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2019-01-04
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I decided to come here for lunch as I'd had their coffee before and it was decent. I ordered a smashed avocado with mint and chilli flakes, as well as a side of chicken breast. Sounded delicious. Unfortunately, the chicken breast was entirely unacceptable.The entire order cost about $135 - $25 for the side of chicken.Service:Never cared for the service, which is reminiscent of student waiters I've come across while in Australia. It was no different today, which should have warned me it would tak
Service:
Never cared for the service, which is reminiscent of student waiters I've come across while in Australia. It was no different today, which should have warned me it would take while and I should go elsewhere. The food took 20 minutes to arrive, a length of time that would normally warrant a warning from most standard restaurants that you would have to wait. I ended up having to order it as takeaway, as I was in a hurry. Anyway, I got a bit of a shock when I opened the box. I was expecting smashed avocado on toast, but it turned out to be on untoasted bread. That's 20 minutes for chopped, raw ingredients on unheated bread. Well, to be fair, plus a giant breast. Maybe it was heating giant chicken breast that took so long. Still.
Food:
I only remembered to take a picture halfway through my lunch, so there should be another portion of smashed avocado there.
The good: there were two large portions of the smashed avocado on bread, which were very filling. The bread was pleasantly dense and springy, and had figs and nuts baked into it. The avocado was of a bland, not flavourful, variety but tasted fresh and creamy, and was enhanced by fresh mint, dill, and dollops of yoghurt. The chilli flakes were visually appealing but had no taste or heat. There was a wedge of lime, which was nice. This portion of the food was perfectly acceptable - perfectly edible.
The bad: the chicken breast was an unmitigated disaster. I could not pin down how it was cooked, but it had a very strange, soft, spongy texture that was unpleasant. I've only come across this texture once, and it was in a mass produced, frozen turkey breast that had been home cooked in an oven when I was in Australia. I couldn't tell if this texture was from intensive farming practices (it was a huge chunk of meat), extensive freezing, soaking in brine, or some artificial additives. Certainly the meat had a very strange apperance. It also had a strange tang to it (while somehow simultaneously tasting bland and salty), which tasted like some kind of non-sodium chloride mineral or again some artificial additive. Even the herbs on the surface could not mask the taste. This was a 0 out of 10, I'm afraid.
Conclusion:
I am not naive enough to think that we can do without artificial, industrialised food, but I would really prefer if my food would not remind me of that unpleasant fact of life when I bite into it. I would have been happy with two small pieces of tough, stringy breast that at least tasted like chicken, but they gave me a very large, soft piece of plastic instead, and charged me for the privilege of their "healthy, Californian Nordic food" or whatever it is they're advertising.
Smashed avocado
$135
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Chicken breast
$25
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