Pastries from Ma Cherie. Photo / Greg Bowker
Address: 282 Ponsonby Rd, Ponsonby
Herald rating:
The menu is French favourites, featuring lots of baking and cheese, very reasonably priced and hard to choose between - we could have gone for a croque madame ($13.50), an omelette ($12.50) or even just a baguette with housemade jam ($9.50). There are also sweet and savoury crepes and rows
of glistening baked temptations behind glass.
The look is small and sunny, in a courtyard hidden just behind the bustling brunch strip of Ponsonby Rd. The petit cafe is just five months old. We look forward to lapping up the morning sunshine come spring.
The food was good, but needed way more warmth. My handmade croquet croissant ($10.90) was puffy and buttery, with thick ham and lashings of bechamel, just the way I like it. However, I wish I'd been there earlier to eat it fresh from the oven. The side salad, necessary to cut through the richness of the white sauce, lacked love - the promised vinaigrette absent. My partner's big brekky ($19.90), like my own, had all the makings of brunch perfection, but the sausage roll and Provencal-style beans were not hot enough, making it lacklustre.
The coffee was a highlight, my mocha smooth and sweet enough that I'd make a return visit just for it.
