The Lane Cafe.
It’s that time again! I know i promised pictures of cakes and things but recently i just haven’t had the energy for any of that malarkey. Anywho, to the matter at hand. I went to The Lane Cafe in Claremont with my girlfriend on Saturday and figured i should let people know what it’s all about so the next time you’re in the area perhaps I can help you to make a decision. Perhaps not. SO!
The Lane Cafe is situated down the old arcade in Claremont just off Bayview Terrace. It is also opposite The Lane Bookshop. I have to say that it is one of the nicer lanes I’ve been down, there’s a barber, a knick-knack shop, an old-timey cobbler a music shop and as I recall a couple of clothing “boutiques”. I really think that this is what more shopping areas should be like, these big monstrous shopping centres nowadays are just depressing and gross, packed with people and 14 different cafes that all serve the same brand of coffee and all buy their cakes from the same frozen cake company. Anyway, geez I ramble don’t I?
So we went to The Lane Cafe after previously giving it a miss due to being desperate for some sushi. It’s very small, with cakes on a table in the middle of the room, a kitchenette on the left hand side with jugs of water and other mysterious clutter and then the leftover space kinda crammed with tables and chairs. But it’s not necessarily a bad clutter, everything is wooden, a little old fashioned and quite homey, the water jugs and what-not are brightly coloured and a bit quirky, it’s nice being able to see the cakes for myself, it’s also the perfect cake temperature, they should never really be refrigerated because they go stale just like bread.
We decided to sit outside because it was a nice day, its undercover, you can even choose to sit at the bookshop window which I think is nice. So the waitress asks if we’re ready to order, I had yet to look at the menu but she just started rattling off the list of what they had that day. So we both decided to get a slice of quiche and salad and a coffee each. It wasn’t until I had a chance to look over the menu that I saw that the quiche and salad was $19. It’s seems quite steep for store-bought Fillo pastry, mushroom/bacon and egg. But it wasn’t too bad, nothing special, the quiche lacked any seasoning and the salad was overpowered somewhat by Coriander (Cilantro for any Americans). But a little salt and some careful Coriander-picking and it was all good. It’s served on one of those wooden Antipasti board things too which is either cool and quirky or inconvenient and a little unhygienic depending on your frame of mind. I ordered a Long Macchiato (as I do) and it was good, it tasted nice, it wasn’t bitter or burnt or too hot and it was reasonably priced ($4.50 i think).
After lunch I ordered a piece of the unlabelled ‘Almond thing’ which the waitress said was called spick or speck or spack, I’m still not really sure, and a Brioche. All the cakes are made on site but the Brioche is from Barrett’s Bakery. The Spicken-Spock was nice but not as almondy as I’d hoped, more like a mixed spice cake. And the brioche was good, it came with a little dish of rhubarb jam, which was alright except that the brioche was warmed up and the jam was icy cold but that’s just me being weird.
To conclude, the staff were nice, the food was pretty good although a little pricey for me, good coffee and nice atmosphere, i think the best thing is the location. It’s close to the shopping centre but kinda tucked away, surrounded by nice little stores. I think this might be my new ‘place to go’, take a break from the overly busy Atomic in Claremont Quarter. $55 all up, maybe next time i’ll eat first, unless someone else is paying:). 4 out of 5.
for pastry's sake 