Anouk
Cuisine: Modern Australian

Mains: $14 to $26
Entrees: $7 to $14
Breakfast: From $7.50

212 Given Tce
Paddington
Tel: 07 3367 8663

They accept bookings except for weekend breakfasts.

I decided to take a fellow longtime fan of The Gun Shop Cafe to try out a new venture by the same lady of culinary delight.

My friend and I, although we aren’t regulars (mainly because we’re too sleepy to go all the way to West End for weekend breakfasts), absolutely love The Gun Shop Cafe. So we made a staggering effort to wake up one Saturday and head over to Paddington for shopping and food.

It didn’t take us long to find Anouk amongst the boutiquey stretch of road. The shop front was not unlike The Gun Shop with outdoor seating, a line out the front and big windows so that the people in line can spend their wait choosing their meal from what’s on other people’s plates. Up on the walls were enlarged photocopies of lino prints. The atmosphere was buzzing and the restaurant was packed. But service was pleasant and quite speedy which is a plus.

I don’t know what we were expecting entirely. Not quite more of the same as “the other cafe”, maybe something better, different? But the ONE thing we both wanted more than anything was there to be a repeat of the famous (to us) Gun Shop hashbrowns. A good breakfast to us, must involve some kind of potato, preferably in hashbrown form. Sadly we were let down in this respect. No potatoes to be had.

We’re quite simple in our breakfast desires. Usually eggs, bacon, mushrooms and of course a hashbrown or more is enough to satiate. In the end we managed to find a couple things on the specials board that interested us.

Poached eggs on sour dough with hollandaise sauce and asparagus wrapped in proscuitto. With a side of mushrooms.

And I had the herbed scrambled eggs on sour dough with a side of bacon.

Along with our meals we also ordered a mocha (mmm morning coffee yay) and a really surprisingly yummy and refreshing drink made up of muddled fresh lemon and lime with sparkling apple juice. This sort of became the highlight of the meal.

In the end, worth a stop over if you’re in Paddington at breakfast time. It was nice food, however, I think if I had to decide between getting up early to go to The Gun Shop or Anouk, I couldn’t go past the original, hashbrowns included.