So what else do you do on a beautiful Sunday Morning on the Gold Coast when your car breaks down? You call someone to come and get you and you go and have coffee!
Queensland, beautiful one day, perfect the next!
Well I was on my way to Ballina to hear a great friend of mine speak at church and my car overheated. I’ve been having a bit of trouble with NINA (my car’s name) and really need to buy my self a new car 🙁 I just needed to put some water in my radiator, so I waited for it to cool down and filled her up! While I was waiting I rang mum and told here to meet me at this cafe that I want to try on my Top 10 Gold Coast Coffee Shops list.
It was the most glorious Autumn day on the coast (more like summer) and this cafe is tucked away behind Bond University in Varsity Lakes.
Cafe’ Logo
Blackboard Cafe is just so hip, there are bench seats, high tables and stools as well as normal tables. There are blackboards on the walls and beautiful produce on the benches. When you walk in you are greeted and asked to sit where you like and within seconds a staff member has arrive with a bottle of lightly sparked water that has been dispensed like beer from the bar.
Complimentary lightly sparkling water
I asked the lovely waitress if Blackboard had any speciality coffees and “Mocca Master” was the reply. No it isn’t a chocolate, coffee mix as this coffee cafe is purist when it comes to coffee, with a decaffeinated beverage not to be seen on any menu at all! I’m sure that if you looked hard enough into the barista’s eyes they wouldn’t be able to hide the fact that they hate even putting milk in anyones coffee 🙂 “Mocca Master” is a slow drip filter coffee but unlike the No Name Lane version, this coffee is warm!
Mocca Master looks a bit like a Chemistry experiment!
This was a particularly smooth coffee and went down a little too fast, as I wanted to keep tasting the different depths of flavours. Mum order her usual long black which she enjoyed, but said it could possible put hairs on her chest!
The Menu
The food menu was small, but everything looked delicious. By the time we sat down to order it was around 11am, time for my breakfast and mums lunch, so that is what we ordered. I had the avocado, herbs, chill, almonds, hen’s eggs and sweet potato dish. I thought it sounded interesting. When it came out, my mouth instantly started salivating. As usual I forgot to take a photo of the beautifully presented plate and gave mum half and started eating! The sweet potato was perfectly roasted, then mashed avocado was spread all over it. The herbs, which consisted of finely chopped kale, parsley shallot ends and chervil, were mixed with lightly toasted flaked almonds and sprinkled all over the sweet potato and avocado. Then two perfectly poached egg were placed on top with a little bit more herb mixture sprinkled over. When I say perfectly poached… it was hard on the outside and beautifully soft and runny on the inside so that when you broke the yolk, it was like dressing for the lovely herb salad.
Avocado, herbs, chilli, almonds, eggs and sweet potato
Perfectly Poached Egg
Mum ordered the Kingfish Burger with Fennel, cucumber and a spiced Yogurt. After we had cut it in half I remember to take a photo so it doesn’t look that appetising, but I can tell you it was delicious. Kingfish is my favourite fish to eat and this beautiful, light burger didn’t disappoint!
Lastly I decided that I couldn’t leave this fabulous cafe’ without trying their iced coffee, so I asked for a takeaway. It came in its own capped bottle which was opened for me on request.
Take home Iced Coffee “we don’t do decaffeinated coffee at Blackboard sorry”
The only negative is they don’t serve decaffeinated coffee, so if you wanted to sit and chat and have a few bevies, the caffeine level in your blood would rise exponentially. But really, Blackboard Cafe’ was a wonderful experience. The coffee was perfection, the food was divine and the staff friendly and attentive. So it is 2 for 2 so far, No Name Lane at Broadbeach and Blackboard Cafe’ at Varsity Lakes are both excellent! I will be back, even though it is 40mins from where I live, as you can never travel too far for a decent cup of coffee on the Gold Coast!
Liz xx
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Sounds like Blackboard Cafe fills all of the criteria needed to be a great coffee shop…I think it might be a favorite of mine if I live in the neighborhood. Love the atmosphere! The only minus is that I’m super sensitive to caffeine…but the food looked wonderful!
Yes it did…. I drink decaffeinated coffee, but for the purposes of these finding the best coffee blogs, I’m going back to the real thing as the cafes have some very interesting choices! thanks for stopping by! Liz
Sounds like a good one Liz, can’t wait to try it!
Yes it was really nice and the coffee I had was yummy!