Pickles Perch

Rating: 2

We ate lunch here in April 2023.

Halloumi salad
Mushrooms on toast with poached egg

Let’s attend to the grammatical elephant in the room. It’s clearly meant to be Pickle’s Perch. The company branding makes it obvious that this eatery is affiliated with a sulfur crested cockatoo named Pickles. The eatery is his Perch. Pickle’s Perch. The Facebook page even has a picture of a cockatoo at the bar.

Disappointingly, Pickles himself wasn’t in attendance when we stopped in for lunch. He would have provided a nice distraction while we waited interminably for service. There were three employees behind the counter. Employee 1 said she was taking water to a table and would be back soon. Employee 2 was at the coffee machine then walked off without serving us. Employee 3 was talking to Employee 2, then walked off without serving us. We had to wait around for Employee 1 to return, then enjoy her getting our order wrong and asking us repeatedly what our table number was when the tables were not visibly numbered, so how were we supposed to know? Pickles, get your staff in line!

After that we were surprised that the meals came out at a reasonable speed. Not break neck, but not slow. Even more surprising was that the halloumi salad was bloody delicious. The halloumi had been cooked a different want to the usual fried - grilled perhaps? It was super crispy on one side but still soft on the other. They were big pieces of halloumi, and plenty of it. The salad contained pear and a sweet beetroot relish which all worked really well together.

Unfortunately, the mushrooms on toast was an abomination. Watery, flavourless mushrooms. Well, not flavourless, they tasted a bit like feet. There wasn’t nearly enough toast, and brioche wasn’t the right bread pairing for the meal anyway. At least the eggs were well cooked.