Thursday 19 March 2009

Choux Box

I've just come back from our annual relaxing beach trip to Kingscliff, where once again we enjoyed some terrific food.

Choux Box is one of the cafes on Marine Parade at Kingscliff that is perennially busy. That's because it is an excellent cafe.

On our first visit, we ambled up for morning tea after a swim at the beach. Unfortunately I wasn't feeling the best, so I couldn't enjoy any of the scrumptious looking cakes sitting in the display cabinet. My wife on the other hand was only there for the cakes.

Part of the Kingscliff experience is walking past cafes like Choux Box every day, checking out the range of cakes they have on offer every day. On this visit, the daily specials were chocolate eclairs or a variety of friands. One of those cakes and a coffee or tea was only $7.50, which was a great deal. I had to settle for a black tea, while I watched the chocolate eclair vanish off the plate in front of me.

Next time round though I was over the stomach bug and was looking forward to a tasty beach breakfast. Tables at Choux Box fill up quickly for breakfasts on the weekends, so it can be a bit hit and miss if you show up at the wrong time. Luckily we were a little bit later than peak breakfast hour, so we snagged a table out the front.

The breakfast menu at Choux Box isn't huge, but it's very tempting. After a bit of indecision, I fell back to my old favourite, bacon and eggs. It turned out to be a good choice. The eggs were perfectly poached, with the whites straggling across my plate. There was also loads of bacon, which just so happened to be crunchy, exactly how I love my bacon to be cooked. It was the biggest serving of bacon I've come across on a breakfast plate for a long time. I also had half a cooked tomato and some good gluten free toast. Sometimes a simple breakfast, cooked well, takes a lot of beating. I washed this heavenly breakfast down with a good strong flat white.

We also ordered a corn fritter with avocado and tomato. When this dish arrived at the table, it turned out to be a large, almost pancake sized corn fritter, that had been drizzled with basil pesto. It was topped with half an avocado, some cooked tomato and a bit of rocket. I was too busy wolfing down my bacon and eggs to try any, but I was assured that the corn fritter was one of the best vegetarian breakfasts my wife had eaten for a long time. The corn fritter had a good, light consistency, the pesto was obviously freshly made and the avocado was perfectly ripe. I did manage to steal a bit of avocado and immediately made a mental note to order more avocado for breakfast.

As well as the flat white, we had a coffee frappe. Although we were expecting it to be an icy frappe, it turned out to be more like a coffee thickshake. But it was a good coffee thickshake, with a proper coffee bitterness to it. Miles better than the sweet iced coffees that tend to be the norm in the cafe world.

All up our breakfast was $37. Service was very snappy, and we hardly waited at all for our breakfasts to arrive (not that we were in any kind of hurry). Heading back to Brisbane after a swim and such an excellent breakfast sure was hard to take. I could easily be convinced to have breakfast at Choux Box every weekend.

Sorry there are no photos, but my excuse was I was on holidays.

What does all this mean? Excellent breakfasts, cakes and coffees served in a casual beach-side atmosphere.

food bling ratings
Food - Great
Service - Great
Ambience - Relaxed, beach feel with outside tables on the footpath
Value for Money - Good
Vegetarian - Good
Gluten Free - Good selection

Choux Box
94 Marine Parade
Kingscliff NSW 2487
P - 02 6674 1993

Choux Box on Urbanspoon

3 comments:

Unknown said...

When I'm visiting friends in Northern NSW, I make an effort to go and have gelati at Brunswick Heads. Some quick googling tells me that the place is called Bernardi's. I think next time I'm in the area I'll have to make a trip to Utopia - their menu sounds amazing! I agree, it's a great place to holiday!

Sarah said...

Utopia does a great breakfast, but don't bother with their coffee... it's pretty awful.

food bling, Brisbane said...

My coffee at Utopia last time was great, but I know coffee anywhere can be hit and miss at the best of times.