Open: Weekdays from 10am; weekends 9am-10:30am
Phone: (09) 426 6818
Website: Casablancacafenz.co.nz/Orewa
Cost: $50.50 for two people.
SET UP & SITE
Eggs benedict is eggs benedict pretty much wherever you go. But we had a hankering for something else, something a bit different, something with a touch of spice. Casablanca offered that spice on a cold, wet and windy Sunday morning. Hibiscus Coast Highway is lined with places you can eat and few places you can leave your car. But we found one just round the corner and after a short stroll we were ordering our apple tea. The walls are cosily lined with mosaic mirrors, pictures of exotic mosques, sunsets and, of course, that movie poster. Some of the silverware could have done with a bit of a polish but otherwise Casablanca was an inviting, welcoming space. We weren't alone: a large table that included one of those men who seem to delight in including the entire room in his side of a conversation dominated one wall.
SUSTENANCE & SWILL
Eggs benedict ($15.50) was on the menu but I was more interested in the lavash wraps ($13.50-$15.50) or the fasulya baked beans ($17.50), eventually opting for the Moorish eggs with meatballs ($18.50). Perhaps it was too much to expect the teenager to try anything as exotic as halloumi on bruschetta ($15.50) but as bene was banned she went out on a limb for french toast ($18.50), adding bacon ($21 total). She washed hers down with a iced chocolate ($6.50) and I supped on my apple tea in its delicate glass vessel ($4.50 for a generous pot). She proclaimed her french toast, which came with berry compote and half a stewed apple, as "fairly standard". To which I replied: You should've listened to Mum and tried something new. To which she responded by helping herself to a meatball and declaring it was quite possibly the best thing she'd ever eaten and complained when I polished off my plate. The tomato-based sauce had enough spice for an exotic flavour but not enough to blow up the taste buds. I really had to agree with her.
