Brekkie @ Cherryripe Brasserie

There's a new restaurant in Watson. This came as a complete surprise to us – we jumped on our bikes to ride to Joey's Kitchen this morning, and when we arrived it had disappeared and been replaced by Cherryripe Brasserie. Apparently they've been open for less than two weeks. They were serving brekkie, so we thought ... why not?

He had: French toast, with Canadian maple syrup,

bacon, cream and strawberries, and a long black

She had: Eggs benedict with smoked salmon, and a flat white

The food and coffee were good, and the service cheerful. We thought the prices were a bit odd – the French toast was remarkably cheap at just $10 (including bacon), whereas the eggs benedict was overpriced at $21. Overall it ended up about usual for a Canberra weekend breakfast, though I'm not convinced one dish should have cost double what the other did!

Wonder what's going on in Watson, anyway? For several years we were (very) regular visitors at Carlo's Cafe (they had some wonderfully creative brekkie offerings), then it closed in early 2011 and was replaced by Joey's Kitchen. Now Joey's has closed. Hmmmm. Watson is (was?) also home to the delightful Satis, but it closed in early 2013, ostensibly for refurbishment. We regularly cruise by, fingers crossed that it will reopen and again serve our favourite Taj Mahals (chai-spiced coffees), but there are no signs of life yet ... sigh ...

Alas, poor Carlo's. Gone but not forgotten.

Update: Sunday 10 November 2013

We ate at Cherryripe again today, and there have been a number of changes since our first visit two months ago, just after the cafe opened. The menu items have changed a bit: the French toast on offer is now sweet rather than savoury, so Andrew tried the pancakes with bacon and bananas instead:

The range of eggs benedict options has now expanded and become more sensibly priced ($14.50 for the salmon version, which is much better than the $21 I paid last time):

The presentation was less haphazard too ;-) All was delicious. This blog post has been getting a lot of hits – perhaps because Cherryripe doesn't yet have much of a web presence – so I wanted to provide an update.

Oh, and Satis (a few doors away) has reopened too, and apparently has resurrected its wonderful Satis Favourite. We're planning to go there next Sunday ...