Flavour Report with Derek Goforth: Big hits from sampling breakfast menu at Geraldton’s Cafe Fleur

One insight I’ve gained from writing cafe and restaurant reviews is that people’s reactions can be quite intense.

I’ve crafted positive, glowing reviews that triggered substantial Facebook appreciation posts, leading to increased customer traffic and social media interaction for cafes and eateries. Conversely, my honest but critical reviews have provoked some rather extreme negative responses.

I’ve always accepted the feedback graciously, sometimes with a grain of salt.

After my recent review of Fleur, I received generally positive responses. However, one particularly “passionate” reaction urged me to experience the cafe specifically for breakfast, claiming that Fleur’s breakfast was the best in the Mid West.

Intrigued by this claim, we visited mid-Sunday morning and found it pleasantly uncrowded with ample parking and seating.

The service was prompt and the servers helpful, polite and willing to go out of their way to accommodate us.

This time, we focused primarily on the breakfast menu, opting for the breakfast burger, banana pancakes and French toast (accompanied by a very unusual side — more on that later). All this was complemented by two cappuccinos and a latte, our usual go-to coffee order.

First and foremost, everything was excellent with no complaints. However, a couple of standout items and some surprises awaited us during our sampling.

The brekkie burger — yum, just yum. The bacon, bread, egg, sauce and onion rings combined to create a scrumptious harmony. Not only was the burger tasty, fresh and full of flavour, but the onion rings on the side with the dip completed the dish to perfection.

The pancakes were another big hit. We appreciate Fleur’s method of making pancakes with a jaffle iron, which guarantees a crispy outside and a moist and fluffy middle. The ice-cream and accompaniments complemented the pancakes very well.

The coffee was lovely — smooth, tasty and reasonably priced.

Now, on to the French toast, served with a sweet pickle of pineapple, coriander and, believe it or not, onion. This was clearly advertised, so we could hardly complain, and to be honest it seemed really unusual and interesting.

However, this dish divided the family; two of us couldn’t eat it, finding the toast too dry and the onion overpowering. But, and it’s a big but, the other members loved it, myself included. I don’t know why, but it just worked — yes, onion with French toast really does work (for some of us!).

One thing we all agreed on was that it lacked some cream or ice-cream, but we made do with the excess from the pancakes.

So, would we recommend Fleur this time? Absolutely, 100 per cent. Fleur is clearly aiming to move in a more “Freo” direction and I applaud them for it. We have our traditional cafes and we have our more “out there” ones as well, making our community richer because of it.