Joe's Garage

Published 10.5.05 | E-mail this post

Prepare thy Wallets - $13
You must try this - Joe's Legendary Pancake

Our dear editors nearly got a riot from their writers when they announced that we’d be reviewing breakfasts for the month of

May. I, for one, am not even the kind that’s up early enough for my first meal to be considered ‘breakfast’. You can quite accurately say that my tastebudds were still asleep when we’d arrived at Joe’s Garage. Distinguishable, perhaps, only by the massive 2-D cow that acts as both a signpost and what can be considered a mascot, Joe’s Garage otherwise blends in with the visual cacophony of stores along Brunswick Street. As far as the menu is concerned, the place is open from about 10am to 3am and the ambience of the store has to perform the remarkable feat of maintaining visual coherence throughout its service hours – which it does quite well, if I’m any judge. You can’t honestly imagine having a watering hole open in the day, can you? I really had a thing for the sun coming through a length of glass in the roof, reminding you that it is, morning. It’s a very well maintained ‘chill-out’ place, with nothing suspicious under the clean leathery seats, up-beat (very ‘morning’) café latino muzak, mambo-esque paintings and models plus a reasonably stocked post-card stand that’s the welcoming signifier of any decent café, in my opinion.

We didn’t take -that- long to find a corner. What we did take some time with, is decide on what we wanted to have for the morning. I’d like to point out at this juncture, that Joe’s Garage has a list of ‘specials’ in the menu on occasion (look in the direction of the chalkboards). This article will also attempt a risk assessment with regards to not adhering to every regular to Joe’s.

Joe’s Big Breakfast is, like the name suggests, really filling for the Asian appetite. Eggs Florentine (that is, poached eggs served with spinach and yummy liquid cheese), tomatoes, toast with butter and lamb sausages constitute the dish. Are you salivating already? The sausages were greasy, as is the tendency of everything grilled, but this is balanced out by the spinach and tomatoes. Burnt or undercooked bits of grilled meat also often threaten to overwhelm the taste. Thankfully, this was not the case. Our taster washed it all down with English Breakfast tea, and I must say that he was quite pleased with the whole thing. If you’re health conscious, had an all-nighter and need breakfast, this is a worthwhile $11.50 you should consider.

As with standard breakfasts, you have a choice of egg – fried, poached or scrambled. This reviewer went a la carte, ordering scrambled eggs on toast ($6.50) with lamb sausage ($2.00, available from a variety of add-ons that include hash browns and bacon). I’d like to highlight that I loved the blend of the scrambled egg so much that I think it’s a crime to add pepper for taste in this case, its ‘eggi-ness’ not killed by heat or excessive milk. This selection of breakfast, though standard, is thoroughly satisfying in Joe’s context, recommended for anyone who wants a serious departure from your readily available McDonald’s Big Breakfast Meal.

The following two dishes do not appear on the regular Joe’s menu:

The scrambled egg with chorizo mushroom pesto and sun-dried tomatoes served on muffins ($9.00) dish was

explored by two tasters, who agree that this is an interesting and perhaps, exotic, alternative to the above two dishes. They both compliment the even texture in every mouthful of egg (scrambled), peas, carrots, mushrooms and muffin (as compared to toast). Carbohydrates apparently have the tendency to numb the flavour of its supplementary ingredients if you’re not careful. This mildly sweet, yet healthily balanced delight is served in justifiable portions and finds itself in our good books.

The French toast with strawberry & cinnamon butter ($7.50), on the other hand, didn’t quite live up to the expectations of its reviewer – especially given the fact that there were only two strawberry halves on the bread. Cinnamon butter didn’t exactly go well with French toast, the taster not fond of the awkward blend of sweet and savoury, especially since this is breakfast. I found it too soggy, considering the fact that it, after all, is supposed to be toast. This is something the adventurous might want to risk, with a couple of friends – not recommended in big, successive mouthfuls.

I’d like to conclude, at this juncture, that as with most things off the standard menu, one has to be as adventurous as the chef who’s concocting the dish. Risk always involves the possibility of disappointment. With the exception of the French toast special, however, Joe’s is a rather safe place to attempt what you feel is appealing for your morning, be it standard bacon and eggs or ‘different’ concoctions, even if it hasn’t been on the menu that long. We’re here to share the risks we took with you, not take the risk for you. Everyone’s got different tastebudds.

Well, we v

ery nearly committed the offence of not trying Joe’s Legendary Pancake (only $8.90!). “Why ‘legendary’”, you ask? As did we – until we tasted the thing. We decided to go for the banana honey flavour over cinnamon (for certain reasons) and/or blueberry. Imagine a thick, crispy-crusted pancake with banana anywhere you cut, on top of vanilla ice cream, strawberries (which we had to fight over) and a choice of maple syrup or honey. A mouthful of some cold vanilla, a tang strawberry, maple syrup and soft, warm banana pancake has got such exquisite taste, it takes you places. I don’t think cold and warm, soft and crispy have gone so well together for a while. There is a fore-warning on the menu that it’ll take up to 20 minutes for the pancake to be ready. I tell you, it’s worth the wait. Our recommended dish this week is truly legendary.

The pricing of Joe’s is only to be expected of anything of its kind. It is manageable for the student – on a day when he/she decides that he/she wants something good for the morning, that isn’t exactly spoiling him/her. Mind you, the food here is in rather big portions so if you’re not prepared to pay or stomach everything, bring people. Like I said in my previous article, good company always makes things so much more enjoyable. Our service earns a few more points for not telling us “everything’s good, really” and actually opining on what’s popular (in the case of the pancake and the specials). Bottles of water come with cups of ice, tea comes with a mini-sieve, attention is adequate and the billing is accurate. Joe’s Garage is indeed one of the places worth waking up for. Tell your friends!

Mocha with Chocolate

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