Entertainment Book Review: Roxy Cafe
Yep, I'm stealing using Jo's idea. Roxy Cafe is in The Book on a coupon, dig it out now and put it in your wallet.
Usually when I talk to people about Roxy Cafe the first thing they ask is "Where's that?". The answer is "Where the Purple Onion and that Argentinian Cafe used to be, just past the new gay bar".
You probably don't know it because it just looks like like any old generic cafe that you find up and down this country selling watery lattes and stale carrot cake, meaning you've just walked on by.
However, it seems that you would be wrong to think that. Read on after the jump.
I have eaten at Roxy twice now and both times were great so I'm gonna say it wasn't a fluke. And just to be even more pseudo-scientific I had the same thing both times while Sindy my partner in (reviewing) crime, had different things.
I had the Roxy Breakfast which contained the generic "Big Breakfast" items (Eggs, toast, mushrooms, bacon, sausages, tomato, hashbrowns) but with lovely twists. The bacon is honey-cured. The hashbrowns are homemade and crunchy. The toast comes with (quelle horreur) butter! And the sausages are of the Island Bay Pork and Fennel variety (Wooooooo!).
Now I've eaten a lot of breakfasts in my time and this one is easily one of the best.
Sindy had eggs benedict with salmon on our first visit and grilled tortelini (yeah I know, "grilled" but that's what the menu said) on our second go-round. Both times the food was excellent. I can't quite remember what was in the tortelini but I have a suspiscion it was sundried tomatoes and it was freakin' good when I managed to steal some.
The coffee is also above par and the service is really nice - this is possibly beacuse not many people are there. The music when we were there the second time was super-cheesy country which was not being played in irony. So if you crave atmosphere them perhaps stay away, but if you just like good food go for it.
The coupon is for one free meal so not only is it good, it's cheap.
If you're wondering where to get one of these awesome books ask around your workplace. Someone is usually selling them for some fundraising or other. They cost $50 so eating out even twice means they've paid for themselves.
Crappy country music not your thing huh?
Fair enough, it doesn't seem like a christmas-functiony kind of place.
I've had a couple of pleasantish but unremarkable experiences there, but that was mostly when it had just opened. The service was well-meaning but chaotic, and the food was tasty but not neither exciting nor cheap enough to entice me back. However, it sounds like they've settled in nicely, so it might be worth another try.
Mind you, Tuesdays can be a bit iffy, from the looks of things. They often have acoustic music nights then: Warning! Baby Boomer ex-Hippie Alert!
We had brunch there on Sunday, and I thought the service was pretty lacklustre. Admittedly it was really busy, but there were two people serving our table and they kept getting their wires crossed. Also, I ordered a sparkling water, which wasn't delivered until after the coffees were - which took aaaaaaaaaaages. How hard is it to take the cap off a bottle and bring it over? The food was good though, but the waiter was a bit sniffy when both my sister and I asked for the big breakfast without eggs. Oh, and our fries (we had a hard night) weren't particulary hot or crispy either.
i had a very mediocre christmas work do there....