Note to self… under no circumstances go to a crazy popular brunch spot when ravenously hungry. I made this error on a crisp Saturday morning – thinking it was a fab idea to check out Hylin – a new-ish café, opposite the train line in West Leederville. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy to queue for a few minutes – and Ren, Little Chef and I did just that…
We sat on the bench, waiting for my name to be called off the list, happily chatting away. Ren mentioned that our supposed 15 min wait had turned into over 30 mins and on further investigation it turned out that there had been someone else moonlighting as “Amanda” and stole out table! Completely no fault of Hylin and our friendly waiter was very apologetic.
We ordered a couple of drinks and a cronut for Little Chef. The croissant-addict was quick to agree to being my guinea pig once he found out that a cronut is a doughnut-croissant hybrid. A couple of years ago when Cronuts first came onto the Aussie food scene only a handful of bakeries in WA had made them. I tried a cronut at Prague Bakery at Kingsley Village Shopping Centre but wasn’t too impressed, as it was over cooked and frankly shouldn’t have been sold. LC’s cronut was the perfect specimen – light, fluffy and filled with salted caramel.
Little Chef also loved his babycino – which got two thumbs up for extra marshmallows!
Ren had a Micrology Roasters coffee and I ordered a freshly made juice. I’d not had the combo of strawberry, melon, mint and pineapple before and boy was it good!
The Food
By the time our food arrived I almost inhaled it! I had smoked bacon and roasted field mushroom on ciabatta ($16.50). I also added a poached egg on the side. The dish was cooked well, was very tasty and served with a rocket and corn salad. The crushed pea smear was delicious too.
Since it was pretty much lunch time, Ren chose the open street tacos ($14.50). Soft flour tortillas were stuffed full of Cajun chicken breast, slaw and a mango salsa on the side. Though Ren said the tacos were tasty, she was a bit sceptical that the dish was worth the 1.5hour wait (from arrival at the café to the dish arriving on our table).
All in all Hylin is a good café, I’d certainly return – though I think I’ll wait till the hype dies down a bit!
Find out more info on Hylin West Leederville on their website.