The Porch

Delicious! The food and dirty chai latte and coffees — so good. It was our first time here but we will be coming back. It’s small but worth the wait.

Absolutely fantastic breakfast. The eggs benny was perfectly done and such a trendy place with awesome and attentive wait staff. Will be back for sure!

This is one of those places I really wanted to like.
The Porch plays on its name with a theme that is reminiscent of a verandah at a country guest house. This extends to the at times rustic menu and presentation.
That’s a good start.
I was in a hurry this day and was attracted by the menu outside advertising a «Porch Pie».
Unfortunately, this wasn’t available for take away, so I settled for my second choice, a basic ham sandwich.
If there’s one thing a café should be able to make it’s a ham sandwich. After water, it’s the easiest thing on any menu.
After an inordinate wait to take my order there was another long wait for the sandwich. OK, there was virtually no one else in here (a sign?) but delays happen. It’s not a hanging offence. At least the sanger will be good.
It wasn’t. It was almost inedible out of the box (it actually came in a box).
A decent coverage of two slices of processed ham (I was expecting real ham), a few tomato cubes and a withered herb of some description slathered in a ‘special house sauce’ that tasted like reconstituted Old El Paso taco seasoning wedged between two sides of bland, dry Turkish bread.
The thing about Turkish bread is it must be toasted, at least lightly. It’s totally inedible otherwise. Am I right?
Fortunately, I was back at my office, so I popped the sandwich into the café toaster and a few minutes later the bread revived. But nothing could save that sauce that was so out of place and just, Blech!
I’ll give these guys another try, the Porch pies look fantastic, but I’ll never again buy a sandwich here.

Oh heyyyyyyy Crows Nest.
They say you if you put lipstick on a pig it’s still a pig, but the daggy 80s eat street that used to be Willoughby Rd is proof that saying holds no water because it’s BACK, yo, in much the same way that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are currently also back.
Proof? The Porch, a trendy little café in the middle part of the strip with one of the most creative menus I’ve seen in a while. My current crush is the winter salad, with lettuce and roast parsnip and big hunks of crispy, chewy pork belly. Get in me.
They also do a kick-​ass brekky/​brunch, with middle eastern eggs (cumin! Chilli! Coriander! All the C’s!), shaksouka, and the daddy of them all, the Harvest Breakfast.
Hit a milkshake too, they’re cold and sweet and damn fine. If you sit outside (note: sit outside) and have a dog they’ll bring it water because they’re good people.

First off, this is not your mamma’s old porch (okay, basically what I am trying to say is that it recently came under new management about 8 months ago and is a totally new Porch than you might remember — succinct, right?)
Okay, now that we settled that. I have a slight (major) obsession with graffiti and after seeing a wall to wall mural I had to have breakfast here. Mediterranean menu — okay, now I am really interested. Talk about clashing two totally different but magical things together. (yes, magical).
After a fierce bout of ‘Rock, Paper, Scissors’ my boyfriend won the prize of ordering The Porch’s version of Eggs Benedict (blood orange hollandaise and ham on a croissant — seriously. legit). Oh, and just in case you were wondering, I did put up one hell of a fight. After accepting defeat (somewhat gracefully) I chose the Harvest Breakfast so that we could share two options.
What happened next was heaven. Because I want to keep this PG, I’ll just say that the parents at the table next to us had to cover their children’s ears. Yes, that magic.
I don’t like to kiss and tell BUT that definitely wont be my only date with destiny. And in case you are wondering, there were no losers in Rock, Paper Scissors because we both won with our dishes. And well life, we won at life, oh and breakfast.

This small café on Willoughby Rd is quirky and definitely worth a visit. The décor is a mish mash of art and humour. The menu is equally varied from the currently popular superfoods to traditional burgers etc. It isn’t a big place but seems to do a decent turnover and the coffee itself is very good. Service is hectic but overall quite friendly.
The kitchen space is tiny and there is a single service window which doubles as the entrance to the kitchen (by ducking underneath).

Very interesting! The Porch, a MEDITERRANEAN style cuisine café that has a home town feel with mason jar glasses, exposed brick wall and wooden tables and chairs mixed with a comic strip mural on one wall and clearly plays American Country music. After sitting for 20 minutes I’ve heard Blake Shelton, Rascall Flatts, and Carrie Underwood. No complaints here even though I’m a bit confused as to exactly what genre this place is.
Over all food is pretty good, it’s aiming for the healthy side of things with ingredients like kale, gogi berries and quinoa on the menu. My omelette was a bit salty but over all very good.