1. Cafe Extreme in Newmarket, next to 277 Broadway. It's somewhere that Jonathan introduced me to about 2 years ago when I had moved back to Auckland to live. We went there one day with Dad when Mum was away/out somewhere.
It's quite a large cafe, suprisingly so. The size of the room and relatively high ceilings makes it a little noisy, but the coffee is good. Not sure if Paul has sampled and agrees?
Sonia and I stopped at Cafe Extreme on one of the few times we were out on our own in Auckland. Eggs Benedict and Eggs Florentine were featured prominently on the menu, so of course I had to have it. The Eggs Florentine was the option that had smoked salmon, so of course that was the version that I had to select!
The eggs were cooked just right, but there was a little too much spinach attached to the dish. Not so much that I left it on the side like other places, but a little too much for my taste. The Hollandaise sauce was made with a lot of grain mustard, which made an interesting visual effect. The dish was drenched in sauce - a little too much really. The base was an English Muffin - which I think was toasted just right, but with the amount of sauce it was a little difficult to tell!
So to the scores:
- Eggs - 8/10 - seemed fine under all of the sauce
- Bread - 9/10 - see above
- Hollandaise - 6/10 - tasted great but a bit too much (which I managed to clear off the plate anyway)
- Coffee - 9/10 - very nice
- Ambience - 8/10 - a little echoy
- Total - 40/50
The bread was not a bagel or muffin, but was fresh and properly toasted. The smoked salmon was a bit of a suprise - not the usual thinly sliced cold smoked salmon. Rather, it was more like a salmon steak, which may have been hot-smoked? An interesting twist for a benedict-jaded pallet :-)
The atmosphere at Verve is a little more sophisticated than some of the other places - there are either couples with new/young babies, or grown-ups. Not a sproglet to be be seen. Peace, perfect peace....
On the downside, my eggs were almost solid. Bit of a shame - one of the three servings did have eggs done properly, so maybe it's the strain of so many egg dishes in such a small kitchen?
The scores:
- Eggs - 7/10 - overdone
- Bread - 8/10 - not a muffin or bagel, but nice enough
- Hollandaise - 9/10 - fine
- Coffee - 9/10 - very nice
- Ambience - 9/10 -very nice, but a little loud
- Total - 42/50
I think I may have been to Cafe Extreme once a couple of years ago. I don't recall having an urge to go back there again so I assume the coffee was not exceptional when I went there.
ReplyDeleteYou did pretty well having 3 9/10 coffees in a row.
Re: ambiance issue at le cafe Palmer. Will reserve the outside table with sproglets padlocked inside trampoline enclosure for your next dining experience. Have also developed house manuka hot smoked salmon since your last visit and this has been added to the menu. Will endeavour to source latte bowls to pander to your weak coffee fetish.
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