The Counter was pumping the Sunday we visited for brunch, or maybe it was technically lunch time, but in my book, breakfast foods are highly acceptable (and in fact encouraged) to be eaten for any meal of the day, especially on Sundays, or any day for that matter...
We nabbed a couple of seats at the cafés namesake (the counter, in case you are confused) behind the coffee machine. It was pretty frenetic, and at times seemed a little disorganised in terms of service. We eventually had our order taken (including drinks) and then settled in to drool over the baked goods in the cabinets.
The husband had a smoothie: banana, date and almond that he really enjoyed, but given its size, we thought the $8 price tag was pretty darn steep, but these are Hawthorn prices after all...he followed it up with scrambled eggs with a side of mushrooms which he said were tasty (but also pretty pricey for simple scrambled eggs).
I had a tea, and the vegetarian shakshouka (baked eggs, goats cheese, tomato sugo and spices with grilled flatbread). They were delicious, and although the tomato sugo sauce was rather runny, it was totally fine as they provided a soup spoon to drink up all the tastiness (good forward thinking)!
We also got an orange & date scone (hers) and a raspberry & chocolate muffin (his) to takeaway, both of which were scrumptious.
All in all we enjoyed our first visit to The Counter, but I deducted a star (and a half, but rounded up) for the prices and the slightly frazzled service. If they pop one person in charge of greeting, seating and bills, it will go a long way to it feeling less frenetic. read more