Café Pearl

Café Pearl is the cheaper little sister to the Pearl Restaurant further down the road at 631-633 Church Street. Reading the menu descriptions at the restaurant made me drool all over my laptop's keyboard but, as finances were somewhat straitened (largely due to Melbourne's fabulous shops) I decided to visit the cafe instead for a light lunch.

I didn't go for brunch but reading the brunch menu almost made me wish I had. No Eggs Benedict but delightful concoctions such as French toasted chocolate and banana sandwich with runny cream, , little lamb fennel seed sausages, spicy tomato jam and pearl bread toast with Buttered English spinach made me drool a little more. It was also lovely to see coddled eggs on a breakfast menu - a deliciously unhealthy way to prepare eggs.

However on the day in question I opted for a Rare thai beef salad with tomatoes, rocket, Thai basil, hot mint, chilli and lime and spearmint nam jim. Nam jim (for those of you like me who didn't know) is a Thai dressing made up of chilli, garlic, fish sauce, lime juice and palm sugar - thereby providing the great contrast of hot/sour/salty and sweet.

The dressing certainly had a kick to it but it was beautifully matched to the melting tenderness of the paper thin strips of cold rare beef. The salad was liberally covered in fried shallots which added a nice textural crunch. There were also occasional whole spearmint leaves to give a real mint kick. The rocket was refreshingly bity and there were myriad crunchy fresh beansprouts as well.

My salad was delicious but I nevertheless found myself with food envy. The table next door ordered the Heirloom pizza which arrived covered in rocket, yellow roast peppers and Buffalo mozzarella and looked fantastic. The ladies who lunched next door chose the Asparagus, green pea and broad bean salad with a poached egg and thick whole egg mayonnaise which also looked great. If I had only been hungrier I would have loved to have tried the Massaman curry of pork and eggplant with steamed brown rice and sweet and sour lime pickle. Another day perhaps and undoubtedly the mark of a great cafe where you find yourself wishing you could visit again in order to work your way down the menu.

The interior of the Pearl Cafe is bare and industrial with tables on the sides and a tall table in the middle surrounded by bar stools. The staff were friendly and efficient and the place was packed when I arrived. Some very decent looking coffees were being served and there was a nice "Mini-dessert" menu section involving things like Hedgehog,Coconut ice,Turkish delight, Lamingtons and some superb looking Valrhona chocolate crackles (Valrhona, for those of you who don't know it, is the king of chocolates.)

I would heartily recommend a visit to Pearl Cafe for either brunch or lunch - but I am already saving my pennies in the hopes of visiting the bigger sister restaurant one day for dinner. Should you go there - apparently Geoff Lindsay's duck curry is legendary.