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February 2013

THE BLOCK

facebook.com/theblockcafenz/

Having heard of the newly opened “Block” café on (lo and behold) Blockhouse Bay via some delicious doughnut takeaways (thanks Jacqui), we could not wait to go try them out after a wild week of furious coding and designing for our brilliant clients, and boy were we in for a treat.

Driving along Blockhouse Bay Road this place definitely stood out. We called it industrial-chic heaven – the wooden veranda, steel beams and matching chairs to the glass-pendant lights certainly all give a nod towards its previous hardware-store identity. Attention to detail ranged from their beautiful plate presentations to a little wooden block in place of the typical table-numbering tags.

Seriously good variety on the menu too – confit duck, tempura prawn salad and pork belly eggs benedict to name a few (they even gave you a choice on the cut of chips – chunky handcuts or stringy!). Ordering was a tad frustrating however – with the large amount of seating they only had one counter to take orders, not to mention when the large group in front of us asked to split the bill they had to re-enter everything so it was a bit of a wait. Probably a newbie thing though, which is forgivable as we were all in a blissful food-coma after a very satisfying meal, definitely a place to check out in the west!

Louise had the plate-sized Hash Brown with Bacon, Mushroom, Onion, Fried Eggs and Mozzarella and a Mocha. She said ‘Very impressed with new decor, branding and vibe. Coffee brilliant, food looked awesome. Crazy busy though! Bit underwhelmed by the ordering process – there was quite an impressive queue forming while we waited for a group ordering shambles to get sorted and, of the many staff hovering, only one seemed empowered to take customer orders. Would be nice if someone could come to the table to avoid the queue at the till. Otherwise, awesome.’

Innie had the Avocado Toasted Muffin with Asparagus, Poached Egg with Honey Mustard and Smoke Salmon and a Latte. She said ‘Food is good. Atmosphere is good. What else do you need!’

Katie had the Soft Shell Crab Omelette with Shellfish Mayo and Kumara Crisps. She said ‘Very tasty but the mayo’s a bit too rich for me, amazing presentation and interiors though, can’t wait to try it out when they get licensed to open at night!’

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