A FRIEND had been badgering me for weeks to check out her favourite cafe, Sensations En Ardross.
She was getting so insistent her usual “How are you?”, was replaced with “Have you been yet?”
Eventually the D’Angers acquiesced and headed down to the restaurant in Kearns Crescent last Friday.
The word is clearly out as the place was heaving, but fortunately there was a table outside, usually reserved for take-away customers.
Beautiful flavours
It was doubly fortunate because the noise level of all those conversations bouncing off brick walls and polished concrete floors was like Foghorn Leghorn on angel dust.
Along with the standard menu, there’s a cabinet of yummy, house-made delectables, and a specials board my friend says should be read before ordering.
Having perused the various options, from steak burger ($20) and pulled chicken meat on a baguette ($15), to “shrooms on toast” ($18) and Turkish eggs ($20), D’Angerous and I went for something from the cabinet.
He ordered the vegetable pastry ($8, or $12 with salad): a sizeable parcel of crisp flaky pastry, stuffed with cauliflower curry, carrots and lentils.
“Really beautiful flavours,” he said, shoving a forkful in my direction in what I interpreted as a loving gesture.
Not usually a salad man, he happily demolished the side of leafy greens, sun-dried tomatoes, roasted carrot and feta.
“It’s really nice,” he said, devouring every last morsel.
I’d gone for the lentil, pumpkin and pecan patty: a generous morsel and great value at $10 with a salad.
The pecans gave a delectable finish to the other flavours, offsetting the sweetness of the pumpkin with a peppery bite.
And a salad of spinach, seared, finely sliced zucchini, sweet baby peas and toasted sunflower seeds was a great accompaniment.
However, the use of small disposable containers for the sweet chilli sauce was a let down, as the plastic will probably end up in landfill.
According to my mate, the coffee is excellent, but the tea drinking D’Angers had a very good Earl Grey, served in fine bone china cups.
My beetroot cheese cake ($6.50) was an interesting hot pink colour, but lacked any real flavour and was rather gelatinous.
The sharpness of fresh raspberries could have pulled it back over the line, but the blueberries on top just added to the blandness.
But English ex-pat D’Angerous was in raptures over his bread and butter pudding ($6.50), which brought back memories of his days in short trousers in Blighty, where he played with his Dinky vroom-vrooms and fiddled with his skittles.
“It’s moist and spicy and really, really good,” he said.
by JENNY D’ANGER
Sensations En Ardross
15 Kearns Crescent, Ardross
9364 8806
open Mon–Fri 8am–3pm,
Sat 8am–1pm, closed Sun