it to be.

The atmosphere and friendliness at At Perry Lane is hard to surpass. The menu (both food and drinks) is broad enough to please anyone and the prices are fantastic. The chefs prepared everything very well, the only thing missing is some menu-uniqueness. If you’re in Paddington, we highly recommend a visit to At Perry Lane as it’s the perfect spot to plop down to refill during your fashion shopping.

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Overall Rating: 18/25

Phone: 8354 1222 or mobile 0431 282 666
Address: Rear 264 Oxford Street, Paddington, 2021 or walking directions: corner of Perry Lane and Belmore Place, Paddington

Payment Options: Credit card, EFTPOS ($1 surcharge for cards), cash

Gluten free bread is available for $1 extra, 10% surcharge on Sundays

One response to “…At Perry Lane, Paddington – Rating: 18/25”

Andrea | May 4, 2011 at 1:48 pm | Reply

I really shouldn’t read your reviews just before lunch time! so so so hungry!
I thought the bacon looked especially good here – well cooked and lean!