Deep in the heart of business Woden is a new stylish cafe, bringing well-constructed food and inventive desserts to the expendable income of the workers in the area. It's a welcome addition considering the extremely limited quality eating options around Woden (previously limited to food courts, Kingsley's and that now defunct foodvan). Set in a modern building and frequented by mums with prams, business suits and the odd group of stragglers seeking out something new (like myself), it's a pleasant atmosphere and easily to people watch through the high glass walls and the queues waiting for coffee and eyeing desserts.
Honestly the main reason I wanted to go was seeing a picture of the Golden Gaytime-lookalike breakfast. Once you see the Ricardo's-style cronuts and inventive sweets in the cabinet (which makes sense since the owner of Ricardo's opened Space Kitchen), and the sense of greed overwhelms you into making calorie-balancing decisions.
- Nutella Shake $6.9 - the alcoholic version has Frangelico and burnt marshmellows. On another day this would have been perfect, but I hoped the non-alcoholic shake would at least have the marshmellows but sadly not. This was essentially a nutella/chocolate milkshake. I prefer thicker shakes generally so maybe the Oreo or Vanilla versions next time;
- Polenta Waffles (with lemon thyme sauteed mixed mushrooms, goats cheese, poached eggs, corn puree, salsa verde, truffle oil) $18.9 - some of the best version waffles I've had considering the insides weren't dry. The mushrooms were delicious, the corn potent and the salsa verde acidic and tangy for contrast. I couldn't detect any truffle oil;
- Space Benedict (pulled pork croquette with poached eggs, beetroot hollandaise, pork crackling, brioche crumble & pea puree) $18.9 - the "Gaytime" of fried pulled pork on a stick was an excellent crisp coating and soft moist pork strings. The beetroot hollandaise was interesting and the other elements seemed to add texture, colour and a bit of flavour contrast also.
I was told the coffee was good too (for those who are inclined).
One day I'll have to come back for the Snickers Icecream since I couldn't justify it after the Nutella Shake. Additionally I'm interested to see they have a chai latte $4.0 and also a real chai $4.9 (assumably made from spices rather than syrup). The Smoked Salmon breakfast with coconut roesti will be the next breakfast item to complete the decadent meal.
*I've just read that the polenta waffles are apparently meant to be drizzled with a truffle oil cloud at the table. I wonder why I didn't get that...*