Everything’s in mint condition at Cafe Mint

Walking alone down a bustling Crown Street on a Sunday morning can be a little daunting. Trendy locals flood hot cafes and boy are you spoilt for choice. But a little temple of solace sits right on the end, close to Cleveland St called Cafe Mint. It’s perfect for the solo bruncher. A welcoming modern Mediterranean cafe, serving good comfort food, soothing vibes and a friendly smile. It’s small and narrow in size, but filled to the brim with little groups sitting behind the polished wooden upholstery.

Their signature flavour of mint appears all throughout the menu, especially in their drinks. There’s the Moroccan sweet tea, the iced mint tea and then a combination of green tea and mint. I went for their Moroccan Limonata, a refreshing blend of mineral water with lime, mint and lovely notes of orange blossom. The thirst-quenching drink was great way to wet my appetite.

Cafe Mint serve breakfast until 3pm and the lunch menu starts at 11am, perfect for those late start, hungover mornings when you can’t decide between the two. The breakfast menu is a mix of authentic Mediterranean breakfasts dishes mixed with typical cafe fare with a Moroccan twist. I chose the baked eggs with chackchouka, a popular menu item with capsicum, onion and tomato, served with four pieces of Turkish za’atar toast.

With the chakchouka, you are given only a fork and a spoon, no knife needed for this bad boy. As my spoon went into that beautiful rich sauce and spooned out globs of gooey egg, I was in heaven. Warm, comforting flavours that you can lovingly dunk in pieces of that za’atar toast on the side, no table manners necessary, (not that I had anyone to impress.) Perhaps a touch of salt could of livened it up a bit more but otherwise a lovely version of a warm, breakfast classic, perfect as we head straight first into winter.

To balance out the savoury, I decided to order something sweet, in the form of the kuneffeh, a traditional, sweet Moroccan breakfast. A very generous serving of honey yoghurt seeped into what looked like a pastry dessert made of crunchy noodles. It was actually shredded kataifi pastry, wrapped around a middle of ricotta and sultanas, and flavoured with fruit compote of apricots and dates. This was a decadent breakfast, the yoghurt was perhaps a little two sweet for my liking, but had nicely balanced flavours, similar to baklava.

I paired this with their lovely home brewed chai latte, that is brewed fresh in their kitchen. No synthetic chai powder here. It’s delicious, combining honeycomb, cinnamon and of course, that signature spice that is in any good chai latte.
I left filling satisfied, but not too heavy, just the right way to start a lazy Sunday. There is much to try on this jam-packed menu that drifts into nighttime with cocktails, wine and a vibrant selection of Moroccan delights for dinner.
Grab a few friends, or take your fine self on a great little meal here if you’re in the area. Cafe Mint will look after you.

Cafe Mint 
579 Crown St, Surry Hills
Mon 8am–3pm, Sun, Tues-Thurs 8am–3pm, 5:30–10pm, Fri-Sat: 8am–3pm, 5:30–11pm
http://cafemint.com.au/
Love Middle-Eastern cuisine? You are going to want to check out The Thievery boys in Glebe, we did! Read it here.