What goes up, must close down

Not in all cases, but it was inevitable that Canberra’s crazy eatery boom would slow down and now I’ve noticed a big surge of places either closing, changing names or changing owners. Here are some examples:

Old >> Schnitzel Haus (Braddon)

New>> Tipsy Bull (coming soon)

The original restaurant in Erindale is still open but the Braddon venue will now be transformed into a new restaurant.

---

Old >> Vitis Eatery (Braddon)

New >> Lazy Su (coming soon)

Unfortunately, it won’t be the delicious Vietnamese food that we have come to love from Miss Van’s but it will be interesting to see how their new venture goes offering Japanese and Korean flavours.

---

Old >> Turkish Pide house (Civic)

New >> Hannara Korean BBQ

My post about my recent visit to Hannara will be on the blog soon.

---

Old >> Shanghai Dumpling King (Erindale)

New >> Mr. Asian Chef

No more dumplings, just your typical westernised Chinese menu.

---

Old >> Breeze Sports Bar & Restaurant (Civic)

New >> The Alley Bar and Grill

Located in the Pacific Suites on Northbourne Avenue. I don’t know much about this place except that it popped up as one of my new Entertainment book deals.

---

Old >> Petra Palace (Phillip)

New >> Yummy Yalla

I don’t know if these are new owners or a rename, it went from a Lebanese restaurant to… Another Lebanese restaurant.

---

Moved >> Lahori gate restaurant

They moved from a small restaurant underneath apartments in Phillip to a much more spacious fit out in Weetangera apparently sometime around mid-2016. I’m yet to go but I found this awesome review from Travel and Beyond.

---

Changing owners 

Old >> Adore Tea (Gold Creek) you can still catch Adore tea products from their warehouse in Mitchell.

New >> The Tea House Gold Creek

I’m excited to see what direction the new owner takes on this tea house, I am trying their food out this weekend!

---

Old >> Mood Food  >> The Black Sheep (Braddon)

New >> Kith and Nosh (coming soon)

I didn’t even get around to trying The Black Sheep before they closed up. Hopefully, the new establishment stays around a little longer.

---

Closed >> Autolyse

Closed >> The Yarralumla bakery

Closed >> The Lobby / Pork Barrel

---

Changing owners >> Pulp kitchen- finishing up on Valentine’s day, it will be bittersweet to see the old owners go but exciting to see what the new owners can do with the place.

---

Changing names >> Paleo cafe to Tallow and Thyme (Braddon)

---

Changing names >> CIBO kitchen to Deli and Kafe (Woden)

Same family, just expanding their wares to cover European supermarket goods and deli meats/cheeses

---

Expanding >> Milk Crate cafe is not just a for the exclusive neighbouring buildings anymore, they have a much roomier space in their second set up down on Marcus Clarke street. They have a different chef and staff and I hear it isn’t as good as the original place.

 

Advertisement

Breizh cafe

As most people are using their lunch time to quickly walk/run/cycle up Mt Ainslie, I found myself sitting in air-conditioned comfort in the newly opened Breizh cafe eating crepes with my Belgian friend at the Ainslie shops.

I had heard about the Breizh cafe from a reader (thanks Hannah!) who was quick to inform me about the opening of the Breton cafe with unique sweets, French cider and coffee and I knew I had to get there as soon as possible.

 It is an improvement on the previous establishment with a good layout, good coffee and fabulous sweets.

Lunch menu: from 12pm to 2pm

Galettes~ savoury crepes made with gluten free Buckwheat flour.
While I was snapping away at the surrounding decor, my friend found herself torn choosing between two savoury crepes and that was even before she saw the menu for the sweet crepes. I just suggested how about we order both savoury crepes then share a sweet one. I’m usually full of these bright ideas that maximise the amount of menu items that end up on the table hehehehe, I just had one request that we get the unusual looking ‘Kouign Amann’.

Smoked salmon, capers, dill and creme fraiche ($14.50). Salmon, capers and dill are usually the perfect marriage of flavours and it is even more so with a crepe. I’m used to buttery sweet crepes so I found the buckwheat flour a little denser and heavier. We were slightly disappointed to find that the crepe wasn’t filled with anything but rather just decorated with ingredients on top, that is probably why it came out so fast.

