Jack's Coffee Lounge

Jack’s Coffee Lounge
1/31 Cambridge Road
Hamilton East

        All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, so they say, and if it’s possible for this proverb to cross over into café-metaphor-land, then someone needs to start bringing the laughs to this place.

        Jack’s is a staple in Ham East. It’s been around for ages and has built up a steady set of regulars and nothing I say here is going to change any of that. But really, honestly, Grace on Braid’s brother café requires a gentle poke in the ribs.

        My friend and I pop down the road for a mid-morning coffee chat and are met by tables situated in the late winter sun. The woman behind the counter smiles, which is always a bonus, and when we sit down another staff member quickly comes to check that our table, which has just been moved, isn’t wobbly.

        We order a vegetarian savoury muffin, $4.50 (capsicum, tomato, sunflower seeds, topped with cheese) and a sweet muffin, $5, (black dorris plum and white chocolate) to share. The former comes with a lovely tart plum sauce and butter, the latter with yogurt and honey.

The muffins themselves are okay. They’re not dry, they’re not stale, but neither has any flavour other than the chunks of white chocolate buttons speckled through the sweet one. A bit of cheese mixed into the savoury muffin may have helped things along, but when you’re charging $4.50-$5 for a medium-sized muffin, you need to make it bang my mouth. These muffins don’t bang, they quietly knock before giving up and meekly excusing themselves down my oesophagus.

        The coffee follows suit. My long black, $3, is drinkable but not memorable. Again, it’s bland and lacks the body and pizazz of a truly fine espresso. My friend’s soy chai latte is hot and the milk comes out smooth, but she can only faintly taste chai over the soy milk.

        In the past, I’ve had grouchy service here and today’s staff are a solid improvement over past experiences. Otherwise, the food is nice but high prices mean one expects more from what is, in actuality, very meek fare. Kudos to Jack’s for the nice outdoor seating and occasional smile, boos for boring food and coffee that tastes like it’s on Prozac.

3 stars

Grace on Braid Review

Grace on Braid

29 Braid Road

St Andrews

 

It's Saturday morning and Grace on Braid is in full rock n' roll mode: joggers stopping in for a bit of liquid energy, young couples playing footsy beneath their eggs bennes and elderly patrons nostalgically checking out the collection of vintage crockery on the wall.

Upon entering, you know immediately that you have walked into the soul of a neighbourhood; it's the kind of place that knows most customers by name and where you feel comfortable taking your shoes off at the table. I feel like I come here all the time. Only I don't.

Nick orders the mushrooms on toast, big juicy slabs of button 'shrooms, completely swamped in a drunken deluge of port, cream, mustard and garlic, served on five-grain toast ($13.50). The mushrooms are perfectly cooked and not too rich, but the portion is quite small. It's lucky he got a side of eggs as well, or he might have started in on my plate.

My French toast comes with banana and passion fruit "ambrosia" and a vanilla maple sauce ($13.50). I love the word "ambrosia," it makes me think of clouds and cream and fruity heaven, which is pretty much the way this plate tastes. Again though, the portion is small. I get three pieces of toast and the equivalent of about a half a banana, sliced. It's a good start, but the dish is so delicious I would have loved a bit more of it.

Grace uses Rocket coffee, roasted in Hamilton. Not my absolute favourite brand, though the espresso here is passable. Nick has a mocha ($4.70) and it's creamy and cocoey and everything a mocha should be, but my long black ($3) doesn't have much flavour or depth, like a cup of Earl Grey where the teabag's been taken out too soon.

Parking is easy as the cafe is located in a small line of shops on a quiet street, and the staff are friendly. I wouldn't drive across town to come here, but if you are in the neighbourhood it's worth a peek. The sweet, slightly kitsch surroundings and tasty (though mildly over-priced) food make Grace on Braid a cosy spot, and their cakes looked good enough to warrant investigation.

3 stars

As a child, did you ever read those storybooks about fairy-folk who lived in towns built under hills and rocks and various other camouflaged bits of landscape? Mavis and Co is a bit like this.

The bleak-looking grey brick building, wedged between a video store and an accounting firm, suddenly transforms upon entry into a magical realm of cakes and coffee and small children fighting over caramelised onion and feta scones. It's also startlingly spacious inside, like one of those Harry Potter tents.

We manage to find an empty table amidst the hubbub. There are at least five staff members working out front this Saturday morning, and all of them are off their feet, but friendly as they can be in the mildly chaotic environment. We are even presented with complementary tasters of the apricot and almond oat cakes, which taste like muesli bars.

Nick orders the smoked fish hash with watercress, poached eggs and Hollandaise sauce ($21). It's beautiful when it arrives, and the smoked fish cakes are generously sized, but it's a little under-seasoned and Nick douses it with salt and pepper.

My fruit toast comes with ricotta, medjool dates, jam and honey ($12). Aside from the fact that the ricotta appears to be home-made, which is lovely, this dish is essentially a waste of money. The toast is extremely dry and the "dates," which were the main reason I bought the item, are simply slivers of a single date used as a garnish. This, however, is our only disappointment of the morning.

Mavis and Co uses Caffe L'Affare, roasted in Wellington, and it's deliciously prepared. I order two long blacks ($3.70 each) because one isn't enough.

The real reason to stop in at this charming little eatery, though, is the unbelievable cabinet selection. A cheesy scone stuffed with feta and onions, a sticky pecan cinnamon bun and a velvety custard square made it home with us, though I have ambitions regarding a certain rolled baklava, billowy chocolate meringues, colourful salads, espresso éclairs...

