Sweet Vanilla Kitchen

Pretoria Street, Lower Hutt

Those of you who have grown up or spent any time in Lower Hutt will recognise “The Crescent”, a single storey brick house/cafe situated conspicuously on the corner of Pretoria street and Kings Crescent. Upon recommendation from two of Andre’s colleagues, thanks Jodi and Dane, we find ourselves squeezing into a car park directly outside the Sweet Vanilla Kitchen on a wet and gloomy day. Andre, ever the amateur archaeologist, decides to uncover some of the buildings history. A quick search on The Historic Places Trust website reveals the following:

” The Crescent is an L-plan single storey brick building on a prominent corner site, designed as a combination of shop and residence, built in 1906. The building has always had a retail function, and was first used as a bakery. The baking was carried out in a small separate building which still exists on the site. The architectural style can best be described as a New Zealand interpretation of Australian Victorian Georgian and Federation Bungalow styles. The architect was RP de Ridder. The building was modified in 1970 with the removal of the verandah on the southern end and filling in with an unsympathetic laundry. A feature of the building is the coloured glass in the shop windows and house fanlights, which is claimed to be “signal glass” once used on railway semaphore signals.”

One can only imagine what an “unsympathetic laundry” might refer to and unfortunately we are none the wiser as we don’t penetrate that deeply into the building during our visit.

The cafe is busy but there are a few spare tables and we’re lucky enough to secure one next to a large window by the entrance. The cabinet food looks spectacular and the staff are friendly and welcoming. Rachael decides to order her standard scrambled eggs and bacon while Andre caters to his sweet tooth with a pancake, bacon and fruit option.

Despite the steady turnover of customers, our drinks and sweets, more about them later, arrive in good time, followed after about 10 minutes by our “mains”. Rachael thinks her meal is delicious and Andre makes short work of his pancake stack. His only complaint being his bacon which needed another 3 minutes on the heat but we can’t hold that against the cafe as it’s impossible to tell whether a customer likes crispy bacon just by looking at them.

And finally to the sweets. The piece de resistance of our dining experience. Dear reader, take a good long hard look at the photos below as they show what could quite possibly be the finest examples of a banana/chocolate/caramel and cheesecake to be found anywhere this side of the black stump!

I have deliberately left these images large as that’s the respect these delectable dishes deserve. If you like a great cake then this is the cafe for you…unsympathetic laundry or no.

Andre’s Highlight: Cheesecake

Rachael’s Highlight: Banana/chocolate/caramel cake

Star rating: 5

Don’t forget, we’ve extended an invitation to all our readers to join us at Expressions Cafe Upper Hutt at 10:30 Sunday 1st Sept. Coffees are on us!

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Pickle and Pie

Central Wellington

Today’s review has left a bitter taste in our mouths! Before everyone gets too alarmed however I should point out it has nothing to do with the Pickle and Pie cafe itself and everything to do with the Wilson car parking building right next door! Yes dear reader, your dynamic duo are currently in negotiations with Wilsons about the cost of parking and whether $65 tickets really needed to be issued at all! Having said that…we will not let it detract from a fair and professional review such as all our previous efforts. On to the cafe…

The Pickle and Pie is a well known and popular cafe tucked into a pleasant lane behind the West Plaza Hotel and arguably about as central as one can get in downtown Wellington. Full disclosure…it wasn’t the cafe we were heading to when we left home but events of the day overtook us somewhat and the P&P was conveniently located. Plus we thought the Wilsons building next door offered convenient parking but let’s not labour that unfortunate situation any longer. I will just say, if you do go there DO NOT TAKE THE STAIRS as it turns out the paystation is outside the lifts.

The P&P is a modern glass and steel cafe with a warm and friendly atmosphere. Our visit was mid afternoon on a Sunday and the place was full. The friendly waitress who greeted us offered either a table we could share with complete strangers (interesting but no thanks) or a table outside. Although a little cool it was a beautiful summers day and we were well prepared with survival jackets and wooly hats so opted for an alfresco experience. Once seated we were treated to table service which was speedy and friendly. The coffee and sparkling water arrived within minutes after our order was taken.

Rachael wasn’t feeling her usual hunger pangs so ordered a plate of hand cut fries while Andre, ever the culinary adventurer, gave a thumbs up to a plate of smoked blue warehou with lemon and fennel salad topped with a poached egg.

We both agreed Rachael’s chips were perfectly cooked although on the menu it says they come with pastrami ends and as we had asked them to hold the pastrami the kitchen took it upon themselves to add pickle which wasn’t mentioned anywhere other than in the name of the cafe. Rachael’s not a pickle fan but it’s no big deal as she managed to eat around them ok. Andre enjoyed his fish dish although they were a little heavy on the onion. His salad leaves were also at the mercy of the slight breeze that comes with outside dining and several ended up on the footpath.

