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High Tea at Rochelle Adonis

Posted by  | Categories: Desserts, High Tea, Perth, Restaurants, Wedding

For months I have been bursting out of my skin to get myself to Rochelle Adonis for her acclaimed high tea! So when my love and I attended a boutique little wedding expo at Mosmans recently I was attracted to her stall like a moth to a flame. Her passion and gentle nature increased her appeal to me even more and I immediately decided I wanted to have one of her exquisite cakes for our upcoming engagement party. This provided me with the perfect excuse to organise a girly afternoon out with some friends for the purpose of “engagement cake tasting”.

For us foodies in the know, we are all very thankful to have such a world class pastry chef of this calibre residing here in little Perth. Rochelle grew up in the French Canadian city of Montreal before moving to Sydney to train as a pastry chef.  She then moved to London where she worked in an exclusive wedding cake boutique making cakes for the rich and famous including both the British and Saudi Royal families before she moved onto to Vienna to work in the prestigious Hotel Sacher.

Returning to Australia, she was acting head pastry chef at Forty One in Sydney before joining Matt Moran’s at Moran’s and then once he opened Aria as the head pastry chef there. She moved to WA in 2001 with the ambition of starting her own business and has grown from a small scale home kitchen beginning to the highly acclaimed boutique she has today.

Upon entering her studio, you will be distracted by all the eye catching photos decorating the walls with examples of her handy work.  Each cake is prepared with upmost attention and care and they almost look like they couldn’t be real. The two long communal marble tables fill much of the room giving the feeling you are sitting in someone’s kitchen rather than a café. We all came very prepared with enough champagne to sink a ship and with high expectations to have our tastebuds buzzing. We most certainly were not disappointed. Our only complaint was it all ended way too soon! We could have easily done with another few courses!

We all came very prepared with enough champagne to sink a ship and with high expectations to have our tastebuds buzzing. We most certainly were not disappointed. Our only complaint was it all ended way too soon! We could have easily done with another few courses!

"Creamed corn soup" "vegetable fritatta" "pork terrine" "falafel" "harissa" "Perth Restaurant Reviews" "Perth food blog" "food blog" "Chompchomp" "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Rochelle Adonis" "High Tea" "Perth High Tea" "Champagne" "Desserts" "Northbridge"

The first course was savoury. After my recent enforced gluten indulgences, I thought it best that I stick with her gluten free options – I was after all actually taste testing for a party that will occur once I’m back on the straight and narrow gluten free. My plate contained a cup of creamed corn soup, a vegetable frittata, a cube of pork terrine and a falafel with some harissa. The soup was hot and seasoned perfectly warming us all up as we waited for our champagne to take over the job. The pork terrine had a dollop of horseradish and Dijon mayonnaise. The short sharp heat of the horseradish blended harmoniously with the lingering flavours of the terrine and was the highlight of the four.

"Pork terrine" "goats cheese gallettes" "Perth Restaurant Reviews" "Perth food blog" "food blog" "Chompchomp" "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Rochelle Adonis" "High Tea" "Perth High Tea" "Champagne" "Desserts" "Northbridge"

The girls also had the pork terrine and the soup on their plates. Their gluten-filled options included a vegetable galette with goat’s cheese and Rochelle’s famous cucumber sandwiches using entirely homemade ingredients including her own handmade butter. The sandwiches looked so cute all cut up in perfect little rectangles sitting in a row.

"cucumber sandwich" "Perth Restaurant Reviews" "Perth food blog" "food blog" "Chompchomp" "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Rochelle Adonis" "High Tea" "Perth High Tea" "Champagne" "Desserts" "Northbridge"

Our second course was desert. My plate contained mint ice cream with Valrhona chocolate, raspberry jelly, meringue with lemon curd, blueberries and violet, and a blood orange salad on top of a moist butter cake with gooey brulee style custard. The ice cream was not overly sweet or sickly, nor was it too creamy. It had the perfect balance with a fresh minty aftertaste leaving a clean fresh feeling on the palate. My first glancing impressions of the raspberry jelly reminded me of Turkish Delight. Not being the biggest fan of this I was pleased to find an absence of Turkish’s signature delicate rose flavours replaced with a much preferred and rather strong tarty berriness. For those who know Chompchomp well – you will be aware I am a huge fan of all things berry. Well, berries generally come shaped in little balls – and I’m a sucker for food in little balls.  The meringue was one of my favourites. It contained all the elements of a well-made meringue: crunchy, chewy and soft, and the accompaniment of sharp tangy lemon curd moved seamlessly into the gentle after notes of the more subtle violet and blueberries.

