John Smith Cafe

I was in the area so decided to check this cafe out. I love how they have cute succulents, plants and vines throughout the cafe. There's not a lot of seating, but during a weekday there's enough, and 1 hr street parking outside made it easy to access. Probably a different story on the weekend.

 
food spread


capp-$3.50

Really bold flavours and loved the froth in this. I also asked for the coffee to come at the same time as the food (to take a photo together and so the froth doesn't sink/deflate). It ended up coming around 5-10mins after the food, so my food was starting to get cold...around 5mins would have been acceptable since it doesn't take long to make a coffee for a barista. Just bad timing they had to do all their takeaway orders first...

I

Cous cous, roast pumpkin, cress, dukkah, goats cheese w/ pomegranate dressing-$14 w/ braised puled pork-$5 

 

some mini petals

I decided to be different and get a salad. Normally I don't get salads unless they sound interesting on paper, but I already had an egg for breakfast so didn't want more eggs, and wasn't in the mood for hollandaise sauce on eggs Benedict. It wasn't that pretty, but aside from that, I decided to add their pork since it's one of their 'star' items. I also don't normally 'add on' to the original dish, but all the dishes with pork seemed to heavy. It was an ok price for the amount you get (if compared to an egg which cost $3 at some places as an add on). 

The pork here was very dry and wasn't moist which I expected from something braised, and like Manu says on MKR 'Where's the sauce?' I found the salad to be underdressed and couldn't really taste any pomegranate flavour, and with the pork dry, it was a bit hard to swallow. There were cranberries which were too sweet for this type of dish. Everything else on the salad was average, but it was a very filling dish with the cous cous and pumpkin. Could have been a bit more fragrant with the dukkah.

I feel like I ordered the wrong dish. Other people really like this cafe. I do love their indoor plants though.

  

 

 

cakes

 

coffee

 

coffee wheel