Brunch @ Beauvais Cafe

About a week ago, a Nicky and I had an impromptu brunch at Beauvais Cafe. We were looking for something new and glancing through the Entertainment Book listed their name with a decent discount. So we decided to give it a try.

It’s a little out of the centre of town and in the suburbs, but when we arrived, it was pretty full. The staff were very polite and very promptly found us a table. The decor was pleasant but there were little details, like really roughly finished paintwork, that looked a little incongruent with the rest of the building.

We ordered large bowls of latte, which arrived promptly and were really rather good. They both tasted a tad burnt on the first sip, but we were pleasantly surprised when that disappeared. The food was on the pricer side of breakfast establishments - with prices at around $20 for a main meal.

We ordered, read the prerequisite papers, and conversed while waiting - which wasn’t short but certainly wasn’t excessively long. The food was excellent - it looks like the chef had really taken an interest in trying to make the standard breakfast fare interesting.

In addition, they were more than willing to be flexible - extra bacon for Nicky and vegetarian for me. Nicky had the eggs benedict - which had mesculin rather spinach and apparently worked really well.

The eggs were excellently cooked and the hollandaise was outstanding. The breakfast muffins were homemade and had much more substance than the usual airy things that are served in eggs benedict. My cooked breakfast was fantastic, though it could have used something like a relish to break through the other flavours. The bread was a full bodied ciabatta, the mushrooms were excellently flavoured, and the tartness of the feta on the sweet roasted tomato was an excellent combination. The hash brown was almost like a rosti - it was excellent, probably one of the best hash browns I have eaten.

All in all it was a good experience. If you have an entertainment book, it is also pretty good value. I’ll be back soon!

Location: Beauvais Cafe, 186 Yaldhurst Rd, Avonhead, Christchurch