San Churro- Rockingham.
So I went to Rockingham yesterday and out of sheer desperation and longing I decided to go to San Churro. Now I don’t know if you’ve ever been to Rockingham or to San Churro but in my opinion neither are worth the trip. Maybe not all San Churros are the same (although they should be, being a franchise and all) but the one in Rockingham is definitely nothing special. The “rat’s tails” and “mullets” don’t make for a very pleasant cafe experience.
I don’t see the big deal with churros, deep fried dough dipped into chocolate is not very nice, the churros are bland and dry and the chocolate is dark and bitter (I have nothing against couverture chocolate but i found the whole thing a little more palatable after emulsifying mine with some of my coffee and a bit of sugar). The coffee is strong in flavour but not at all pleasant, it’s very dark and bitter and needs to be watered down with quite a lot of milk. The baristas don’t seem to understand the difference between a traditional macchiato and a macchiato “topped up”, in fact I don’t think they understand the different kinds of coffee at all.
I ordered a long macchiato topped up and a brownie. A note to anyone that sells brownies, putting non-dissolvable icing sugar on top doesn’t automatically make it look good, especially when it clumps and falls off and just leaves a floury film on top. Anyway, so I got a brownie, I had to try it.
The brownie from The Attic has been nibbling at my brain, so I thought surely a chocolatier would make a good brownie. It was awful. It was dry and sweet and it smelled. I tasted it and smelled it, trying to figure out it’s mysterious flavour. It was so familiar yet I couldn’t remember why. I passed it around the table to gauge other people’s opinions and then it hit me. Vegemite. It tasted and smelled like it contained Vegemite. I’m not saying it definitely had Vegemite in it but that was all I was getting. The others at the table agreed. I had to take it back, I had to let them know. What if something horrible had happened in the kitchen and they used Vegemite instead of chocolate paste?
I took the 3/4 of a brownie back to the counter and said “This brownie tastes like Vegemite”. Several minutes later a waitress approached my table to discuss the situation. She said “I just talked to the manager and they said the brownies are fresh, did you want a refund? Some people find them too sweet.” To which I replied “I don’t think it’s too sweet, it’s just a little vegemite-y, have you tried them?” Then i was laughed at and called weird. I said “I don’t want a refund, I just thought you should know that they’re not very nice. As a pastry chef I work a lot with chocolate and it’s just my professional opinion.” And that was the end of it. I took a sip of my horrible coffee and I was done.
I don’t think I’ll ever try San Churro again, not when there are small businesses out there doing a far better job.
Chocolateria San Churro- 2/5.
for pastry's sake 