Engine Room Cafe

Arrived with three others to a smiling barista with a mohawk, who I must say new his coffee. There was a fairly uninspiring specials blackboard and a pay as you order counter, even though there seemed to be enough staff for table service, I truly hate ordering and paying up front. There was nice sunny seating areas both inside and out the large open planned area. After returning from the order and pay counter to our snug center table, have I mentioned I hate pay as you go, our meals were brought fairly promptly. Ordered was an open grill consisting of chicken swiss cheese on toasted vienna with a home made pesto, three thumbs up for this one. Two spiced pork bellies, not sure where the spice was hiding and the rice was over cooked and gluggy, however it all worked quite well together and the pork belly was nicely cooked. The last thing was a cheese and tomato toasted, what can be said. Definitely would return to sample more on the menu.

It’s a cute café, albeit a little out of the way. We ordered at the counter, and sat outside in the breeze.
My bf ordered the ranch burger for $ 18. $ 18?!! For a burger and no side. Better be a bloody unbelievable burger, but sadly the egg was overcooked, there was too much lettuce, and not enough burger. He ate ¾ of it, but didn’t say too much about it after that.
I ordered bacon and eggs (see the pics). Supposedly with ciabatta, but was two tiny crusts of white bread. The bacon was underdone, like raw. Who can’t cook bacon? I was still in diapers when I mastered a good bacon fry. It came with a little wedge of grilled tomato with the stem still on. Like an 8^th of a tomato, for $ 14.50.
$ 40+ for mediocrity.