Perth Voice Interactive

THERE’S no monkey business at Food Monkey and you’d go a very long way to find a cafe as well priced and, more importantly, as good.

It caters to the office lunch crowd and those foolhardy sorts wanting breakfast at 6am (what are you, farmers?).

There’s a whole page dedicated to the popular bagel and, believe it or not, whether you have the vegie version with grilled zucchini, eggplant, capsicum, sundried tomato; the bacon and egg; the roast chicken; or, the classic smoked salmon—you pay a mere $6.95.

One of my companions opted for the classic, and was in raptures about the slightly sweet boiled bun and its generous filling of salmon with lemon and dill cream cheese, spinach and aioli. Talk about overload.

My other mate couldn’t go past the cheeseburger: a house-made meat patty with caramelised onion, tomato, lettuce and aioli on a toasted bagel.

For a mere $9.95 all-up you get chips too! So of course she was a happy camper tucking into the moist and delicious burger.

I opted for the vegie tart ($9.95 with salad). The cheeky chimps at Food Monkey arrange a vegetable mix on a puff pastry bed, voila—a “tart” (a quick and easy dish to serve). The pastry was tasty and the topping terrific, a bit like a bruschetta with tomato, basil and fetta with a balsamic vinegar glaze.

The chips I ordered on the side ($3.75) were really great, hot and crunchy with barely a hint of oiliness.

In unison our lunch trio ordered a beetroot juice, which at $3.75 was such good value for a particularly good beverage we pondered why it can cost up to $3 to $4 more elsewhere. Maybe the jam jars they invariably get served in cost more than normal glasses?

Verandah seating overlooking Lake Street encourages diners to linger when the sun’s shining, or you can head inside to sit at the funky packing-crate furniture in a series of cute rooms in what was an old house.

So linger we did, sipping some very palatable coffees and catching up with each others’ news.

by JENNY D’ANGER

Food Monkey
101 Lake Street, Northbridge
6311 7639
open Mon–Sat 6am–2.30pm,
Sun 7am–noon