Green House Coffee & Food Co inside the Canberra Centre opened a few months ago and has been popular with city workers ever since. It’s always crowded at lunch time so you will need to get there early to secure a table. Designed to look like the cafe is within a glass green house with some beautiful arches, the decor is modern but cosy with real plants dotted around the place, timber and lots of natural light.
I headed there for breakfast early one morning and got to sit at a table towards the front of the cafe near the coffee machines. A queue slowly built up for those wanting their morning take away coffee.
Green House is a collaboration between Ona Coffee and the Espresso Room, so the coffee should be good! Similar to the Cupping Room, there’s a good range of coffee available such as the hitman, raspberry candy (based on Sasa’s World Barista Championship winning milk based coffee with flavours of sweet berries), single origin espresso and filter. I decided to try something different and ordered the flat white ($3.80) with raspberry candy (0.50c). Honestly, my coffee palate is non-existent so I couldn’t really taste that hint of sweet berries. Other people rave about it so I will trust that it tastes good.
The all day menu, available until 2.30pm, has limited breakfast and lunch items but that makes it easier to pick something to eat. I couldn’t go past the ricotta and date pancakes with banana, salted butterscotch sauce, whipped vanilla mascarpone and candied walnuts ($16). The pancakes were fabulous – they were fluffy and soft, lightly drizzled in an amazing sticky butterscotch sauce with a good portion of banana, blueberries and strawberries. The mascarpone helped balance out the sweetness of the butterscotch. I easily demolished the entire dish.
During another breakfast outing, I sat outside on the balcony and enjoyed a soy mocha ($4.20) which came out velvety smooth with a perfect blend of chocolate and coffee. I was very happy with it.
I ordered the roast field mushrooms with broccolini, duxelles, fried egg and parmesan on sourdough ($17). Though it was a small portion size, I loved the single huge mushroom covering the slice of sourdough – it was juicy, thick and delicious. There was some smaller shiitake mushrooms hiding underneath the fried egg which was half solid and half oozy. The broccolini crunchy and fresh. A good mix of fresh ingredients for a healthy start to the day. Even though I thought it looked small when it first arrived, I was actually pretty full afterwards.
I found it pleasant breakfasting at the Green House early in the morning. I enjoyed the gentle breeze and the nice peaceful atmosphere. Orders are taken and paid for at the front counter. Fresh cutlery and napkins were provided shortly after ordering. On both occasions, I was greeted warmly when I walked in and found that both the coffee and the food were quick to arrive.
Green House is located inside the Canberra Centre on level 2, near Boost Juice and Kikki K. Open seven days a week for breakfast and lunch.
Foodgasm 8/10
Value for money 7/10
Service 7.5/10
FPJ score 22.5/30
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