Not Bread Alone

This was my second time here — the first was not memorable and this time eminently forgettable.
I had the salt and pepper calamari with a mesculin salad, and she had the steak sanger.
Talk about a disappointment. The calamari was actually ok, but for 19 bucks I got 6 pieces. Unbelievable. And the salad was a small pile of leaves from a bag drowned in oil.
Her steak sanger looked pretty good, but under the hood all was not well — a fairly large portion of the meat was basically uncooked — calling it blue would be generous.
Extremely disappointing — for 40 bucks we had two crap lunches and an average coffee.
Will not be back.

Intrigued by the numerous crapy reviews, we went to check this place out for lunch on a Sunday. The seats outside were only half-​occupied, so perhaps we had an advantage over the other reviewers who showed up at busy breakfast times.
–The food was great
–The coffee was OK, hard to compare with Bean Drinking of course
–Service was fine
–Pricing a little expensive, but for lower Nth Shore, it always is anyway
–They even had blankets on each chair to wrap around your shoulders to keep warm
Summary-​Bring your wallet but left feeling satisfied and puzzled as to the many –ve reviews. Pays to keep an open mind.

As others have pointed out, Crow’s Nest isn’t a place you’d ever go hungry with it’s array of café’s and restaurants. The first time I ate at Not Bread Alone was for dinner and I was very impressed. They appear to source seasonal regional produce and they have a substantial special’s board. As a group of 6, I managed to taste quite a few dishes and I would have been happy with any of them.
So impressed, I returned for breakfast and while I found it to be a good solid menu, it wasn’t as stand out as the dinner selections. The baked beans and corn cakes were the best of what I tried, but I’ve had just as good else where.
That said, I haven’t had a bad meal here in two dinner visits and as many breakfasts. The major difference is the value. So yes, the dinner, for me, is a good experience, but the breakfast is a little overpriced considering the standard fare.

This is a pleasant little dine — morning, lunch, anytime. Even though it’s a stone’s throw from Pacific Highway it’s relatively quiet and green with lots of leafy trees lining the outdoor area and a bush motif painted on the walls in the upstairs courtyard.
Food is a bit on the expensive side but certainly tasty. They do the best Caesar salad I’ve had on the north shore — real bacon, real shaved Parmesan, fresh cracked pepper, perfectly poached and slightly runny poached egg and home made dressing with real anchovies. Oh, and a decent size — I’m glad I didn’t get the chicken added.
Other menu highlights are the home made gnocchi; the baked duck salad with spinach, strawberry and orange dressing; ravioli with crab and four cheeses; the ricotta hot cakes with passionfruit butter, banana and maple syrup; and the rhubarb and apple crumble with icecream. Yum.
Service is friendly enough although I think the waiter got a bit huffy at me for choosing a seat up the top at the back as I had a pram to squash in. Understandable but there was no one else there and I didn’t ask for his help or move anything around. Gruff over.
House roasted coffee. Child seats. Mostly outdoor seating. Great desserts.

Lost for choice I once again let twitter choose for me. I was on the hunt for bacon and somehow this #baconhunt led me to Crows Nest.
Having walked by a number of cafes (especially those serving Vittoria coffee) I made my way here. «Fine food and coffee…» is what I expected, especially at these prices…
The coffee arrived and I could tell straight away that I was not going to enjoy it. It has the perfect amount of froth, perfect amount of milk… but… it was over espressed and watery. If I had not ordered breakfast I likely would likely have left it untouched, paid and left.
As I had ordered, I hoped that my big breakfast, which cost nearly $ 20, would a) be worth the cost, and b) be so good that I would forget the coffee. On the positive side, the sausage was good, as was the roma tomato and the mushrooms. The bacon was well cooked, but when eaten with the very oily eggs, and the near burnt toast, didn’t really live up to the price tag.
I really hope that I was just unfortunate with my experience as the venue and the atmosphere of this venue was great. This time I needed to go straight to another café to cleanse my palate… :-(
Café Summary
— — — — — — — —
Passion for Coffee — ⁴⁄₁₀
Coffee beans - (unsure)
Crema (1=burnt, 10=velvet) — ⁴⁄₁₀
Special coffees avail? — N/​A

I’d never heard of this place when I stumbled on it in Crows Nest. That part of the Pacific Highway is a necessary evil — there are places nearby that I have to visit from time to time, but divided by six lanes of traffic it’s just not a destination of choice.
Desperate for coffee one day, I saw down a side-​street a few tables under a canopy, that seemed to be well frequented. The barista and his colleague were bantering behind the counter, so I joined in with a debate on the merits of cappuccino versus latte. I think an awful lot of take-​away cafes actually produce pretty much the same for each and just pop a plastic lid on to hide the fact.
We agreed on definitions: more froth and less milk in a cappuccino (plus the chocolate sprinkle, but that’s easy to pop on either brew and claim to have made a difference).
Whether it was the fact that I actually expressed interest in the specs of my coffee or whether ‘not bread alone’ consistently produces coffee correctly to order I am not yet sure, but mine was great — I’d seek the place out again.
Pssst … don’t be fooled by the Pacific Highway address — the café actually fronts Hume Street.