Le Monde Café, Surry Hills – Rating: 21.5/25

Le Monde Café

Sometimes you visit a café and everything goes as you expect. Parking is readily available, the service is prompt, the food is inspired and the coffee was worth getting out of bed for. This was one of those mornings as Le Monde Café delivered on all fronts.

This unassuming spot on Foveaux Street makes good use of its interior as it’s actually able to squeeze quite a few patrons inside without feeling squashed. There are also three tables outside. My guest and I were lucky enough to arrive just after 10am to avoid the morning rush; you will have to wait if you arrive after 10:30am.

The menus is packed with everything you could want. The only usual suspect missing is a fruit salad so you certainly aren’t spoiled for choice.

Flat white

Five Senses is one of my favourite brands and their beans absolutely shone through in my coffee ($3.50). We are in Surry Hills after all so if your coffee isn’t up to scratch, you won’t last long! There’s also a weekly single origin selection available.

Strawberry smoothie

Detox juice

My smoothie ($7) packed a lot of yoghurt but I enjoyed the flavours and consistency overall. A well-prepared strawberry smoothie is hard to beat in my book. Also available as mixed berries, banana or mango.

The detox juice ($6) does its best to turn some (let’s face it, normally offensive) healthy ingredients into an enjoyable beverage. LMC does well with their blend of kale, celery, apple, cucumber, lime and coconut water.

You can also create your own fresh juice ($5) from a big selection. The Kick Start ($6) is a pre-selected combination of orange, carrot, apple, beetroot and ginger.

Truffled poached eggs

While the menu starts off simply enough, my guest went straight for Le Monde’s Signatures. The truffled poached eggs ($16) offers grilled haloumi, confit tomato, avocado and white truffle oil with two poached eggs all on toasted miche. The combination was superb, served elegantly and prepared extraordinarily well. I haven’t seen haloumi melt and ooze to this extent and it presented beautifully. The side of smokehouse bacon added $5 and there is also a huge selections of other sides available.

Crunchy potato rosti

The crunchy potato rosti ($16) simply went on to prove that LMC knows how to prepare well-flavoured dishes that look superb. The rosti itself at the base could have been a bit crispier but it was seasoned well and the thick strands of potato just melted apart. You have the choice of bacon or salmon and you’ll also find a poached egg, saffron hollandaise and crushed pistachios. Some feta, spinach and roasted cherry tomato also adorn the plate and I was in flavour heaven.

Interior

There are a lot of other dishes that I’d like to try. The feta scrambled egg with baby spinach, mushroom and crumbled feta cheese ($14), eggs Benedict with smoked salmon, Smokehouse bacon or Black Forest Gypsy ham, saffron hollandaise and smashed avocado ($16), pear bircher muesli with fresh fruits and yoghurt ($12) and the confit pork belly, beetroot puree, avo salsa, roasted cherry tomato, radish pickles, poached eggs, orange sauce and toast, $16) would no doubt be amazing based on the quality of what I have already tasted.

Visiting Le Monde Café has been a long time coming and I think I’ve said everything that I need to. It’s obvious that you need to get here soon to indulge your tastebuds!

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