Monday, mid-morning, and East Perth’s tree-lined Royal Street is humming with walkers and workers. Many are clutching takeaway caffeine cups as if their lives depended on them.
The peak-hour has passed and the patrolling pedestrian with brunch cravings is spoilt for choice.
Brunch-time cravings steer us to appropriately dubbed Cravings Café which, we learn, has been in the hands of two successive families since 2009.
Buster’s brunch buddy, Professor Ken, orders us two heart-starter mugs of black coffee ($6 each). A top drop, too.
Cravings offer veranda or inside seating with generous spacing for central East Perth.
We give them early brownie points for its simple, no-fuss, 10-choice early-day menu.
Prices aren’t exorbitant, notwithstanding $17.95 for the granola bowl we ordered. That comes as toasted granola, seasonal fruit, Greek yoghurt, chia seeds, blueberries and honey.
While enough fuel for at least two people, its price could be trimmed a couple of bucks.
The honour of top price, $27, goes to ‘big feed’, with eggs, bacon, sausage, tomato, mushrooms and sourdough bread. We declined, leaving that pick to the next visiting troop of hungry soldiers.
French omelette satisfied our cravings with Mondo ham, mushrooms, spinach, cheddar and Turkish toast at $21. Again, enough food for a shared meal which would also justify the price.
Cold-pressed raw juices ($8.90) were off the menu so we shared a $9.50 smoothie which – according to Prof Ken – “slid down very well”.
Cheekily-dubbed a “Rupert Beary”, this smoothie combines raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, honey and milk.
From 11am, the menu embraces five choices including souvlaki ($18.50) and a royal burger with homemade beef pattie ($21).
Club sandwich ($21) embraces marinated chicken breast, bacon, lettuce, aioli, toast and chips.
Their steak sandwich looks formidable with scotch fillet pieces, onion jam, tomato, lettuce, Turkish panini and chips ($22). A surefire choice for any passing army.
We salute Cravings whose aim over the years has been “to keep the local community dosed-up on quality espresso coffee and fed from our huge range of delicious home-cooked meals and sweets”.
(We averted our eyes from the cakes and pastries cabinet. Next time…!)
4 Spoons
Cravings Café,
129 Royal Street, East Perth
Monday to Friday:
6.30am to 2pm
