The Cockadoodle Cafe and Espresso Bar

This morning two friends and I decided to try out the brand new Cockadoodle Cafe and Espresso Bar located at the old Olivetto's site in Red Hill. This cafe is run by the good people who run the popular Java Lounge Cafe in Paddington so it's safe to say I had my expectations set pretty high!

Menu

Having only opened little over a week earlier it was obvious word had spreed pretty quickly as the cafe was fairly busy for 8.30am on a Saturday morning! After being seated at a semi sluggish pace, the menu offered a wide variety of tasty sounding breaky options.Our drink order was taken promptly but came out extremely sporadically. The banana smoothie which is made with yogurt instead of ice cream came out first and was nearly finished by the time my skinny cappuccino and our remaining diners latte appeared. Although we had to wait the coffee was very good!

All three of us had trouble deciding between several items on the menu but I eventually settled with the fruit salad with yogurt and honey and a slice of banana bread. The other two decided on a ham, cheese, tomato and basil omelet, lemon and sugar crepes and poached eggs on sourdough toast with a side of bacon. The breakfasts came out pretty much together but my order of banana bread never appeared. So after finishing all of our breakfasts I had to ask an apologetic waiter for the missing item.

Fruit salad

The fruit salad was a fairly small serving and didn't seem like anything I couldn't have made at home so I was slightly disappointed. The banana bread was the absolute highlight of the meal! It was dense, moist and had nuts mixed through it...perfect! The best banana bread I have ever had. The ham, cheese, basil and tomato omelet smelled amazing and was thoroughly enjoyed by my dining companion! The poached eggs on toast with bacon and the lemon and sugar crepes also met with a tick of approval. However at the end of breakfast one of my guests ordered a second latte and was left waiting for an excessive amount of time for the order once again. After asking about the missing drink he was told it was in the queue but it seemed like the ordered had never made it to the barista.

Lemon sugar crepe (back)
Poached eggs (front)


All in all the Cockadoodle Cafe and Espresso Bar served up an enjoyable breakfast. Although there were some hiccups and delays with orders, I put this down to the cafe being a little over a week old! In time I'm sure the service will improve but the most important thing is the food and coffee which were pretty good! I would definitely return for breakfast again as there were many tempting options such as banana and chocolate crepes, brook farm macadamia and cranberry muesli and zucchini and haloumi loaf with poached eggs!