Potato, Raclette cheese, Black Forest ham, onion ($14.50). The ham tasted like a wonderful proscuitto with a spicy rind and like any great cured meat was salty but it was balanced out by the crepe, cheese, potato and the sweetness of the caramelised onion. Again most of the filling of onion and cheese was at the tip of the crepe leaving the edges a bit tasteless and abandoned.

Oozy cheese! 

 Sweets~

Apple, salted butter caramel, Calvados, vanilla ice-cream ($13.00). The sweet crepes are very different to the heavy buckwheat savoury galettes. The edges of the crepe were crispy and buttery, there was a enough sauce and topping for every last bite of the crepe and the flavours of the salted butter caramel was heavenly with the soft stewed apple and ice-cream.

Kouign Amann ($6.00). When my friend went to order our desserts, she was asked if she would like some cream with the Kouign Amann, since it was 1/3 flour, 1/3 sugar, 1/3 butter what’s a little cream on the side? I am so glad that she said yes because it was amazing! Light and creamy with notes of vanilla essence – perfect! If we fell in love with the cream, I had high expectations of this cake. 

It was like eating an amazing sweet bread with lots of layers that you could feel in your mouth topped with a fabulous flaky caramelised top. Towards the outer edges of the cake, the sugar was thicker and forms almost a toffee covering which wasn’t too sweet but gave a great crunchy texture. I advise you all run and go try this immediately if not sooner! 

A wonderful addition to an already great collection of eateries of Ainslie. There are lots of great unique choices and friendly helpful staff who were very attentive. I am very keen to come back again and try different things.

Venue: Breizh cafe

Address: 15 Edgar Street, Ainslie, ACT 2602

Phone: (02) 6156 0346

Christmas opening hours:

Dec 24th Tues – closed

Dec 25th Wed – bookings only 9am – 2pm

Dec 26th Thurs – 9am – 3pm

Dec 27th Fri – 8am – 4pm

Dec 28th Sat – 8am – 4pm

Dec 29th Sun – 9am – 4pm

Dec 30th Mon – closed

Dec 31st Tues – closed

Jan 1st Wed – 9am – 3pm

 

**Sunday surcharges apply

Breizh cafe re-run

—– 19th Dec 2013 —–

Pretty much straight away after I pressed publish on my blog about the first time I went to Breizh cafe, we jumped in the car and went to get crepes that TimmyC was craving for after seeing my photos. We happened to arrive just after the breakfast menu ended but they said if we ordered fast enough they would let us order from it. After I paid, I asked if breakfast finished at 11am and lunch started at 12pm, what would they serve in between, they said that they usually just sell coffee and cakes from the cabinet.

TimmyC thought his flat white tasted very bitter and it wasn’t very smooth, not a good start to the morning.

Sweet crepes with home-made salted caramel sauce ($8.00). The breakfast menu has simple crepes and when we enquired about the more OTT crepes on their lunch menu they said that the kitchen hasn’t prepped for that yet. The crepe was simple but tasty with a perfectly made thin crispy crepe adorned with nothing but salted caramel sauce and a bit of icing sugar.

Pork sausage with cassoulet style white beans and toasted baguette ($13.50). The sauce to this cassoulet was so tasty but I couldn’t put my finger on what the flavours were, so I would take another bite and ponder some more and then take another bite until when I put my spoon in there was nothing left so I grabbed my bread and wiped up any remaining sauce. I wasn’t too keen on the white sausage, it just tasted like dull meat and herbs with barely any sear on it.

You could see from my plate what I enjoyed most from the dish.

Kouign Amann ($6.00). I somehow managed to convince Tim not to order another crepe and to get the cake that I talked up so much. The whipped cream was as fabulous as I remembered it to be but the cake however was very different. There wasn’t the toffee crust that built up around the edges of the cake, the top was not hard and sticky and all the ‘bread’ layering in the middle was rather dry and almost stale. This might have been in fact the same cake that had been sitting there since Thursday. I was so disappointed since my previous experience was so magical.

I was very sad about the kouign amann not being as good, I would hate to think that someone else went out that morning after I posted about it and got the same stale thing as we did. I ended up editing my thumbs up on Urbanspoon to the Breizh cafe after this visit. So far the sweet crepes have not been disappointing.

On a side note, this cafe has a 10% surcharge on Sundays so just be aware if you’re coming for a Sunday brunch.