The Chalkboard Cafe, Waterloo

Miss K and I recently visited The Chalkboard Cafe for a brunch tasting session thanks to an invitation from Gretchen. The cafe is a hidden gem in Waterloo which is sure to be a very popular haunt when word gets out how good the food here is, I personally think this cafe is on par with the top in Sydney.

The Chalkboard Cafe is located in Waterloo within the PYD building and our hosts for the day were Paula and Robbie who were very warm and welcoming and run the cafe daily. Paula and Robbie have a strong history in the restaurant industry, working in top resorts at Hamilton Island as well as a top chef hatted restaurant.

Instead of ordering ourselves, Paula suggested that she bring out selected dishes so that we could sample a number of dishes from both the breakfast menu and the lunch menu (similar to the dinner menu). I was glad she suggested as we weren’t planning to order the Granola dish (above), the granola tasted amazing and is house made; the fruits, berries and yoghurt were refreshing. You can see for yourself that the dish was beautifully presented.

Along with the Granola, Paula suggested we try the freshly squeezed juices that are very popular item on their menu. Unfortunately I don’t recall what both the juices contained, although I know one is the Wake Me Up which included ginger and the other was a honey and mixed fruits juice. They were both very refreshing drinks and tasted freshly squeezed.

I was pleasently surprised to discover that the beautiful presentation and good food was consistent with our second dish, the french toast brioche. You can see that the experience Paula and Robbie have in the restaurant industry has carried over to this cafe with excellent presentation yet again and very amazing french toast to go with it. The bacon was crisp and crunchy and the french toast light and flavoursome, Miss K was a big fan of the caramelised sugar on top the banana pieces.

An interesting twist to this tasting session came in the form of this wine. I wasn’t expecting any alchohol since it was a Wednesday lunchtime but a cheeky drink in the middle week is always welcome 🙂 This chardonnay in particular was very refreshing and even Miss K enjoyed it which was a surprise considering she’s normally more into Sauvignon Blanc instead.

Miss K nominated this one as her dish of the day as soon as she saw it, she absolutely loved the smoked salmon but surprisingly the best part of the dish was the Potato Rosti underneath it which was crunchy and went perfect together with the smoked salmon. I personally loved the dill sour cream which came on the side and tasted really nice with the salmon and rosti.

Miss K fell in love with this drink the moment she saw it because she’s a big fan of cocktails, and this one had strawberries! I had never had a Mojito before but always wanted to try (the original) but this strawberry mojito which was very icy cold and refreshing left me with a very good impression and I’ll be sure to try it the next chance I get for sure.

You can probably guess this was my favourite dish of the day, in fact I was eyeing the dish on the menu the moment we sat down. The best part of the dish was definitely the sauce (I believe house made), which was creamy and had a unique flavour to it which is both similar and distinct to Bearnaise sauce. The meat was very tender, bread made by Bourke Street Bakery and mushrooms very juicy, I can see why this is one of their most popular dishes on the menu.

Nearing the end of our tasting session, Miss K and I were struggling to eat anymore as we had such a massive brunch. Paula and Robbie insisted that we take home a brownie that Paula makes herself to try and we decided to give it a go later in the night knowing that it would definitely be a good brownie. We weren’t wrong either, it had the excellent chocolate fudge as every brownie should but it wasn’t overpowering.

Overall you can tell I was very very impressed with The Chalkboard Cafe, so much so that I will probably be revisiting as soon possible after I arrive back from our overseas trip. I personally really want to try the Eggs Benedict and Pork Belly dishes that I saw on the menu because they looked very appealing. I hope Paula and Robbie continue to create a successful cafe and keep up the awesome work with excellent food, fresh ingredients and house made sauces and desserts. The menu and prices can be found on their website at www.thechalkboardcafe.com.au.

Miss K and Mr C dined as guests of The Chalkboard Cafe.
All views and opinions expressed are our own.