Zest Cafe — Restaurant in Clare

We had lunch here today and it was the only bad experience in our week spent touring SA, the rest has been very impressive. My husband ordered a chicken BLT and asked for GF bread. The dish arrived with crumbed chicken which the waitress confirmed had gluten. We should have sent it back but we were hungry so my husband ate around the crumbed chicken. When the manager came out to ask about the problem, he suggested it was our fault for not consulting the written menu. He said he had plenty of customers wanting GF bread without caring if the rest of the meal was GF. We had waited (quite a long time) in line to order from the counter & the menu board didn't mention either GF or prices (so we were quite surprised that our modest lunch for two cost $46). Pretty poor on...

Bacon and egg sandwich with coffee.

The coffee, more than acceptable :)

Eggs, cooked to perfection :)

The bacon seemed to be budget thin, sub standard, the sort you might expect from a Lion's Club fundraiser :(

The toast. Why do so many cafes insist on squashing the toast and serving it wafer thin? This cafe did and it spoiled the lot. To me it seems pretty simple, cook bread at it's proper thickness to make toast, lay on some good quality bacon and an egg and put on the top slice.

The prices are about the same as most other coffee shops in the area, and the staff on the day were great, so serving better bacon and proper toast would help give this caff somewhat of a point of difference that would probably pay for itself with...

Had the opportunity of feasting on different things e.g., the Power Protein Brekky and the mango smoothie. Absolutely sublime experience demonstrating the passion and the pains taken. The power protein brekky had so many elements e.g., the fritters, poached egg, along with so many other things to enjoy along-with (I am deliberately keeping some surprises up my sleeve for exploration). Absolutely delicious, power packed and extremely well curated. It is truly a brunch with no efforts left. Even on an empty stomach it was enough to keep us full for good 5/6 hours.

The smoothies are fabulous experiments with the culinary choices and they were absolutely on the mark.Great work...