Bread in Common, Bench Espresso, TopDup Doughnuts– Perth CBD, Freemantle – Western Australia

Bianca:  This ones a bit belated but here is my last round-up of my WA trip. Our last morning in Perth was a precise military expedition, an early AM wakeup was on the cards so we could make a pit stop at Bench Espresso, where we picked up some ‘TopDup’ doughnuts. I’m always on the search for great doughnuts and had heard some pretty good things about these filled ones. Staff were lovely and the coffee was some of the best we had during our trip. Now the doughnuts – Rocky Road with choccie rocky road bark.

Lemon Curd

and Dulce De Leche with choc peanut soil.

Little stingy with the filling but the doughnuts were fluffy, airy and especially easy to keep eating. The lemon curd was a stand-out but I still think Sydney’s Grumpy Doughnuts have the best doughnuts going around at the moment.

With the car filled with suitcases, chocolates and now doughnuts we were ready for our last meal and stop behind our flight back home.

We made our way over to Freemantle, which I liken to Melbourne’s St Kilda, with its laid back, beach side charm.

We settled on ‘Bread In Common’ in Freemantle, after being repeatedly told we just had to visit. I could easily see this café/bakery sitting proudly in any street in Surry Hills, with a converted warehouse fit out and a focus on communal dining and good, honest to goodness uncomplicated food.

Anyone that knows me well, knows that I am obsessed with bread… sourdough, rye, sweet bread, savoury bread – as long as I can smear a great glob of butter and a sprinkle of salt I am a happy camper. So a café with bread at its core. I was sold.

The space is simply gorgeous, I actually can’t rave about it enough, I loved the open plan kitchen and the fact that during our meal, the bakers were constantly bringing up trays of freshly baked bread. Service is perfunctory and we did notice a large lapse in time after ordering – particularly because we were conscious of the time due to our flight.

Joyce loves a good Portuguese Custard Tart $4 and just had to see how theirs stood up, sadly…apparently not well. But moving along.

Naturally we couldn’t look past a serving of their house bread –wholemeal sourdough – which is $2 p.p and $.50 p.p for plain house churned butter. The staple house bread was good but if I’m being honest I was expecting to be blown away and I wasn’t. Apparently a lengthy lingering after-taste is a sign of a great quality sour-dough loaf and this was certainly the case, with a strong acidic bitterness to the bite. The butter was a stand-out and we both appreciated the option of salt which is often under looked when it comes to bread and butter.

 

I went for the ‘Scrambled Eggs w/toast and Hazelnut Dukkah’ $15 Not your regular run of the mill scrambled eggs, thankfully. I generally avoid eating out at breakfast time because I find breakfast menus on the whole rather snooze worthy. But we didn’t have much of a choice in this situation. They weren’t shy with the amount of curry powder added to the dish, certainly a different slant and one I appreciated. Eggs were smooth and creamy despite my asking for them without any cream, The dukkah was an interesting touch and was a great addition to add differing textures and some interesting flavour notes.

Joyce opted for the ‘Mushroom, Spinach and Camembert Toastie’ $12. Which had a prominent earthiness from the mushrooms, they were rich and bold in flavour. Even portions of each ingredient ensured nothing overpowered the dish. Served alongside was a small pot filled with a tapenade.

And just because I couldn’t help myself, A chocolate doughnut from Bread In Common…which really wasn’t the effort lugging home.

We were told their lunch menu is phenomenal but time didn’t permit this visit. I can certainly see the appeal and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Bread In Common to anyone making the trip over to Perth, for the space alone. Yes, I’m a vain hack!

Bianca