Recommended with gusto
In Robert A. Heinlein’s short storyBy His Bootstraps , our hero, Bob Wilson, opined that according to his own scale of evaluations, breakfast rated just after life itself and ahead of the chance of immortality.
Which is probably why everyone loves a place where they do all-day breakfast. Like young Bob, I reckon that eating breakfast is a sign the day has just begun and good things can still happen. Having lunch is like throwing in the towel.
Well, there’s no need to throw in the towel just yet, for once you have secured a precious seat at Gusto Foods you will be too busy contemplating the food to give immortality a second thought.
I say “precious” because this is an enormously popular noshery and on a Sunday morning you will undoubtedly have to queue — it only seats about 40 and the high turnover of tables makes a booking system impractical.
As it happens you won’t have to wait long and the food is certainly worth the wait.
Among those on our table was one of Australia’s premier theatrical directors — for a person of such artistic and intellectual sophistication, it was almost inevitable that he would plump for Gusto’s breakfast board ($22.50) — a breakfast of eggs, bacon, hash browns, grilled tomato, chipolatas, mushrooms and toast that is the eighth wonder of the world: a thing of beauty.
Goat’s cheese scrambled eggs with pesto ($20.50) was earthy, tart, yet seductively light, with quinoa giving a startling crunch to an outstanding dish which elicited gasps of delight from another breakfast companion — a lady of considerable artistic significance.
Potato hotcake ($22.50) comprised two poached eggs, avocado mash and an unstinting quantity of oak- smoked salmon on a bed of greens and liberally adorned with hollandaise. The eggs were marginally over-poached for my fuss-budget taste and the hollandaise could have done with more lemon but these are very personal quibbles.
The potato cake itself was a particularly toothsome affair given considerable oomph by an ingredient list that included chives, spring onions, thyme, leek, parmesan and cream.
The serves are heroic — a young lad on the next table almost disappeared from view behind an Everest of cinnamon French toast, bacon, banana, berries and honeycomb — and most of our table were too stuffed to contemplate the gorgeous array of goodies in the cake cabinet. Not so yours truly.
With a surname such as Smirnios, I’m sure the chef learned to make Greek pastries at his mother’s knee. The baklava ($5.50) was extravagantly chockers with nuts, honking with cloves and awash with honey; Greek shortbread ($2.20) was light, crumbly and quite charming. They fight for your attention amid a seductive parade of homemade confections which includes an extravagant- looking red velvet cake — I vowed to have it the next time I felt the need to contemplate the chances of immortality.
Address: 86 Angelo Street, South Perth
Phone: 9367 3512
Open: Tuesday-Saturday 7am-3pm; Sunday: 7am-2pm
The buzz: Deservedly, a very popular breakfast-cum-brunch venue featuring some impressive takes on the breakfast menu. Pricing is restrained and the service is willing. All in all, highly recommended.
