Operation poached egg task number 2 - Miss S on 178 Whatley Crescent, Mt Lawley.

It is a buzzing place. We got there around noon on a Sunday and there were people queuing outside. Lucky we got a table quickly. If you are not that lucky, they do come out to take your order first so you get to eat by the time you sit down.

Eventhough I do want to just focus on the eggs but I gotta say, the lively quirky atmosphere did make quite an impression on me. Right from-the-word-go, with the menus being pegged onto old children's books made me smile. The tables were rather squashed together and we were chair against chair between tables. It added to the friendly atmosphere though.

But to the eggs! The plate was pretty. One of the eggs was medium size and the other looked pretty small. The two pieces of gluten free toast were pre buttered and had specks of spring onion on them. There was a small dish of relish.

I also had a glass of water melon juice which appeared literally as soon as I ordered it! It was fresh too!

There wasn't much egg white to speak of as the eggs were kinda small. I also had to be very gentle in dissecting it off the yolk because I could see the yolks were runny. The egg white had a nice gentle taste of vinegar in it. I didn't need to add any salt or pepper. The yolk was easily broken and oozed out soaking the toast. It was lovely. I normally like to eat one with the yolk spread on toast saving the other for gulping the entire intact yolk in my mouth, cos I love the way the yolk bursts in my mouth...mmm...but the first egg was so small that it wasn't really enough for the entire piece of toast to be covered. So I decided to sacrifice the other egg as well. It was equally oozy and runny. The relish nicely combined with the eggs and toast although I suspect if you actually wanted to spread the relish onto both pieces of toast, you would find the amount a bit stingy.

So overall, on the Olivia egg scale ... 4 eggs out of 5 :) Mainly because the portion size wasn't quite right...but it was pretty good :)

Milk and Honey, Northbridge

I love eggs but also being health conscious, I want to avoid fried eggs. So I have always ordered poached eggs on toast whenever I have brunch. Since it's such a simple dish, there is no hiding behind a sauce, or fancy flavouring. I thought it would more accurately reflect the quality of cooking and freshness of produce with this dish.

The mission, and I chose to accept it, is to find the best poached eggs in Perth. So this is the very first cafe in this operation.

Milk and honey at 82 James St.

Went to this place after seeing an exhibition at the Perth Museum. It's only 5 min walk away. The place looks nice - spacious and not crowded. But it was 38 degrees out there and the air con is NOT on?! So we were sitting there sweating away. Already I was not in the most forgiving mood.

The plate came as standard 2 poached eggs, a small rocket salad with dressing and 2 pieces of toast with a packet of butter. I have to say I prefer butter that is either in a glass container or whipped. A packet is just not that great a look.

But to the eggs...The egg white was pretty well cooked. Whilst other cafes there is often a vinegar taste to it, the egg white here was rather taste free. The eggs were on the small side. I like to dissect the egg white from the yolk as far as possible to get the purest taste of the yolk. May be it's the surgeon-wannabe in me. The yolk separated from the white fairly easily. But there was a reason for that. The yolk was rather over cooked. Although there was some yolk running into the toast, it was hardly bursting. In my opinion, the eggs were over poached.

So considering the bakery condition of the cafe, the rather average quality of the eggs, on the Olivia egg scale, it rates as "ordinary".