I used to love getting my coffees at Gus’ Place in the city so I’m really happy that sister café Good Neighbour opened in Kingston. With Gus’ staple items on the menu and a few new additions, Good Neighbour is proving to be a very popular destination. We’re talking 45min wait for coffees and food.
We’ve taken our little one with us on a couple of occasions – yes there’s a kids menu with pancakes and bacon and eggs staples.
The ricotta hotcake with salted caramel gelato, berries, white chocolate cremeaux, peanut crumble, maple syrup ($23) is impressive looking. I do appreciate a fluffy hotcake and this one delivers.
The Shakshouka baked eggs with tomato sugo, tahini labneh, pistachios, and parsley is served with a couple of slices of Three Mills focaccia ($23.50). I would love some butter provided with the toast (forgot to ask), otherwise a light and comforting winter breakfast. I could have added chorizo to it to make it a bit more enjoyable but I was really quite happy with the vegetarian version.
I’ve had this next dish at Gus’, and cannot resist ordering the Dirty eggs (huevos sucios) of fried eggs, chorizo, croquettes, tortilla, black bean and corn salsa with chipotle mayo ($23). It’s got a bit of everything, has a mild spiciness and is filling. The only thing I don’t finish are all the black beans.
Mr FPJ tires the potato rosti with avocado pesto, fried egg, pickled onion and pine nuts, plus a side of mushrooms. Enjoyable and no complaints.
The chilli crab folded eggs also hits the spot topped with fresh red onion, coriander, chilli jam and served with roti. Fluffy eggs and fresh ingredients. Everything on this place works fabulously together and I am slightly saddened as I polish off all the contents. I’ll just have to order it again.
I also try the trending iced strawberry matcha (I think around the $8 mark). I’m a matcha purist and don’t usually have it mixed with anything else, but this is surprisingly good with strawberry puree/syrup. I’ve ordered this three times now from Good Neighbour. The black forest smoothie ($10.50) is also a winner with mixed berries, chocolate callets, vanilla yoghurt, honey and milk. It does taste like a slightly healthier drinkable black forest.
Good Neighbour is very spacious in the back dining area. We think they could actually fit a couple more tables but it is nice to have some distancing during these times. It also means there’s plenty of room for pram parking and highchairs. It gets loud in the front area (near the cash register) especially with a queue of people ordering (make sure to grab a table number) and wait staff coming and going to deliver goodies to the outdoor tables. Each time we’ve been (on a weekend) there’s always groups of people waiting for their take away coffees, and yes it’s at least 45 minute wait for coffee and food – perhaps a good time to dine in when you have nowhere else to be.
My reel of the experience below
Good Neighbour
1/55 Wentworth Ave, Kingston, Canberra
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