"dessert" "Mint ice cream" "Valrhona chocolate" "raspberry jelly" "meringue" "blueberries" "lemon curd" "violet" "blood orange salad" "butter cake" "Perth Restaurant Reviews" "Perth food blog" "food blog" "Chompchomp" "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Rochelle Adonis" "High Tea" "Perth High Tea" "Champagne" "Desserts" "Northbridge"

The blood orange salad tasted like Rochelle had successful managed to capture Spring in a cup! Seeing as our one week teaser of Spring weather has turned viciously back to wet winter windiness I was so thankful to be reminded glorious Perth Spring was just around the corner. Buried deep below the array of sweet blood orange and delicate petals was a layer of brulee and dense orange butter cake. I nearly stuck my fingers into the bottom of the bowl to clean out the last remnants.

"Blood orange salad" "Butter cake" "dessert" "Perth Restaurant Reviews" "Perth food blog" "food blog" "Chompchomp" "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Rochelle Adonis" "High Tea" "Perth High Tea" "Champagne" "Desserts" "Northbridge"

By this point we had polished off a bottle of Moet, a bottle of Cattier and a bottle of G.H. Mumm champagne and we were all in very fine form. We really didn’t want our experience to end and thus were determined to carry on with our celebrations. After pondering for some time at the counter, a number of us bought more little cakes, nougat and other delights to take home to share with our loved ones who missed out on the delightful experience. We then all skipped over the road to the Hotel Northbridge to continue our festivities. Oh boy what a contrast in standards of customer service, ambiance and food would we find there!

"meringue" "blueberries" "lemon curd" "dessert" "Perth Restaurant Reviews" "Perth food blog" "food blog" "Chompchomp" "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Rochelle Adonis" "High Tea" "Perth High Tea" "Champagne" "Desserts" "Northbridge"

Venue 8/10 Food 9.2/10 Service 7.7/10

Rochelle Adonis
193 Brisbane St, Northbridge, 6003 | (08) 9227 0007
www.rochelleadonis.com

 

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The Lounge Room, Guildford

Posted by  | Categories: Breakfast/Brunch, Perth, Restaurants

As I dragged myself out of my warm cosy bed at 6am on my day off I thought about the long drive ahead of me in the pouring rain for a partners meeting and wondered if I was a little too dedicated to my business. We normally go to the Dome café in Midland of which I am not the biggest fan after numerous past disappointments.  After such as lovely experience at Jezebelle in Guildford I suggested we try a change in scenery and go to The Lounge Room which is just a short way down James Street.

Despite a table booked for 7 am and the fact they open at 7am we were left waiting outside the front of the cafe in the cold morning weather.  You would think that they could have made the effort to be ready with open doors to greet customers when they had tables pre-booked?  We were to soon find out this was just the first in many incidents caused by a lack of preparation and attention to customer service.

Upon gazing at the chalkboard menu one could not help but be distracted by the multiple pieces of paper stuck onto several of menu items that were not available. This looked quite untidy and I would recommend getting a proper chalkboard and handwriting items if things regularly go out of stock.  Perhaps maybe doing this in addition to ensuring you have adequate stock to start a new week are just like opening on time…. too much effort for a Monday morning to bother with?

I ordered the breakfast Panini without onion. I was then informed this would not be possible as the Panini were already made up – I wondered if it was really too difficult to make a fresh one?  They certainly weren’t that busy.  Instead I ordered scrambled eggs on toast with mushroom and tomato… unfortunately I was then informed there were no mushrooms left.   Really?  First thing on a Monday morning and you have no mushroom to go with your breakfast menu?  I thought I would take a gamble and ask for avocado instead – nope, none of that available either!  I reluctantly opted for bacon as my second addition.

I also ordered a short macchiato. I should have thought to describe what a short mac is before ordering as the ratio of milk to coffee was way too high for me.  The meal itself reminded me of food you would get from a “diner” style restaurant, not a cafe marketing itself as upmarket.  I got one piece of toast, a pile of unseasoned flavourless scrambled eggs, some pale tepid tomatoes and some bacon.  Not a lot of value for the price which was a pricey $20!

It was certainly edible but not much more than that.  We continued our meeting while our empty plates remained on our tables as the wait staff pretended that neither us nor our empty plates were even there.  Not once did we get asked if we would like more coffees, desserts or anything of the like.   Surprising as we stayed for another two hours while they ignored us and lost the business opportunity our seats should have been providing.  Oh well, they won’t have to worry about that happening again!

Service 2/10, food 4/10, venue 5/10

The Lounge Room

187 James Street, Guildford, 6055 | (08) 9379 3791