Creperie Le Triskel

32 Hardware Lane, Melbourne 3000.

Date visited: 2nd March 2012

One of the things I love about Melbourne is how there is no shortage of cafes around for a good brunch and breakfast.  As I've already told you, we went to Affogato Expresso Bar the other morning - on the way, we happened to see Creperie Le Triskel, one of the other cafes on my brunch wish list just across the lane way.  

Now MerlinFan and I were planning to go to the Hoyts (to watch The Devil Inside, and very excited about it too - haven't seen a good horror in a while) that afternoon, so we didn't want something too filling, so we could pig out on popcorn and choctops during the movie.  So hey, crepes sounded like just the thing.

The creperie's motto is "Arrogantly French."  That was half right - the food (crepes and galettes) and the staff with their strong accents were very French, but thankfully, arrogant no =)

It was a warm, blustery (very blustery!) morning, but still a good morning to sit outside and enjoy the good weather before autumn truly set in.  

One of the waitresses came and took our drink orders right away, but we had to wait a fair while before a waiter came around and took our food orders.

 I decided to go for the mocha, and MerlinFan had the latte.

Latte

Mocha

The mocha and latte came with cute chocolate buttons.  Yum.  And look at the beautiful mocha art!  My mocha had a Triskele Celtic symbol on it.  The glass was coated with chocolate before the mocha was poured it - it wasn't the really creamy milk chocolate type like the one you can get at Theobroma, more like chocolate syrup but it was an interesting spin on mocha :)

I was torn between the sweet and savoury buckwheat galettes, but then my gluttonous side told me well, I can always have a savoury galette then have share a sweet one with MerlinFan for dessert if we still have room.  MerlinFan, being ever the sweet tooth, did not have to contemplate long before deciding on a nutella and banana crepe.

Fresh bananas & nutella crepe $7.50

The fumes wafting from the crepe as it was put in front of MerlinFan was delightful!  Love nutella, love banana, love a hot crepe dusted with sugar - what's there not to love?  MerlinFan really liked the thinness and the slight chewiness of the crepe :D

I chose to have the La Triskel, which consisted of egg, Swiss gruyere cheese, mushrooms and ham.

La Triskel $11

The first thing MerlinFan and I thought when the waiter brought it out was oooh, they even folded it up like an envelope, the same way as the galettes we had in Nice!  It looks so good opened up too.

My galette came with two slices of baguette.  I really loved the silky, naturally salted butter - it tasted fantastic on the bread.  The crepe itself was really nice - crisp and paper thin.  There was a beautiful yolk in the middle, and the crepe was generously coated with gruyere cheese, ham and sprinkled with tiny mushrooms.  Usually, I like mushrooms, but somehow I felt that in this dish, the deceptively small 'shrooms had a really strong smell that seemed to overpower the rest of the ingredients.  Even on my first bite, all I could taste was the 'shrooms.  I made it through about a quarter of my galette before resolving to picking out all the 'shrooms and setting them aside.  Ahh.  Much better.  I don't know if my tastebuds were already too overpowered, but I felt as if the ham tasted slightly bland.  And it was probably the generous amount of cheese or the buckwheat in the crepe - I was really full even before I made it halfway through my dish.

MerlinFan on the other hand, really liked my galette, though, especially the chewy cheese.  Although she had finished her own crepe, she was happy to tuck away the remaining half of mine.  And remember how I said I picked out the 'shrooms?  Well, I noticed that they miraculously disappeared - MerlinFan had vacuumed all of them up!  

I think the sweet crepe was better than the savoury galette - just my opinion though, as MerlinFan enjoyed both.  Overall, I wasn't completely blown away, but a rather nice, quirky place to brunch.