http://www.bittersuite.com.au/
It was time for my last catch up with Nina before she relocates far, far away. For this special occasion, we selected Bitter Suite, a venue we had both been hearing great things about. Bitter Suite is a casual beer lounge at night and a cafe by day. We went for breakfast on Saturday morning.
I had a panic attack trying to find a parking spot and ended up about 2 blocks away. Luckily, it was a nice walk through New Farm to get there. Bitter Suite is located on a corner block with plenty of tables both indoors and out. We remarked that they were doing very well that morning with the breakfast trade because by the time we were finished, practically all the tables were full.
Our morning coffees
Nina and I ordered coffee first. She had a flat white with 3/4 milk. I had a standard latte. The coffees weren't bad but we were nearly finished with them by the time our food arrived.
The breakfast menu is what I think of as standard modern Australian cafe fare. Not bacon and eggs or big breakfasts but granola, banana bread, avo on toast and some kind of savory mince. Most breakfast places I've been going to these days have a variation of that general selection.
Chili beef and beans - with poached eggs, sour cream, avocado and tortilla
This morning, I chose the chili beef and beans. It was served on a tortilla wrap with poached eggs, chunky avocado and sour cream. On the plus side, I was impressed that the beef was actual slow cooked, pulled meat rather than mince. It had a nice, homely flavor. The avocado and sour cream were perfect accompaniments too. What I'm not so sure about is the tortilla wrap. There was no way I could actually eat this dish as a wrap because the contents were so sloppy. As a 'side' the wrap just got soggy because it was underneath the mince. I much preferred the crunchy tortilla chips from Shucked. I also feel this dish needed something fresh to lift the creamy, hearty flavors. Perhaps some fresh lime would have done the trick.
Breakast sandwich - pork belly sausage, spicy ketchup, BBQ onions and fried eggs
Nina's breakfast sandwich was big and meaty. I tried a portion of it and thought it was alright. The patty was quite elastic and reminded me of sausage patty, which makes sense because it's described as 'pork sausage'. I liked the caramelized onion and Nina said there was some kind of wasabi mayonnaise on the bread too, which I didn't taste because I skipped the bread. We both agreed the bun could have been better. It was very much just a supermarket roll and didn't fit the image of the place.
Truthfully, we were underwhelmed with Bitter Suite. The food was OK and quite filling but I think the dishes need some refining. The service was friendly but slow, probably because they're so busy, and there was a huge wait between our coffee and food.
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