Breakfast at Tempo

Tempo Cafe
181 Boundary Street, West End

Just when I thought I was running out of West End breakfast venues, I randomly walked past Tempo and decided to try it. I don't recall Tempo Cafe being there before so I'm assuming it's either relatively new or just easy to miss.

The cafe has a dim, narrow interior with indoor seating and quite a few tables set up outside too. I parked myself at one of those to make the most of the sunshine. I had a bizarre moment where I thought my table was slanted but when water was brought out, the water stayed level in the cup. I then realized it was because the woodgrain on my tabletop was at a diagonal, creating the optical illusion of uneveness. Too trippy for an early morning!

Iced coffee

It was fairly hot this day so I ordered an iced coffee to start with. I was assured that it would be made with real espresso and had ice-cream but no added sugar (my favorite combination). The iced coffee was good... hearty even. There were some coffee beans on top, which was a nice addition. I enjoyed it thoroughly but felt full afterwards.

The breakfast menu had many variations on classics, involving combinations of eggs, ham, spinach and etc. I went for the avocado on toast, aiming to keep it simple.

Avocado on toast - with onion caraway rye, roasted asparagus, lemon and garlic creme fraiche

The avo on toast ended up being a rather larger plate of food than I anticipated. The slices of avocado were layered on some rye and topped with asparagus. Semi-dried tomatoes lay around the plate, along with a smear of garlic creme fraiche. It was a strange combination of elements. I didn't like the tomato tanginess with the rest of the flavors. I thought the garlic sauce would be too overpowering but it turned out to be necessary for the avocado that was otherwise bland. I would have preferred the normal avocado compliments of say, lemon or even just pepper and salt. But the garlic did the job. The asparagus was a bit 'nothing' but I did like the onion rye bread.

I wasn't too impressed with my breakfast at Tempo. The service was nice and my iced coffee was good too. I suppose it's another option to visit along West End but it didn't do anything to stand out amongst the pack of cafes available.