AUBERGINE, South Fremantle
by JENNY D’ANGER:
The Aubergine is back. Locals were horrified when its doors closed late last year but, after months of stacked chairs gathering dust and locked doors, the cafe that helped kick off the South Fremantle cafe strip is back in business.
There’s a new menu and renewed enthusiasm if the recent visit by the Herald crew is anything to go by—although the menu is rather limited.
Ad rep Simon—who’d turned up for work clutching a bag of carrot and celery sticks and a bag of nuts and dried fruit—jumped at the chance to join the journos and indulge in the guilty pleasure of a ham and cheese croissant, without spoiling his appetite for his “other” lunch.
“Light and fluffy,” he managed to say, a smile playing around the edges of the pastry at his lips.
Scottish colleague Stephen and I seem to share similar tastes, once again ordering the same thing—in this case mushrooms on toast ($15.95).
This was no ordinary toast: Its infusion of parmesan lent a delicious sharp bite that contrasted the caramelised sweetness of the mushies. I loved the addition of avocado, but my mate was a bit nonplussed, although he raved about everything else, including the lashings of rocket.
Being a bloke he thought the serve could have been bigger.
Young Chook David reckoned the steak sandwich ($19.50) he’d tucked into was, “pretty decent showing”.
With delusions of a lifestyle way beyond a Herald wage he pointed out the meat was not fine-grained, dry-aged, marbled wagyu, “but you never expect the finest cuts to be used in a steak sandwich,” he conceded.
And there was a generous amount of avocado, beetroot and lettuce, he said, “so the meal was nicely refreshing, and the crusty lightly seasoned bread was top notch”.
Brendan, a perennial grouch, thought the hollandaise on the eggs benedict could have tased a little more home-made, and he prefers his eggs yolks uber-runny, not firmish. But that didn’t stop him clearing the plate.
There’s a lot more competition along the South Freo strip these days but Aubergine, judging by the crowded pavement on Saturday and Sunday mornings, seems to be easily claiming back the territory it had held as a great place to meet, greet and eat.
Aubergine Gourmet Foods
231 South Tce,
South Fremantle
Open 7 days breakfast and lunch