Cold winter mornings and we wanted to do something different than our usual eggs on toast for breakfast. So I let him decide and he opted for brunch at West End Coffee House, a place that his very popular with the locals and had been recommended to us by quite a few of our good friends.
As popular as it was, the place was completely full, inside and outside. We finally managed to grab seats inside along a big communal table which was a little bit of a hazard as quite a few fellow patrons definitely had the flu.
The menu was definitely something special. With a heavy South East Asian influence, there were elements of Thai, Vietnamese and Laos cuisine throughout. More than half the dishes contained rice too.
Starting off with hot coffee for once (I guess at some point even he has to give in to the cold weather and get something hot). We had two batch brews, and they were hot, rejuvenating and according to him, as dark as my soul.
His choice for breakfast was the Laos sausage with crispy wok fried eggs, steamed rice, crunchy herb salad and tomato chilli jam. The portion sizes were fairly adequate with a really good rice to topping ratio. The sausages were fat and plump, trying some myself they were very herbal in flavour and not at all meaty like the ones we were used to. The eggs were definitely crisp with a residual liquid yolk but I found it a little oily.
Not particularly a fan of rice first thing in the morning, I had the Thai style beef pho noodle soup. For those who are hardcore pho aficionados, look away. Starting with the soup, it was a lot sweeter than Vietnamese Pho, with less flavours of coriander and cardamom. The beef was thicker cut and cooked through but with a sweet lemongrass marinade which made it taste a lot more like lemongrass pork. The pho definitely tasted store bought and was smooth but fairly firm and thick. Whilst not authentic in a Vietnamese sense, it was heaty and filling for a cold morning.
Value: 7.5/10
Service: 7.5/10
Environment: 6/10
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