As we were somewhat time constrained (had to get back and pay for parking! Sorry…I need to let it go I know.) we decided to forego anything sweet from the cabinet but we both agreed there were some interesting and tempting delights we’d like to come back and try another day. I mean who wouldn’t want to eat a buttermilk chilli cheese scone right?

Overall we enjoyed the Pickle and Pie cafe. We rated it a solid 4 stars. The highlight for both if us was the friendly service from all the wait staff. It was almost like they had been expecting us all day and were excited we had finally arrived! We’re beginning to think that great service can go quite some way to enhancing average food. Two suggestions we have though should anyone ask… don’t play R rated music as old fuddys like us and children shouldn’t have to listen to it and, in today’s world you need some wifi option, there was none. (maybe they are covered by the free Wellington wifi but we couldn’t see it during our visit.)

At the end of the visit Rachael and Andre went their separate ways. Rachael to enjoy some of the shopping just around the corner and Andre to pay for parking…and it seems this review has come full circle!

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Clareville Cafe

Carterton

This week we head to the mighty Wairarapa, just outside of Carterton, for our culinary feast. According to Andre we were ’north of Carterton’ but those sorts of directions are meaningless to Rachael, so we won’t linger too long on the finer geographical points, of where our destination actually is. All you really need to know is we visited the Clareville Bakery, and we were very impressed to say the least.

You may remember last week, we mentioned sometimes the universe leads us to a cafe, and sometimes we have a plan. This week was a ‘have a plan’ sort of week, and the plan came in the form of Rachael’s colleagues setting up a meeting of ‘super athletes’ and Andre. The super athletes consisting of Rachael, Cathy and Meghan (shout out to Meghan’s support crew – Lewis too) are currently in training for a ¼ triathlon in November, and what better way to train than cycle, run and eat together!

The Clareville Bakery is a cosy, renovated church building, with plenty of parking, cute flowering window boxes and a solid outdoor playground for the kids.

We are surprised by the amount of people already packed into the cafe when we arrive. It’s reasonably early in the morning, and nearly all the tables are full, with a longish queue at the counter. One of the first things we notice (before quickly nabbing the last table by the door), is the length of wall where you line up to order, is almost completely a glass wall, looking into the kitchen area. This enables patrons to watch the loaves of fresh bread being baked on site, and have a little behind the scenes glimpse into the wonderful world of artisanal craftsmanship.

While you may think a 15 deep queue could be a little daunting, it appeared light work for the happy crew serving at the counter. We ordered surprisingly quickly, and all agreed the wooden spoon table numbers were the cutest thing we’d seen since Channing Tatum starred in Magic Mike XXL.

Our drinks order was made up of one trim mocca, one trim latte, one flat white and two cups of english breakfast tea. These all arrived quickly, and each of the recipients were suitably impressed with their selection.

There is a wide and varied range of both cabinet and menu food available, and all of it so tempting this week. Our crew ordered meals ranging from bacon and eggs (no surprises there), french toast and lamb cutlet pie to custard squares, raisin pastry and a curry chicken roll.

The bacon and eggs were pretty standard, however, the ciabatta was outstanding. If you’re a bread connoisseur, we would highly recommend stopping here just for a slice of this doughy perfection. Andre went with the lamb cutlet pie with homemade butter puff pastry and salad. The verdict was positive, but just a heads up for those with a weak constitution, the pie came with the cutlet bone attached! (See pic below). While we agree this is an interesting garnish, it’s a little unnerving for those of us not wanting to think about poor Laaaambert being part of today’s menu.

We do need to take a moment here to acknowledge the melt in your mouth custard square. This outstanding blob of perfection was one of the best we have sampled in a very long time. We don’t take our custard square ratings lightly, but this one is absolutely worth it’s own blog paragraph!

A couple of things to note: this cafe is closed on a Sunday (yay to old school trading days), there is a fantastic children’s playground outside (yay to old school fun for kids) and the outdoor play area and alfresco dining is fully fenced (yay to not old school safety standards).

There is a small shop selling bakery treats inside the cafe. You may wish to snap up some of the local deliciousness before heading next door to the flower shop.

Clareville Cafe proudly boasts a “Best Regional Rural Cafe of the Year – 2018” sign outside the main gate, and we would have to agree, it is a well deserved title. It may be a little out of your way, but nothing a good ole fashioned Sunday drive couldn’t handle.

If you’re driving past, or even if you’re not, add this cafe to your destination wishlist.

Rachael’s highlight: No loud music belting out at 10.30am.

