Saturday, March 21, 2009

Pearl Cafe, Richmond

Make no mistake. I am a greedy pig. So things are pretty bad when I put the fork down half-way through my eggs. But that's exactly what happened this morning at Pearl Cafe, 599 Church Street, Richmond, Tel +61 3 9427 1307. What a train wreck.



The original Pearl turned coddled eggs into an art form. Pearl Cafe turned out coddled eggs that made my stomach churn. First, they wheel out a dish that it absolutely swimming in raw egg white. Not coddled. Not lightly cooked. Raw. After a short discussion with my waiter we agree that coddled eggs are not supposed to be raw, so they are sent back for a bit more coddling, or so I think. A while later I am presented with a plate of hard, rubbery eggs, the remnants of which are pictured above. Let's not molly-coddle these people. It was disgusting.

Normally, the combination of mushrooms, double-smoked bacon, sage and burnt butter is a winner. Somehow, this dish kills the magic. The mushrooms were wet and bland, not buttery and tasty. The bacon was wet and limp. The toasted multi-grain was dry and butter-less. And the sage was nowhere to be found.

But it's not all bad. If you go to Pearl and order the muesli, or one of the bacon, egg, lettuce and tomato panini, you will be very happy. The french toasted peach sandwhich with vanilla marscapone might also be good. And the venue is slick, if a little noisy, with cute touches like Japanese Geisha salt and pepper mills.

Just avoid the coddled eggs.

13/20 "stick to the muesli"

score

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16 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I went there not too long ago and had a horrible breakfast. My food was okay, but the ambience is horrible. The tables are much too close together and there is a stuffy and pretentious air. However, they have the best Portugese custard tarts I've ever had. If you find yourself in the area, I recommend ducking in for a custard tart, but leaving immediately with it.

23/3/09 23:00  
Blogger claire said...

I too had an underwhelming experience there. Such a shame.

23/3/09 23:25  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I still don't get why Pearl Cafe didn't bring back the infamous Coddled Egg toasty!!!!

25/3/09 11:41  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

You are back :-)

My vicarious breakfasts are resurrected!

Glad to have you and your honest reviews back in town.

26/3/09 16:25  
Blogger xofro said...

Sadly I too have been less than happy with Pearl Cafe, despite giving it many tries. If only the original Pearl was still doing its cafe menu and we wouldn't have to sigh deeply every time we passed this place.

28/3/09 10:42  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Agree agree agree! Shocking coffee on one occasion and very expensive stale awful muffin for 9 year old daughter - snooty waitress and sterile environment - love Pearl - dislike Pearl cafe!

3/4/09 07:09  
Blogger codenamemax said...

the locations and the decor just doesn't match the food. I had a semi ok lunch here and yes the waiter were snooty "Sit Down, we will come to you OK!" I also love pearl.

This breakfast, makes me want to vomit in my mouth a little bit!

4/4/09 22:37  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Disappointing; poorly done eggs; rather expensive for its quality. It's a shame. Puts me off trying Pearl.

2/5/09 23:45  
Blogger enieland said...

That looks disgusting. I'm glad you didn't eat it.

www.allamericanbreakfast.com

18/5/09 07:18  
Anonymous James said...

Pearl Cafe - 28 Logan Road, Woolloongabba, Ph: 07 3392 3300. I did say I would go back to Pearl Cafe again for breakfast and more cheesecake and it seems it happened sooner than I anticipated. Only a few days after my beloved breakfast companion arrived back in town we were able to make room for a breakfast double date.

3/6/09 20:11  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The best coffee in the area I would say I found the staff great and very helpful. My breakfast was great the blt.
This is a great little cafe what I would expect from a cafe

11/12/09 18:47  
Blogger Charlotte said...

Just left Pearl Cafe, and after many breakfasts there that I loved, the coddled egg, ham, brie and mustard was inedible. Eggs like rubber, ham nice, brie nice, bread like cardboard and no mustard. Still charged the full price and am very disappointed. You can't treat customers like that and be successful. Having logged onto this site am not surprised to see that there are so many negative comments. Waitress was lovely, just unable to make an executive decision to take the food back and apply a "no charge". There are too many lovely places to go, why would I go back? Leoni

25/6/10 09:33  
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