16 February 2010

The Pepper Lounge Jindalee - Potentially Great...


My husband's logic defies even me sometimes.


“It would be better without the egg”, he says – eyeballing his breakfast pizza, and poking at said egg with his knife.

“True” I admit, “but then it probably wouldn’t qualify as a breakfast pizza?"

Shrugging his shoulders as he scrapes the egg off – “It would still be better without the egg” he states. And that is that.

And so began our breakfast at Pepper Lounge in Jindalee – despite driving past it almost every weekend – we had yet to venture in for breakfast despite a phenomenal amount of whinging about how bad the local offerings were.

So after deciding to branch out and try somewhere other than K and K – we grabbed a stool and prepared ourselves for yet another Western Suburbs Culinary Disaster.



I was stunned – not only were we welcomed with open arms, poured water immediately and drink orders taken promptly – but it was actually pretty good. The breakfast menu was one of the most interesting (and still appetizing) that I have seen in Western Brisbane and the coffee was really quite good. Creamy and frothy with just the right kick – I was genuinely surprised.

The menu had some lovely offerings alongside the regulars… house made baked beans, potato hash and maple ricotta pancakes to name a few with others drizzled with lemon olive oil. *yum*

So while the menu showed definite potential, the actual cooking let it down slightly. Hubby ordered the Breakfast Pizza – Mushrooms, Bacon, Tomato and Mozzarella topped with Rocket and soft poached eggs, while I decided on Spicy Chorizo with baked Eggs and Sourdough.


It was unfortunate that they had run out of Chorizo as it was on both mine and hubby’s breakfast – or meant to be – and the replacement BBQ sausages just didn’t cut the mustard.

The other, disturbing, thing was when mine arrived, the egg had been cracked on top of the sausage mix and baked – as described – but had somehow created a cryo-vac like consistency and as I cut it out of the ramekin, it was like cutting the plastic top off a microwave meal. *weird*

That being said – and although it was missing the kick of the also missing chorizo – it was quite nice. The sourdough was lovely and tangy, toasted nicely and smeared in butter. The perfect tool for picking up the acidic tomato and sausage concoction and weird plastic egg.

Hubby’s pizza was fine – nothing of a revelation as the base was a bit soggy and as it turns out, he wasn’t a fan of the egg (see above argument). But all in all, it was a decent breakfast and I would happily go back.

I really feel that the Pepper Lounge has a lot of potential as a great dining destination – and let’s face it – there’s not a hell of a lot of competition out here! The menu is really nicely written with some very appealing items – they obviously know and love their food - I think they just need to finesse the actual cooking process.

The Verdict: A decent local for breakfast that serves a nice mix of different offerings, good coffee and genuine service.

Recommendations: While I would only get it next time if they had the chorizo in stock, my Baked Eggs were actually quite nice. Once you get past the textural weirdness of cutting them out of the ramekin. Next on my list is the Maple and Ricotta Pancakes – they sound looooovely.

Contact:
62 Looranah Street
Jindalee 4074
(07) 3376 1011
SNFMEK7CZTGD

Pepper Lounge on Urbanspoon

4 comments:

  1. I agree! It does look like it would be better without the egg!

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  2. I had a breakfast pie once and it had an egg baked in it but it was rubbery (like you described, the plastic) and I definitely thought that it would have been better without the egg although it wouldn't have qualified for a breakfast pie! :P

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  3. Husband and logic - hmmm - yes, I don't think those two words should be in the same sentence unless separated by defies! :)

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  4. Ahh good old Jindaz. Nice to see something sort of cutting edge (well, I've never seen Breakfast Pizza anywhere else) in the 'burbs!

    I say keep the egg - I like the idea of gooey yolks all over that bad boy.

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