Autolyse, a popular bakery and cafe in Braddon, is a place I’ve been meaning to check out for nearly a year. I always hear great things about it but just never managed to get down there. I finally got some time to go early in the New Year. I had a look at the website beforehand to pick out what I wanted from the menu. It must be a very old menu as there was so much more to choose from inside!
I couldn’t go past the white beans, tomato chorizo with baked egg ($14.90). This came out served on a thin wooden board with two halves of some crusty bread sitting on top. The baked egg on top looked completely cooked through but when I turned it over, I saw it was still soft and could pop it to let the yolk run into the mixture. A lovely dish that I thoroughly enjoyed. What great value for money. I’m also mightily impressed that I actually got heaps of bread, not the one or two slices that most other cafes serve up. The fresh bread tasted amazing, especially after dipping into the yummy tomato sauce. I would definitely order this again. Highly recommend.
I also ordered my usual soy mocha ($5.50 for a large). This was my first coffee for 2014 so I was really looking forward to it. And was majorly let down. It tasted completely off and sour. I don’t know if it was the coffee or perhaps the soy milk, but something did not taste right. It was the worst mocha I have ever had. Now I hear from foodie friends and have read user reviews that the coffee at Autolyse is fantastic so I’m not sure what happened. If anything, the mocha should be quite sweet given that it consists of half chocolate. I can’t figure out where the sourness came from. Really disappointed.
To take away, I ordered some slices of cake ($7.50 a slice). The first was the baked chocolate and hazelnut ricotta cake. The biscuit base is quite thick (love it!) and there are chopped up bits of hazelnut mixed into the ricotta part, so the overall slice has a slight grainy texture to it. There wasn’t enough chocolate for my liking.
The salted caramel cheesecake had the same biscuit base as the one above with the same thickness. You can see the decent layer of salted caramel sitting above the biscuit base. Perfectly smooth and luscious salted caramel that went really well with the portion of cheesecake. Though quite dense, I found the cheesecake was still light and fluffy.
I will definitely be back to try out more food items. There is quite a selection to choose from for both breakfast and lunch. Everything sounds fresh too. Best of all, nothing is over $15! Bargain. It’s pretty cool watching the bakers knead the dough to make all the bread on site in the open bakery area too.
Foodgasm 6.5/10 (mainly because of the off-tasting mocha) otherwise 8/10 for the baked egg dish.
