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| Fancy Funghi? |
Imagine my surprise when I found out that there are cafes serving brunch near my place after so many years of staying at my current address! I have always lamented the effort it takes to drive to places like Perth CBD, Northbridge, Victoria Park, Subiaco or Leederville etc., get parking and queue with the throngs of people to get decent grub for breakfast or brunch. The thought of it ALMOST makes me want to crawl back into bed and settle for simple oat porridge or toast for breakfast though I'm much too greedy to settle for simple food.
Lucky me, I have found my new-found favourite food strip. Located along Marmion Road, this stretch of cafes/bars/restaurants is apparently quite well known among the locals as the cafes are always well populated when I visited them during off-peak hours on weekdays.
In this post, I will be featuring Blend Café & Pizza Bar. Blend serves breakfast, lunch and dinner 7 days a week. My favourite part about Blend is that they serve breakfast until 2pm! Needless to say, this is a blog post featuring brunch.
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| Open kitchen to observe the chefs at work. |
When you enter from the entrance, you will feel like you are in a café. Once you pass the walls that separate the two dining areas, you will feel like you entered a kitschy restaurant with an open kitchen. Personally, I prefer the area with the open kitchen because the colouring of the area is more vibrant and I enjoyed seeing the chefs at work,
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| Kitschy decoration and long communal tables. |
I knew I was going to order "Fancy Funghi" the moment I laid eyes upon the menu. There is something about magic words such as grilled field mushrooms, chorizo and poached eggs that I zoomed in on the dish without hesitation.
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| Cafe Latte ($3.70) |
My latte was decent and I have had better.
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| Fancy Funghi: Grilled field mushroom, chorizo sausage, poached eggs, parmesan cheese, fresh spinach, ciabatta ($18) |
The dish arrived looking put together in a haphazard way. The spinach took centre stage as it literally covered everything except the poached eggs. After some digging and artful placement of the wilted spinach, I managed to get some decent shots of the dish showcasing the grilled field mushroom, chorizo and parmesan.
The flavours were simple, good and well put together. My only complaint is there were too much spinach and too little grilled field mushrooms and chorizo! I had to ration my mushrooms and chorizos so that I had enough "flavourful" ingredients to go with the ciabatta and spinach. At $18, I expect a bit more than just a few slivers of mushrooms and chorizos. Otherwise, it was an enjoyable dish and I loved the runny yolk that oozed from my poached eggs.
All in all, I like the place and I'm sure I will be back sometime to check out their other offerings. If you are after a kitschy vibe in a neighbourhood area, Blend is the place to go. They also have a coffee special going on Tuesdays between 7am-5pm. Be sure to check out the small notice at the cashier to find out what the coffee special is.
Blend Cafe & Pizza Bar
Opening Hours: 7am- late (7 days a week)
Address: 365 Marmion St, Melville, WA.
Telephone: (08) 9317 4400
Website: http://www.blendcafepizza.com/