Andre’s highlight: Kicking back with a good book while the athletes ran / cycled 10km.

OVER ALL SCORE: 4 Stars

Fig Tree Cafe and Delicatessen

Upper Hutt

As you can imagine…conversation in our household during the week inevitably drifts around to deciding which cafe to visit on Sunday. Sometimes we decide on a whim, other times the universe decides for us and through circumstance, we find ourselves outside a cafe over which we seemingly had little choice.

Today’s visit to the Fig Tree is a little of both. As Rachael has booked an appointment at her favourite salon, our female readers will be well aware… no visit to the hair stylist is complete without the obligatory public unveiling of the latest cut and colour, so where better than one of Upper Hutt’s more well known establishments…the Fig Tree.

You’ll find the Fig Tree on your right about 2.5 kilometres along Fergusson drive heading north from the Silverstream bridge as you leave state highway 2. It’s an old church and there’s a cute little caravan out the front aptly named the Fig Leaf if you’re looking for a quick caffeine hit on the run. Parking is mostly along Fergusson drive and can be a little hit and miss depending on how busy things are at the time. Be prepared to walk a couple of hundred metres if you’re unlucky. It’s a nice way to shed a few pesky calories anyway so no big deal.

There’s a pleasant seating area out the front if your thing is alfresco and don’t mind a little bit of traffic noise, but we prefer indoor dining so make our way into the “church”.

Apart from a stained glass window with an uplifting message and the odd pew there’s little left to suggest a denomination from it’s previous life as a place of worship. The altar has been replaced with a kitchen and we can quickly see it’s a hive of industry! We’ve clearly arrived at a busy time and while we wait to order we bump into some good friends…shoutout to Sonya and Tanya!…who have coincidentally also decided to lunch here today.

Time passes pleasantly at the counter as we catch up and eventually our order is taken, Rach again surprising everyone with the crepes and a tan slice option, while Andre tries out the mushroom and blue cheese filo with a side salad.

The food and drinks arrive surprisingly quickly given it’s very busy and it looks delicious, although Andre thinks they may have been a little heavy handed with the dressing on his salad. Rachael’s crepes seem to tick all the boxes and as both of us are hungry we make short work of both meals. We share the tan slice as a desert and both agree it’s sweet and delicious. We’re also impressed by how fresh all the fruit and salad ingredients are.

Rachael asks Andre how his filo was and he replies that while tasty it did remind him of the reception he was given when he initially met his first girlfriends parents…lukewarm. Another minute in the microwave would have worked wonders. Andre’s flat white also was adequate despite a corner of the waitresses frilly collar brushing through the froth as she delivered it to our table. To be fair she was laden down with cups and plates so we realise these things happen.

There is free wifi for those who appreciate that kind of thing and a small but functional children’s corner with enough toys to amuse most under 5’s for some time. Eventually it’s time to go and although we’re in no rush to get anywhere we find the busyness and noise a little overwhelming. The kitchen has no separating walls from the seating area and the crash of plates and pans from the workspace becomes a little tiresome. (I know…first world problems eh?)

On our way out we check in with Sonja and Tania who highly recommend the vegan muffin with coconut yoghurt.

Rachael’s highlight: The freshness of the food.

Andre’s highlight: The quick delivery of the food and drink given how busy it was.

Overall rating: 3 stars.

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And so it begins…

Last Sunday, we were wandering aimlessly around the leafy streets of Upper Hutt, discussing our life goals. It was a deep and meaningful discussion where Rachael shared goals of travel, charity work, further study and building a ‘She Shed’ in the corner of the garden.

Andre shared his short term goal of wanting a flat white coffee and an apple shortcake and his long term goal of hoping to have katsu for dinner.

Discussions turned to which cafe to visit, and that there only ever seemed to be one or two that we frequented on a regular basis. In fact, generally on a Sunday morning for brunch. Change was needed! But where?

Well the short answer is…. we still don’t know.

This blog is about trying new places, having new adventures and sharing our thoughts with anyone who is interested.

Here are our guidelines:

We visit one cafe per weekend.
Every cafe gets a review from us with a possible five star rating.
This is not a critical review – it is simply our unbiased thoughts on the day.
We aim to visit every cafe in the Wellington Region.

We have absolutely no experience with blogging or cafe reviewing. But we do like coffee and carrot cake, and we LOVE Wellington and all it has to offer.

Our first review starts on Sunday 19 May. We are so keen to kick this off, we’re offering a free coffee to anyone on our Facebook friends list who turns up to join us.

Our first review will be at Espresso Garden Cafe, Mitre 10 Petone, 10.00am, Sunday 19 May.

See you there!

Rach and Andre xo