Jill's Cafe, (George St, Windsor) 31st March

What a shocker! It's all our fault of course but we weren't prepared for food quite this horrid. And to have come all this way?!

Like all good brunch-clubbers we had researched and were heading to the well-reviewed 'Long Black' cafe but found it closed on Saturdays (why??) so quickly improvised to find the only half-decent looking cafe on the Windsor George Street Mall. The street is fabulous with its colonial charm but the less said about the food the better. Rubbery eggs, flaccid bacon and ghastly coffee. Never go here!

Ratings:

Sal: 1 for trying!!

Andrew: 0 and even less for the polo which to me was like private school meets apartheid. Where's Trent Oldfield where you need him."
Brad: 1

Quiz: a pathetic 8 out of 15 too.

The day, however, was redeemed by a picnic lunch at the Windsor International Polo Competition between Aus and South Africa. No, brunch-clubbers, this was not coincidental. This part of the plan did pay off. While one of our number (see picture) was non-plussed by the apparent pretensions pertaining to such an event, the rest of us had a wonderful day in the sunshine watching the GGs at their best. Reunions abounded, divots were restored and a grand day was had by all. Windsor, you redeemed yourself. We shall be back.



Jean and Andrew




Jean, Susan Jane & Andrew



Sal and Brad having a great day!!











         











Cafe Ella, Abercrombie Street, Darlington

An early start for the brunch club this morning one of the group off to a workshop for the day.. A beautiful Autumn morning sunny with a slight chill in the air I just love this time of year. Our destination this morning was Cafe Ella, a student haunt with a reputation for great coffee and bagels. The reputation for great bagels was correct and cost was very reasonable. The breakfast was interesting I had a bagel with eggs and bacon and it came with a salad, I presumed this can be eaten for lunch as well but I wasn't quite ready for lettuce at 8.30.

Conversation flowed as usual around politics awaiting the results from the Queensland election tonight and what's happening in the art world and the cinema. Our minds were not quite as sharp though as last weekend when we scored full marks for the quiz.

QUIZ: This week the score was 13/15 - well done Brad with the Flag question!!

SAL: Ample food (smaller servings would be better) but I have to remember the starving students!  3 golden eggs.

 BRAD:

ANDREW: Goodness me I have a terrible menu but I remember really enjoying my special style bacon and eggs. Think it was too early for me again. 3.5

JEAN:  The knives were too blunt to cut through my bagel!!

Double Roasters Marrickville

Well the rain may be back but this brunch clubber is feeling particularly chuffed this morning for having chosen an unexpected gem out of our usual 2-3 inner-west suburbs preference. Having driven past this cafe every Monday afternoon on my way from work to tennis, I thought this spot would make a great one for brunch club. Indeed it did.

Industrial architecture with large industrial lights and basically in a shed, this spot had real charm. Located in not your usual inner-west trendy cafe strip but in stead surrounded by a park and Marrickville housing.

Even on a wet Sat morn, it was packed and there was a brief period standing waiting in the rain proving how popular this place is.

This morning we were four again after a week off with Brad and Sal away from Sydney and Jean staying on the North side. The food was liked by nearly all (see Brad's comments below) and our conversation started with some Margaret Whitlam reminiscing, & then moved onto topics such as Sal's naughty but nice week in Byron Bay, films, politics (only briefly this time), art auctions( readers you must know that one of us is the Imelda Marcos of art auctions) and continued belly laughs about Granny Bear parking in the bus zone (see last brunch post).

MOST SIGNIFICANTLY, we scored 15/15 this week in the quiz. It's been a long time. Special kudos to Sal for knowing the name of the A-League soccer team from Perth and just about every single other answer too. Wow!!!!

ANDREW SAYS; 4 golden eggs. I did well with this spot, I feel like I'm now pulling my weight with the Brunch Club. Loved my corn fritters and the coffee was a 5 out of 5.

BRAD SAYS; Only 3 stars beause the food was awful. Don't order the baked eggs unless you like rubber. Methinks they just stuck it straight under the grill. The decor was great.

SAL SAYS; Oh...Surry Hills comes to Marrickville very funky designer look, love the big lights and industrial feel. Service was good, and I really enjoyed my cornfritters this morning - so 31/2 golden eggs from me.

JEAN SAYS; Enjoyed the brekkie loved the company and doing the quiz great fun to be included.

Mad Spud Cafe - Crown Street Surry Hills

A fun noisy small cafe tucked in amongst the Organic and other cafes on this busy strip of Crown Street. Brunch this morning was great. Extra brain power from excellent Brunch Club guests this morning and we all enjoyed the quiz, even though I thought it was quite hard today.

The food and service here were great I really enjoyed the cheesy potato skins.

The cafe was full of young, trendy 'surry hills' people. We had alot to chat about this morning, one of our friends fresh back from the Argentine after a year away was getting advice on where to start looking for work. And politics was a hot topic of conversation this morning.  Let's hope Bob Carr doesn't leave Australia's foreign relations worse off, as he did the state of NSW. (Not all brunch clubbers are liberal voters by the way I would just like to put on the record -Andrew)

Regular brunch club guest Mummy Bear- that is now Granny bear- had to be reparked after arriving late and announcing that she had parked in a bus stop. After we responded with mouths agape she pleaded that she was only a little bit in the bus stop!! Her son took her keys and found her car completely parked in a bus zone (no little bit about it) and concluded that Granny Bear is definitely Eddie from 'Ab Fab' and her two children are Saffie.


(These photos are not from the 'incident' but are projections)

Quiz Results - I think it was 12 or 13 out of 15 today

 
 ANDREW: My mother is maybe the naughtiest mother who ever walked the earth. And now she's a granny what will grandson J.D think of her as a role model? I shudder to think. As for the cafe, I really liked it. Despite feeling a bit low with the flu. Loved my food. I remember it had beautiful haloumi in it. 4 eggs out of 5.

BRAD:

SAL: My brekkie was great and slightly different from the regular breakfast, I had an Oat Potato Penny Cake - that\s Irish for Potato cake, poached eggs, cows feta which was yum and a Guiness onion relish that was excellent. 4 Golden Eggs from me for service and food was 3 1/2.

GRANNY BEAR: Oh wait, I think my car is about to get towed. It's ok, I'll blame my husband.