H2O Café, Narrabeen – Rating: 14.5/25 (re-review)

H2O Café

Previously reviewed in 2013, I chose H2O Café for a re-review because I enjoyed my meal there so much the first time. Very little has changed in terms of layout. There’s a very comfortable interior or you can spill out to the tables on the grass by the river. The outdoor seating is quite basic and it’s all very casual but this results in a very child-friendly breakfast destination.

The waitstaff were friendly enough when we had an opportunity to interact with them which unfortunately wasn’t often. There didn’t seem to be enough to take care of the number of tables so ordering was a touch slow. Our cutlery and crockery remained on the table for about twenty minutes and wasn’t even cleared by the time we left. This was in stark contrast to our previous visit which was surprising.

Cappuccino

Flat white

On an autumn morning, your hot morning coffee becomes even more important. Our cups ($3.90) did not deliver exactly what I was hoping for in terms of flavour. The barista did a reasonable job but was let down by beans that didn’t have that richness of some other blends.

Melon cooler

The freshly squeezed juices ($7.60) come in a variety of mixes such as tropicapple (apple, pineapple, passionfruit and lime), unbeetable (beetroot, carrot, celery, apple, lime and ginger) and my guest’s melon cooler which offered blended orange, watermelon, strawberry and mint. The mix worked well together, the only thing missing was ice to chill it.

American breakfast

The American breakfast ($18.90) takes the quintessential north American pancake breakfast and adds bacon and free range fried eggs. Maple syrup was poured over the pancakes. The bacon itself was delicious and cooked crispy. The egg (especially the yolk) with maple syrup doesn’t necessarily work in my opinion and my guest who ordered the dish agreed. The pancakes were thick and very dense, a bit too much so.

Moroccan eggs

As you can see, the menu is very varied. It’s large and everyone would find something to entice them. When my guest ordered the Moroccan eggs ($18.90), he was hoping that the “spiced mince” would have a bit of a chilli hit. He detected none and contrarily found the mince to be very light on flavour. It is served in a flatbread with goats cheese, pinenuts, roasted tomato and two free range eggs. The pieces of goats cheese were few and far between but the eggs were cooked well with a golden runny yolk. Overall though more seasoning and spices are needed. The dish simply isn’t memorable.

H2O Benedict

Yep, my go to. The H2O Benedict ($18.90) offers the usual ham and hollandaise combination but changes things up with a lemon thyme hollandaise. I would never have been able to decipher that if I hadn’t known though. The thyme was there but hardly discernible. The hollandaise had a good consistency but too much butter was added. The leg ham was thick cut and delicious and some baby spinach below was a nice touch. The almost sacrilegious use of plain white bread though astounded me. It brought the entire dish down when some quality, crispy, flavoursome toast would have done so well.

Other items on the breakfast menu include caramelised banana and coconut pancakes ($17.90), breakfast bruschetta (leg ham ricotta, avocado, roasted tomato, basil pesto and poached eggs on ciabatta loaf, $18.90) and fresh start breakfast (toasted coconut and goji berry bircher muesli with blueberry yoghurt and a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice, $17.50).

I’m always keen to hear the opinion of others but this time, my experience at H2O Café did not deliver.

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