The Tuck Shop Cafe, Northbridge

Finally, I'm joining the bandwagon in writing about my experience with The Tuck Shop. After getting back from my holiday, they have became the talk of the town on Urbanspoon, and that is saying something! Luckily, it lived up the hype.

I wasn't one of those people who love waking up early in the morning and go out for breakfast, I don't believe in paying about $20 per person for an average eggs on toast. Sadly enough, there seems to be a lot of these breaky joint in Perth though!

I don't mind paying that kind of money to a place where they put love into their food and perhaps some creativity. And The Tuck Shop has it all.

Menu for 28/8

They print their menu everyday and changes the menu almost everyday, that's what I love about them. I've been back twice just to check out the new items and to try other popular items on the menu.

They are always pack full of diners and we waited at the door for about 15 minutes for seats on 2 separate occasions.

Toby Estate's coffee with their roast of the day

 Without much further ado, we ordered a flat white and a cappuccino while deliberate on the menu. The coffee has the right flavour profile, milk was heated to the right temperature and consistency. We enjoyed it!

Choosing what to eat seems like a tough job here at The Tuck Shop. There are many items that I'd like to try, I guess I'll have to go back to try everything (Which I did return). Everything else on the menu sounded amazing and creative. However, we've decided on Sourdough with grilled black pudding, tomato, parsley ricotta and poached egg and Chorizo with paprika potatoes, peppers, spanish onion, crispy pork belly and fried egg. 

Chorizo with paprika potatoes, peppers, spanish onion, crispy pork belly and fried egg $18.50

All the element on the chorizo dish were nice, but overall it was a very salty and fulfilling dish because everything was fried. Perhaps substitute the paprika potatoes with some bread to soak up all the fat and flavour or substitute the fried egg with poached egg to form some kinda sauce. 

Sourdough with grilled black pudding, tomato, parsley ricotta and poached egg $17.50 

This might be an adventures dish to some, but I love black pudding. Sourdough was nicely toasted, on top of it layered with slices of roasted tomatoes and grilled black pudding. In between them, there were parsley ricotta to cut down the rich flavour from black pudding. The tomato concasse and relish add another flavour to the dish. Lastly, the poached egg tight everything together to make a complete dish. I enjoyed it! 

When poached egg done right. 

3 weeks later, we returned to Tuck Shop to try on other items on the menu. The also sells in-house pie, which I was tempted to order but was saving the best for my next visit. 

Special of the day - Crispy pork belly, "coleslaw", apple and walnuts 

My mate ordered the special of the day - Crispy pork belly. Pork belly was deep fried til crispy, unfortunately it was a little on the dry side. It was accompanied with a crossbred or coleslaw and waldorf salad. The salad consists of Chinese cabbage, apple, onion, walnuts. It was refreshing to eat and a great addition to go with the fatty pork belly. It was a nice dish nonetheless, if it wasn't for the dry pork belly, my mate would gladly order this dish again. 

Smoked bacalao, potatoes, leek, poached egg and cheddar cheese toastie.

Recently traveled around Spain, I am obsess with bacalao (salted cod). I decided on this dish straight away when I saw it on the menu. I didn't expect it to be such a big dish but it was a great wholesome dish especially for a rainy day. If you're not a big fan of smoked and salted cod, this might not be a dish for you. The cod might be a little on the salty side, but hey it's salted cod after all. As they didn't skimp on the cod, every mouthful that I had was filled with smokey goodness. The cheddar cheese toastie was there to mop up the bechamel sauce filled with bacalao. It was a well executed dish, but I couldn't finish it. 

If you haven't been there, you should get there as soon as possible, but do bear in mind that you might have to wait up to 20 minutes for table. 

Service was friendly, but the barista and the cashier could use some smile on their face to complete our experience there. 

Food Quality: 4 salted cod outta 5 

Service: 3.5 salted cod outta 5

Ambience: 3.5 salted cod outta 5

Will I be back?: Yes, I already did, will be going back soon too! 

The Tuck Shop Cafe

178, Newcastle Street,

Northbridge 

(08) 9227 1659