Four Ate Five: Delicious Coffee and Eggs

Anybody who takes their coffee seriously would know to work as much coffee into their itinerary when in Sydney. Its pretty tell-tale, from how Starbucks never really took off in Australia. The Aussies know how to make a good cup of coffee and recognise what really should go into a good cuppa.

We had our first coffee fix in Four Ate Five... and it turned out to be the best, most aromatic and thickest coffee we got to taste on our trip.

Despite sitting in a suburb that leaves the brunch-hungry spoilt for choice, Four Ate Five packs in the crowds consistently on the weekends and has amassed five-star reviews for its hearty brunch choices. We visited the cafe on a Monday morning and were lucky to be seated immediately at the front window; the perfect backdrop really, with the occasional breeze and the trendy passerby on Crown Street. 

I picked the poached eggs, smoked salmon and avocado on sourdough bread. I always do, I know. But it always excites me, how a little ricotta, dill cream or whichever minuscule variation promised in the menus, can make a difference to poached eggs. I think I could be curious about poached eggs again and again, be they with crabcake or salmon or proscuitto. Once, I tried to be different and ordered coconut pancakes. Three mouthfuls into the coconut pancakes I began to wonder how the poached eggs would have tasted. Three more mouthfuls later, I concluded I had wasted a perfect brunch appointment by choosing something other than poached eggs. I am narrow-minded about brunch and poached eggs like that.

I never regret a poached egg-choice, I just end up wishing sometimes there were more of it - I didn't have to at Four Ate Five. At Four Ate Five, I was fighting a dilemma between my overly expanded belly and the too-delicious-to-be-missed mouthfuls of the two-egg, creamy avocado and nicely salty ricotta, smoked salmon on crispy sourdough helluva help-there's-so-much-going-on-and-I-can't-get-enough-of-any-one poached egg experience. The poached eggs won, of course.

FOUR ATE FIVE
485 Crown Street
Surrey Hills 2010