Toast, East Perth

We met at 7am on a frosty morning – much too cold to sit outside. The interior of the cafe is small and feels kind of cluttered, but it’s definitely cosy and inviting, with a warm, friendly comfy retro feel about it. We were greeted cheerily by the same staff member took our order at the counter, made our drinks and worked the floor. When she was busy at another table and our our food was ready, the chef/cook brought it out from the kitchen to us with a smile.

Chad ordered savoury crepes filled with bacon, roasted tomato and tasty cheddar cheese (AU$14.90). Two crepes had been folded into rather tempting-looking parcels topped with more melted cheese.

The crepes were filled generously with chunks of sweet tomato, bacon pieces and melted cheddar cheese. Chad really enjoyed them.

I’d chosen my dish the day before after reading Toast’s menu online – regular readers, you won’t be at all surprised when I tell you what it was: corn fritters with bacon and maple syrup (AU$15.90). You can order the dish with fried, poached or scrambled eggs too (AU$2 per egg). I almost ordered scrambled eggs but didn’t want to end up with too large a meal. My first thought when I saw the bacon was “thank goodness I skipped the eggs”. My second thought was “Phwoar, shiny, maple syrupy bacon!”

The corn fritters were freshly grilled and full of corn kernels that popped pleasingly under my teeth. I just love the salty-sweet combination of bacon and maple syrup. If it wasn’t so bad for me, I would eat bacon and maple syrup every week.

My English breakfast tea (AU$4) was served in an interesting tea set that wasn’t actually a tea set. This, of course fitted in perfectly with the feel of Toast. :)

We started with ice-cold glasses of freshly squeezed orange juice (AU$5.50). I wish they could bottle orange juice that tasted more like freshly squeezed – even the best bottled 100% orange juice tastes nowhere as good as freshly squeezed. And I love it when someone else does all the work squeezing/juicing the oranges. :P

Jac chose the open rye sandwich with smoked salmon, tomato salsa, avocado, capers and a poached egg (AU$15.90). It was a very “Jac” dish – a sandwich/salad hybrid that featured some of her favourite foods (smoked salmon, rye bread, avocado, capers).

When Jac sank her knife into the poached egg, I practically jumped out of my chair at the sight of the bright orange gooey yolk oozing out. Somewhat embarrassingly, I’m not exaggerating! Of course I had to photograph it!

On my first visit to Toast, I had taken note of another dish that sounded delightful – caramelised banana crepes (AU$12.90). Well, it sounded delightful, but I ordered my crepes with a side of bacon (AU$5), which upgraded them to awesome! When the plate was placed before me, the smell of caramelised banana and brown sugar intermingled with fried bacon was just heavenly. As our waiter (the same person as the week before) served my crepes and bacon, she said “We assumed you wanted to eat it all together, so the chef just put the bacon on top – hope that’s all right?” to which I answered: “Thank you – it’s perfect!”

While some sugar had melted into brown caramel on the crepes, there were super sweet crunchy piles of sugar that I rather enjoyed. It was all very decadent, really.

Like the week before, I was thrilled to receive a hefty serve of bacon, a perfect balance of lean and fat bacon. Oh bacon, why must you be so lusciously, temptingly delicious and unhealthy?

The photo below depicts a typical scenario at meal time – Jac is attacking her food and has already started to dismantle the chef’s careful plating of her meal, while my food stays untouched as I photograph it from multiple angles. :)

Toast’s menu consists of breakfast fare, sandwiches and salads, available all day. You can choose a fairly simple breakfast (porridge, muesli, fruit and yoghurt), sweet or savoury crepes, croissants (the one filled with scrambled egg, Swiss cheese and dijon mustard sounds fantastic!), 14 different kinds of toast, some of the breads you can order with all kinds of toppings – not just your usual butter and jam, but Nutella, or avocado and Vegemite, or tinned sardines, various breakfast fry-ups, French toast… I love an extensive all-day breakfast menu!

Clearly, Toast has some faithful regulars – both times I was there, the same man was too – he worked on a laptop computer the whole time and his phone kept ringing. East Perth/Claisebrook Cove residents dropped in to grab takeaway coffees after picking up a copy of the newspaper. I felt quite envious – I’d love to live in an apartment or townhouse in Claisebrook Cove. Below is what you’d be gazing at, sitting at one of Toast’s outside tables. Chad and I have seen dolphins in the water at Claisebrook Cove – really!