The weekend after arriving back from Thailand, Dave and I were up for a lazy Sunday brunch somewhere new. We had smashed a couple of the local brekky spots near us (Hardware Cafe, Little Sisto’s) and so after abit of internet research, we decided on Piccolo’s Corner in West Leederville.
Piccolos Corner is literally located on a leafy, residential suburban corner in West Leederville, on the corner of Woolich and St Leonards, and is a cafe converted from a character home.
We parked on St Leonards Street about 30 metres down from the quaint cafe but upon arriving at the Cafe, read a blackboard out the front which asked punters to refrain from parking on St Leonards – whether that was to do with disgruntled residents, or fine-happy inspectors, we weren’t sure, but Dave ducked back and moved the car onto Woolich Street just to be safe.
Piccolo’s Corner – unassuming but a real treat!
While he did that, I popped inside to try and snag a table. The inside of Piccolos is bustling, kitschy and a ‘jumble’ of paraphernalia and mismatched tables and chairs – in short, i loved it! There were probably only about seven tables but some of them were big enough to seat 6 people, so we ended up sharing a larger table with another couple who were dining – we took one end near the fireplace, and they were the other end. As with many cafes these days, you take a seat, grab a menu and then when you’re decided, pop up to the till and place your order. Normally in a brekky spot, two or three menu items normally grab my fancy, however I must admit at Piccolo’s, there were four or five dishes I was keen to try…. a good start!
Dave was designated orderer, and I ended up asking him to surprise me with my order – I was tossing up between the Smashed Pumpkin, Danish Fetta and wilted spinach on toasted ciabatta, with homemade pesto and a fee-range poached egg ($19), and the Smashed Pea and Avocado with chorizo, balsamic glaze served on toasted ciabatta with a poached egg, sprinkled with danish fetta and fresh coriander ($19). Hmm… they both sound pretty good, don’t they?! So I left my decision up to Dave and up he went to place our order while I looked around in wander, my eyes trying to capture all the hundreds of things to look at inside this pretty small space. I noticed a little sign pointing towards the back of the cafe with a sign for “Op Shop” – and quickly decided we would have to check that out before we left, even if just to appease my curiosity!
The attitude-filled counter, bustling with people
The chef and Virgin Mary overlooking us as we ate our meal – so much to look at!
Dave was back before too long and our coffees arrived surprisingly quick, especially considering the amount of people ordering takeaways. We both went for a topped up long mac, and the coffee was strong with a delicious waft of caffeine hitting us as we enjoyed it.
Our usual – 2 Long Macs, topped up
I still was not sure what dish to expect so when the friendly waitress placed the Smashed Avo dish in front of me, I was full of anticipation… and it looked phenomenal! I quickly popped the poached egg so it could ooze over the rest of my dish. YUMMO.
Smashed Pea and Avocado with chorizo, balsamic glaze served on toasted ciabatta with a poached egg, sprinkled with danish fetta and fresh coriander
On looks alone, I would rate this dish, with its generous thick cut slice of ciabatta and its large serving of the avo/pea smashing a solid 9… a perfectly poached egg seemed to hit the mark as well. Unfortunately upon tasting it all together, the chorizo was WAAAAY too salty… to the point where you really only needed the teeniest, tiniest slither of chorizo to mix with the ciabatta, the egg, fetta, the avo and pea smash, and even then, I found it abit too salty and ended up leaving most of the chorizo. A real shame, because other than that, the dish was really lovely.
Now, I haven’t mentioned what Dave ended up ordering, and he was also debating between a couple of dishes – the full Piccolos brekky or the Housemade Meatballs. He ended up going with the meatballs – Manjimup organic grass fed beef mince, local free range pork mince, with fresh thyme, parsley, slow cooked in a rich ragu served with a free range poached egg, fresh basil pesto and local cheese on toasted ciabatta ($21). Now, that’s a mouthful! And here is a picture to make your mount water just a little bit more…
I snuck a few mouthfuls, and WOW, the flavours in these meatballs was so rich and authentic, they would not have been out of place at any of Perth’s premier Italian restaurants. Superb. Dave’s comments were that he really enjoyed the dish, and could taste the pesto was home made as well as the ragu, but that the pesto had a slightly ‘planty’ taste – perhaps not enough basil in the pesto? That was a minor complaint, and this dish was the winner out of the two. Special mention to the poaching of the eggs, it seems a lot of places cannot get these just right, and don’t allow for the time to take the dish from the kitchen to the customer, and so a lot of the time, the eggs have gone beyond softly poached and who wants an egg if you can’t pop it and have it gush over the rest of your brekky?? Not me 😉
Overall, great coffee, good food, and a lip-smacking menu – we will definitely be back to try the other dishes, and hopefully the chorizo I had was just an extra salty batch! We then ducked quickly into the Op Shop at the back of the Cafe, quite a few wonders inside and I must admit, I would love to explore more vintage shops and find a few one-off treasures. Pretty small but an eclectic mix of espresso, coffee cups with mirror, some clothes and other paintings and trinkets – a nice touch to the Cafe!
The Op Shop
