Perth Breakfast and Brunch: Regular Coffee Company, Carine has the biggest French toast I’ve seen

Cost-of-living crisis? What cost-of-living crisis? If restaurants faced with rising costs and shrinking margins are getting stingy with their portions, then nobody told Regular Coffee Company in Carine. As a French toast enthusiast I’ve had it plated as one single wobbly slice and felt my stomach rumble in the aftermath. More commonly it arrives as two hefty wedges and I scrape the plate, feeling pleasantly full. I’ve never had a dish of French toast that’s quite this big. Regular Coffee’s French toast comes as four — four! — slices of white toast, sliced thinly but cooked to eggy perfection before being topped with a mass of mascarpone, berries and mint. Ordinarily it comes with bacon but I sub it out for haloumi, which both soaks up the maple syrup and contrast the sweetness of the syrup-coated toast just as effectively as a crispy slice of bacon could. It’s a generous and well-made dish from a kitchen that knows what its customers want: good food and a lot of it. The mascarpone, berries and syrup are a good match for the pleasing stodginess of the toast, offering cool contrast and sweetness without dipping a toe into sickly territory. Regular Coffee in Carine deserves its reputation for punching above its weight. From the outside it’s a modest neighbourhood cafe where you might expect to grab a decent takeaway and one of those too-sweet, too-dry, too-big muffins that far too many cafes get away with. But that’s not Regular Coffee at all. That French toast wasn’t a fluke: the chilli cheese scramble is, I think, even better. House-made sriracha brings the heat to a dish that’s become ubiquitous on Perth brunch menus and which is executed beautifully here. The sriracha is warm and complex and the toast is the perfect receptacle for a big pile of fluffy eggs. Regular Coffee also does Spanish eggs, pancakes and some kind of brie-and-sauteed-mushrooms dish that makes my mouth water a little just writing about it. There’s not a disappointing muffin in sight. The coffee is very good — far better than the “regular” the cafe’s name suggests. The tea comes from a bag but it’s a quality bag, served in a teapot with good crockery, so I have no complaints. Regular Coffee is a big enough venue that you can linger over breakfast or work from your laptop — which more than one visitor was doing on the day of this review. There’s a big indoor dining room and a smaller outside area, which was popular, even on a sleepy weekday. I came. I ate. I rolled out the door after eating every one of those four slices of French toast. The verdict: 14/20 A cafe that’s generous in both size and spirit. Regular Coffee Company, Carine 10/2 Gemstone Boulevard, Carine OPEN Monday-Friday 6:30am-2:30pm; Saturday and Sunday 7am-2:30pm CONTACT 6261 5055 BOOKINGS Yes

Perth Breakfast and Brunch: Regular Coffee Company, Carine has the biggest French toast I’ve seen

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