Cuckoo Callay | Newtown

This cafe is quite cool and quirky due to the decor, adding its own hipster vibes that are completely different to those of The Paramount Coffee Project, to the point where you end up just staring/admiring at all the decorations for a few minutes because they're so unique and interesting. Well, thats what I thought when I came or maybe I was just in a really good mood, who knows.

As my group of friends and I were seated, the waitress promptly served us water and our menus quite quickly. Then she left. This made it somewhat difficult to order because the restaurant is kind of split in to two down the middle, and if the waitress is on one side, they can't really see what's going up on the other side. As a result, we had to call out and flail about in order to gain the waitress's attention. The service was also quite slow, even though the restaurant wasn't packed or anything, as we waited for around 30 minutes before our dishes arrived. To me, I feel, it was definitely worth the wait!

For the day, I ordered the Pumpkin Fritters with House Cured Salmon, Poached Egg, Home Made Basil Pesto and Fresh Heirloom Tomatoes ($17), then the Pulled Pork Baguette ($15) and a Salted Caramel Milkshake ($7 - I THINK).

Pumpkin Fritters with House Cured Salmon, Poached Egg, Home Made Basil Pesto and Fresh Heirloom Tomatoes ($17)

I've never really liked pumpkin ever since I was a child, so my family never made anything with pumpkin in it, so my last memory of ever eating/drinking anything related to pumpkins was pumpkin soup when I was like 6 years old. Now that I'm 18, I honestly don't remember what exactly it tastes like so when I tried this (with low expectations and with thoughts in my head telling me that I hate pumpkin) I found it to be delicious! I felt like the pumpkin flavour was very minimal to which I exclaimed "This barely even tastes like pumpkin" and then all of my friends were like "err.. what? Yes it does, what are you on about Jenny?" So I guess I still have a lot to learn and discover about food, especially pumpkin, but other than that this dish was quite enjoyable! The only thing that I'd fault about this dish would be the fact that I didn't taste pumpkin in every bite, like some bites honestly tasted like a normal savoury fritter. Still tasty, but I expected the flavour to be abundant throughout the fritter, but it wasn't a major disappointment or anything, I'd gladly order it again.

Pulled Pork Baguette: A 16 hour slow roasted pork shoulder served on a baguette with whisky doused rough cut apple sauce and coleslaw ($15)

Now, I come from a suburb that is very well known for their chicken rolls, porks rolls and all sorts of rolls but this is completely different! I found this roll to be exponentially better than the rolls from the suburb that I am from like wow, this was goooooooood! It's also one of the prettiest pork rolls I've ever seen, all the different colours are so vibrant and appealing! I was honestly a little scared whilst ordering this because of the "apple sauce" displayed as being one of the ingredients, but it was actually quite light in flavour. It worked really well with the pulled pork, which was so tender and juicy with so much flavour, it was pretty amazing! When eaten altogether, each element combined so well that I'd definitely come back just for this!

Salted Caramel Milkshake ($7 - I THINK)

The milkshake was very light in flavour in terms of being "salted caramel" but nonetheless I really enjoyed this milkshake, but don't expect to be overwhelmed with flavour. My friends said it was pretty mediocre though, so maybe I was just craving a milkshake. Either way, I'd honestly buy it again because it was just plain simple and yummy.

Overall, I really enjoyed my experience at Cuckoo Callay as the atmosphere was nice, the decorations were great, the service was below average but the food was exceptional and that made up for most of the down falls! I'd definitely recommend this place and I'm 100% be coming back hopefully some time soon :) 

Hanging out with the Speechies!