Anyway, this is the place to go for coffee and cake. The cooked menu is nice, but nothing better or worse than you can get anywhere else. Yet the baker at Mavis and Co is almost certainly of magical blood, for there are spells being cast in that pastry cabinet. 

3 1/2 twinkling stars

Mr Milton's Canteen

127 Alexandra St

Hamilton CBD

Walking into Mr Milton’s Canteen is like stepping into an Easter-themed cafeteria with nice lighting and waitresses wearing floral skirts. The walls are pastel green, the coffee cups egg shell blue and banana-rama yellow. Even the customers, and there are many this Friday morning, have somehow managed to match the friendly décor.

My friend orders the Mr Milton’s breakfast ($17.50), which comes with a soft boiled egg, toast, preserves, yogurt, orange juice and the coffee or tea of your choice. It arrives on a pretty wooden board and our only complaint is that the egg is slightly under-cooked, with some white bits still gooey. The menu also didn’t specify that it was soft-boiled, which some people might take issue with.

I opt for the bruchetta with mascarpone, feijoa jam and rhubarb compote ($7.50). Somehow, the toast tastes like a croissant. I don’t know how they do this, but I must find out how, as it is divine: flaky and buttery and perfect with cream-cheesy mascarpone and the feijoa jam, which is the best jam I’ve tasted in yonks. I ask the waitress where they get it and she tells me that all preserves are made in-house. I make a mental note to bribe the chef for the recipe at my next visit.

The coffee here is nice, but not as good as at sister café Hazel Hayes. My friend’s flat white isn’t quite hot enough, and my long black ($3.70) is touch over extracted. Still, the well-priced, well-prepared and well-presented food more than makes up for these slight imperfections.

Staff are friendly, prices are reasonable but parking is a bit of an issue on weekdays (you will most likely need to pay). However, if the weather’s good, put on your trainers and pretend you’re on an Easter egg hunt: Mr Milton’s is a fine find indeed.

4 stars

Grey Street Kitchen

It’s a bright, chilly Sunday morning when my boyfriend and I nip into the Grey Street Kitchen, our breath following in cloudy trails behind us. We are so relieved to find the place heated that I am tempted to give them five stars on the spot.

Inside, the GSK is packed with tables full of university lecturers, the odd student, and those who have wandered in after browsing Grey St’s Sunday market stalls. It’s loud in here, which is one of the only reasons I don’t come very often.  Hard walls, hard furniture, not a scrap of fabric in sight to absorb the sound; this is not the place to come if you are after an intimate conversation.

My boyfriend orders the Eggs Benedict with roast vegetables ($17.50). It arrives stacked on its plate, looking lovely all smothered in warm hollandaise sauce. For some reason, however, the chef has decided to put what tastes like pickled capsicum on it. It’s an interesting idea, but it doesn’t work. The flavour takes over, and while the hollandaise is nice and buttery you almost can’t taste it.

I opt for the day’s breakfast special: gluten-free ricotta hotcakes with caramelized apple, raisins and maple syrup ($14). The words “gluten free” usually put me off, but the rest of the description makes my mouth water, and after a few bites I forget that the dish was intended for a Celiac sufferer. Almond meal, I am told, has been used instead of wheat flour, and the hotcakes are moist and crumbly, drunk with syrup, and too rich much for me to finish. The apples are a tad sweet and make my teeth cringe, but otherwise it’s a delicious plate of food.

The coffee, in my experience, isn’t consistent here.  I’ve had both wonderful and average cups depending on who’s behind the machine, and today’s long black ($3.50) is the latter. It’s drinkable, but I don’t order a second.

Essentially, the food here is nice, the coffee is average to good, the staff are friendly even when it’s busy, and there is plenty seating both inside and out. One of my favourite things to do here is simply stare out the window at passers-by. Call me a voyeur, and I’ll tell you that a decent vantage spot for people-watching can be a café’s best selling point.

3 ½ stars

Just a few bits and pieces about our drug of choice...

Dora’s Cafe
105 Collingwood St

Dora’s is my local. There is possibly something inherently biased about critiquing the cafe you go to almost every day, where you know the staff well enough to order simply by walking in the door and saying “hi,” and your tacky cartoon sketches are pinned to the notice board.
But why should this little gem of an eatery miss out on a review, just because I happen to spend half my paycheck there every week?
With this attitude in hand, I order a bowl of their self-proclaimed, “probably the best in town,” macadamia nut muesli ($10.50), which I have never tried. It is most definitely the best I’ve had, and I’m not just saying this because I hope Misty will make me a free long black ($3.50).  Macadamia nuts, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, cashews, and other bits and bobs all toasted in honey and served with creamy plain yogurt and berries, yum.  It’s gluten free as well, if you swing that way.
My friend takes on the salmon bagel ($10), which is basic and comes with cream cheese and capers. The bagel itself isn’t amazing or anything, but then again, you need to fly to the States if you want amazing bagels. You get plenty of salmon though, and lots of cream cheese.
The espresso here rarely fails to impress and if Misty, the barista, is in a good mood, it comes with cheeky comments and a heavy dose of banter. Grant, the manager, is a sweetheart. You get the feeling when you walk into this place that you’ve entered something special, a community of sorts. Don’t come here for exotic food, fancy plating, or chic décor. Come here because you want genuine warmth and a reliably good coffee. It’s kind of like eating at home, only much better.

In a class of its own