Bonjour Cafe Breton!

You won’t believe what I did for Christmas. I still can’t believe it. After years of planning and dreaming, we spent Christmas in Paris, in a gorgeous wee apartment with a view of the Eiffel Tower and everything.

As well as its art and culture, France is renowned for its delicious food. And I can report back that the real thing holds up to the reputation. Warm and feather-light croissants from the boulangerie. Crispy overfilled crêpes from streetside stalls. Piles of glistening olives served up with a trowel in the supermaché. Real champagne! And so cheap!

The only disappointment was coffee. Parisians do not know what they are on about when it comes to coffee. An espresso is generally tolerable, but anything more complicated will be a weak, frothy mess – and more often than not, comes straight out of a tap!

So how to keep the dream alive, now that I have returned to Wellington? Fortunately for us Francophiles, there are some lovely eateries dedicated to authenic and fusion cuisine here in the capital.

This week I took my dad along for lunch at Cafe Breton on Brandon Street. The small restaurant has a touch of Gallic decor without tipping over into cliche. It’s retained some of the furnishings from its previous incarnation, Caffe Italiano, too. I get the impression that Cafe Breton is a little sister to La Cloche, the divine French restaurant tucked away in Kaiwharawhara. Can anyone confirm this?

The cheese and mushroom omelette at La Cloche is my absolute favourite brunch treat and when my dad orders the same for his lunch, I sneak a mouthful from his plate. The stringy gruyere cheese folded into fluffy eggs was just as yummy and it was a little less pricey without the extra accompaniment of seasonal veges or fries.

My vegetarian crepe is crammed with mushrooms, tomatoes, spinach and cheese, and it brings to mind the days we spent in Paris. Except that vegetarian-friendly options were much harder to find there! The serving is a hearty size and I regret I don’t have room to try one of the amazing looking pastries in the cabinet. Perhaps just a pretty little macaron then?

And the icing on the cake (or the filling in the pain au chocolat) is that their coffee is up to Wellington’s high standards!