Lawley's Bakery - Mount Lawley

Today I walked up to Lawley's Bakery on Beaufort Street with a pounding headache and a craving for a strong coffee and something greasy to line my stomach. Probably not the best form to be in when going to Lawleys; a boutique bakery that specialises in quality baked goods, cakes, pastries and of course, breakfast. Their "niche" is the quality of their baking, the beautiful presentation of the pastries and also the fact that they roast and sell their own coffee beans on the premises. Having been before, I know they do a quality eggs benny and I always make a point of picking up a couple of pastries while I'm there.

In arriving there, I was met with a familiar sight. A queue right out the door, spilling onto Beaufort Street with no sign of it getting any smaller. Luckily, most patrons frequent the bakery for a takeaway pastry and a flat white so despite having to queue to place my order, there is always a table available round the back for the sit in customers. Because of the hustle and bustle at the front of the shop, I do find the cafe a tad frantic and the seating area is a bit of a tight squeeze so the overall the atmosphere isn't ideal but does the food make up for that and promote a return visit?.......

As I mentioned, they roast their own coffee beans on the premises and sell them behind the counter to take home. When my long black arrived, I didn't like the look of it. Weak in colour with no crema whatsoever, just a few dubious looking bubbles that made it loook like somebody had been blowing bubbles in it with a straw (I should point out that i didn't have a camera today so the pictures are from the web and not my own). To be fair, it tasted better than I thought it would. It wasn't as weak as it looked and the flavour, although distant, was nice. The only explanation for no crema and weak coffee is either the quality of the coffee itself or the way it is poured. Considering the coffee comes from a self pouring machine that is set to pour slowly with the correct volume of coffee, I can only assume that they topped it up with hot water to fill the large cup. They did however, redeem themselves with the cute little complimentary macaroon that comes with the coffee. Made in house as well, you can see what I'm talking about in the picture.

I should probably make clear that the breakfasts here aren't their main selling point. It's the delicious rustic breads and the amazing pastries and cakes they sell that gives them their point of difference. However, the eggs benedict are good and stand up to most competition in Perth. In fact, they are one of the best around and I would only put them behind Zamia Cafe's as the best in Perth. Their eggs Benny are actually very similar to Zamia's version. They use their own toasted bread, with wafer thin ham then 2 poached eggs and hollondaise sauce drizzled on top. Like other restaurants, they stack the 2 slices of bread on top of each other which makes it a bit awkward and usually leaves me to reassemble everything myself. The ham was straight out a packet from IGA, probably "Wafer Thin Honey Roast Ham" but it was nice nonetheless. The eggs were on the small side but were poached well and nice and runny. The hollondaise sauce was home made and made to perfection although I could've done with a bit more on them. I don't want it swimming in sauce but I'd appreciate a generous helping so i don't have to go fishing with my dry bread at the end.

Overall, everything was satisfactory. The egss benny are one of the best I've had although buying in larger free range eggs would be advised. The sauce is delicious as was the bread. The coffee was disappointing, especially considering they roast it themselves but I suspect it was the young girl adding hot water that weakened it. The service is good condsidering they are always run off their feet. The food came prompt with a smile from the waiter and the ladies behind the counter are always good for a chat and some advice on what to buy. The price, as always, is on the expensive side but if you see the presentation of the pastries and cakes, you would expect it to be expensive. An enjoyable experience which is walking distance from my apartment. I also picked up 8 bagels before I left so will be getting stuck into them through the week.

Scores on the doors:

Service 7/10
Atmosphere 6/10
Coffee 5/10
Food 8/10
Price 6/10

Final Score 32/50

Would I go again?

Will definately be back. Local and reliable. Will go for breakfast again at some point but will definately be picking up more bagels and pastries soon!

Website: www.lawleys.com.au