Common Grounds

Pancakes, crepes and waffles oh my!
These are the breakfast items that make TimmyC’s face light up, so when RiotAct named Common Grounds in Gowrie with the best pancakes, we made plans to go immediately if not sooner.I love the look of their front counter, it has a bit of everything.Due to an overly comfortable bed, we did not make it to the cafe until 11:45am, but we were seated immediately despite the place being very busy.

They serve Campos coffee here which is good to know. I tried buying my friend some coffee beans but they said they doubled their usual order and they still sold out.

When the friendly waitress came to take our order, my mouth dropped when we were told they had sold out of pancakes. Poor TimmyC, he had to pick up the menu and actually read it this time. I on the other hand wanted one of their pasta specials, “sorry the lunch menu doesn’t start until 1pm”. ‘What? What kind of menu is this?!’ I thought to myself. I too then had to scan the menu and choose what will be second choice.

Banana, honey, nutmeg and cinnamon smoothie ($6.00). I’m not the biggest fan of banana taste outside of a cake but this was super nice! It had a great taste of banana mixed in with honey, nutmeg, cinnamon and a decent scoop of ice cream. I would easily order this again but it does fill me up.Flat white coffee from Campos coffee beans.Eggs benedict poached eggs and hollandaise sauce served  on two pieces of sourdough toast with bacon ($15.50). I really liked the hollandaise sauce and I kept on dipping my fork in to get some. Unfortunately there was only really one rasher of bacon for the whole dish.Conquistador sauteed chorizo, tomato, chilli, garlic and basil on toasted sourdough served with poached egg and topped with goats cheese ($16.90). The chorizo had a decent bite to it and it was a really good sausage but every now and then I had to pop a tomato in my mouth to cool down from the spiciness. I really enjoyed the bread and kept on eating it even when I was full. The goats cheese was too strong for my liking and I felt my poached eggs were a bit rubbery so I didn’t finish either of them.

The central indoor dining area was open to the back area which was nice for ease of access but it did mean that annoying flies came in and kept bothering us while we ate; we were squatting away flies between each bite. As we were leaving they closed the doors up to maybe keep the air con contained but it would have been nicer to do it earlier to keep the flies away.Despite our disappointment with the availability on the menu, the food that we ordered was really nice, the staff were super friendly and attentive and I really like the lay out of the place.

Being the stubborn person that I am, TimmyC and I returned much earlier the next day (their last trading day of the year) and we didn’t want to be seated unless we knew that there were pancakes available and there weren’t so we left and had breakfast somewhere else.

Venue: Common Grounds

Address: 4/1 Jeffries St Gowrie, ACT 2904

Phone: 02 6291 7412

Opening hours:

Monday – Friday 7:30am – 4:00pm

Saturday – Sunday 8:00am – 3:00pm

2014 Holiday opening hours: re-open Wednesday January 7th 2015