Bruch At Salt

Avoca is a place, Avoca is a brand, Avoca is luxury, comfort and style all rolled up into one. When I finished my final exam in secondary school, my Mom collected me and whisked me away to Avoca for a very posh lunch, it was such a lovely treat, just her and I, the exams behind me and a room filled with glam women eating beautifully assembled goats cheese salads with freshly baked brown bread as well as dainty cakes and pastries with that luxurious coffee scent floating throughtout the fanciest canteen you ever did see. That memory, coupled by the fact that there’s a small (new-to-me) Avoca situated mins down the road from mine and Himself’s new abode meant only one thing. BRUNCH TIME!!

I convinced Sarah to come with me (as Himself would say – #TooManySarahs – I mean this Sarah), Himself waved us off saying that I would not be allowed back into the house without being in possession of “something nice” from Avoca for him…such a demandy Andy!

Lining either side of the doorway is fresh fruit and veg alongside brown paper bags so you can help yourself – with more of all three waiting inside. As you walk in the door there is the shop section in a direct line infront of you which ends in a circular room where the butchers is, but if you’re standing inside the door and wrap around to the right, you’ll find Salt.

We hadn’t booked (I would recommend this in future, we got soooo lucky!!), we were given menus to peruse while we waited for a table to become available,

I didn’t look at it much as I was too busy watching one of the staff stacking freshly baked baguettes. To be honest, I was seriously considering packing in the whole brunch idea, grabbing one of them, some ham and cheese and heading home – actually – I would’ve grabbed one of the rotisserie chicken’s too! (the guy you can see on the right of the below picture is manning the wall of rotisserie chickens. Avoca do an excellent meal deal, 1 rotisserie chicken, 1 large salad, 1 large pot of either coleslaw or potatoe salad and a fresh baguette, all for €19. Himself and I did it one Sunday and we were eating it all well into the week, it was SOOOOO nom and VERY generous in the amount you’re given too! I digress…(but like seriously, check it out!)

Once our table was ready, we were brought down towards the back of the restaurant and seated right in the middle of the last room, the place was jammers

Ice cold minty water was brought to the table for us by a comedy fueled waiter who seemed to be positively brimming with Dad jokes – we loved him

Sarah and I both ordered Americanos, black, no sugar (cause we’re well-hard like that!) and a juice each

I went for “Tumeric Sunrise” and Sarah went for “The Rollercoaster” and I don’t mind telling you I had major order envy when the cold pressed juices arrived. What Sarah ordered turned out to be more akin to what I THOUGHT I had ordered and the one I had ordered was just really not for me at all! Sarah’s was super lemony and sharp and mine was more carrot-y with not much else punching through on flavour which was disappointing, I mean, I love eating carrots, but just not a fan of drinking them!

We both ordered poached eggs on toast, I opted for spelt bread just to try it out, whilst Sarah had the sourdough. Now! Before our brunch was brought to us, our Dad-Joke-a-thon waiter popped over to Sarah with a steak knife, “to cut through the bread, you know sourdough can be tough”.

OH MY DAYS!! Do you know how many times I have said to Himself that restaurants & cafés should be doing this if they’re giving out sourdough bread!?! I once asked for a steak knife (in a different café) and the waiter was like “eh…you ordered eggs”, it’s like – I know that! It’s for the bread! *eye roll*

I took photographic evidence mostly to prove to Himself that it had actually happened, had I not taken the photo I would’ve frog marched Sarah back to our house and been like a pushy stage-mom “Go on! Tell him – tell him what happened – go on” and then the second she opened her mouth to speak I would’ve been all “THEY GAVE HER A STEAK KNIFE FOR THE BREAD SO HA!”

Ah-hem-hem! Bit wound up there….lets get back to it shall we!?! Our plates arrived and looked pretty nom-tastic it has to be said

Nicely runny eggs with smooth avo and perfectly roasted tomatoes

Also, the spelt bread was delish, they did a great job there it has to be said!

After a bit more nattering we headed up the long stretch to get back to the counter where all the yummy things are displayed

I got a slice of that incredible looking blueberry cheesecake for Himself and Sarah got a couple of treats to go too (for her and her folks whom she was seeing straight afterwards – good egg isn’t she!?!)

I was so very tempted, but refrained from getting something for me because, Dear Reader, I was too full / I knew I’d steal a mouthful of Himself’s cheesecake, it was a HUGE slice! Although, that didn’t stop the face on him when my tiny teaspoon drifted towards his plate – you’d think I was coming at him with a machete!

How good do these look? Think I’ll have to take a jaunt back to sample some…!

Find all of Avoca’s cafe’s and restaurants here and don’t forget to book in advance, especially at the weekend!