Cafe L.A — Restaurant in Leederville

Cafe L.A (opposite the RE store on Oxford Street Leederville) Morning coffee is always safe. Or that 'run across from the road for your coffee fix' to go with that delectable Conti Roll from the Re Store.

Ambience is brightly lit and friendly. Quaint little cups line the wall and the fit-out is modern and inviting. More recently they've opened after dark from Thursday evening 5pm. Burgers, smashed patties and Bingsu! https://cafela.com.au/afterdark-menu/

What did we think? There seemed to have been an influencer there receiving oodles of attention as she and her partner religiously held up their portable LED light and took photos of each of her perfectly presented Bingsu. What it did mean was that service was perhaps diverted elsewhere.

Our QR code table order was missed. That's okay. We chased it up 20 minutes later when the young children were hungry.

Busan Express: double smashed beef patties, fried egg, onion, lettuce, mayo, bulgogi sauce. Slightly sweetened buns. Generous lashings of Bulgogi sauce on the top pattie. Patties were smashed flat. That crusty Mallard reaction on the outside but because they were uniformly so flat, slightly overdone and chewy in the middle. Depends whether you like your mince with a touch of soft, juicy pink. This ain't it. But still a good burger. A little too much Unami and quantity in that Bulgogi sauce. Perhaps the option of Korean Gochujang (chilli paste) or pickles may have balanced it out.

Hamburger Hill: grilled lemongrass chicken, cucumber, pickled carrot, coriander, chilli, sweet chilli sauce with no ham. Think of this as a take on a Vietnamese Bahn Mi but in a burger. Dining partner noted the chicken was slightly overdone. Flavours were wholesome.

Chips were crisp, fresh and the kids loved them.

Onwards to Dessert! A creative take on Bingsu or shaved ice. The ice is flavoured, rather than the traditionally milky ice with sauce on top.

Mango and Coconut Shaved mango ice. Topped with a coconut creme. Beautifully toasted condiments of shaved coconut to sprinkle on top. Refreshing, well balanced with a simple tangy acidity. Mango sauce was somewhat sweet and could be more 'mango'. Not sure about the chewy Mango bits with their gummy like consistency. It wasn't really a 'jelly'. But overall our favourite of the two.

Grapefruit and Yuzu This one was an enigma. And didn't really taste of grapefruit and yuzu. Instead, a mostly tea flavoured shaved ice creation. Unfortunately, the tannin from the black tea overpowered the dessert and wasn't really what we were expecting. Meringue done in the blender was too liquid and only lightly toasted. I wonder if a light bergamot earl-grey or experimenting with other tea flavours (e.g. white tea or Jasmine) may have better balance. We noted the waitress was in the middle of making the dessert and then left to take dishes from the pass. And the ice/meringue amount was off balance by the time she came back to it. Desserts pretty. But may need refinement.

BYO at $4 / person. Serving staff friendly though obviously busy (and also in conversation with each other) once the place filled up.

I'll be honest and say I like this place. But a little polishing in service and execution would take it up a level. Felt more like a...

EDIT: after some good months we decided to give them some other tries as we are locals. We went twice and both times were good. I'm happy to say that things have improved, so I've increased the rate!

Old review: The cafe decor is beautiful, but service and food need improvement. We waited for approx 10min at the front door just to get the attention of the guy taking care of the tables, even though we could see maybe 3 empty tables inside plus some others outside. And it wasn't because the tables were booked, because we were given one of the tables that was empty. Everybody there seemed to avoid eye contact at all costs, while the queue was only increasing. Maybe that's their tatic to keep the place always with a line at the door to look popular. Food wise was another disappointment. They didn't have 2 dishes. Ok, they just opened, maybe they are still figuring out the demand. So, we order the avo toast and the brisket benny. Both were underwhelming. Avo toast had no seasoning at all, literally only a toast with avo on top, completely bland. Poached egg, again no seasoning, not even salt or pepper. The only highlight was the stracciatella, but that isn't exactly their merit. The dish was sad and definitely something that anyone could do at home. Not even to mention that it was 24.5 AUD, which is higher than the average around here. I'm not dining out to eat something that I can do it myself and probably better. Brisket benny was a bit better, but also lacking flavour. Brisket was as if they had washed the beef seasoning away. And the price was also steep, 26 AUD. When you are paying more than the average café, I'm expecting more than average food. They didn't even toast the bread, so obviously forget about a toasted bread with butter, which should be the standard of any cafe. In summary, good looking cafe to take photos, but that's it. Or maybe I just ordered the wrong dishes and should try...

Other than the three prawns on the Phuket pasta, nothing special at all. The Korean Fried Chicken burger was quite simple, just a charcoal bun. I ordered the Iced Mocha, which was described as including ice cream. When I asked the Korean waitress (I assume she is Korean), she went into the kitchen to check and came back saying I would need to pay extra for the ice cream. I pointed out that it was included in the description, but she just smiled and walked away. I’m 99% sure she was just pretending and walking away, or perhaps whoever in the kitchen (possibly the manager or the boss) instructed her to do so.

Why does the Iced Mocha cost more than $7 without an ice cream? 😅😅 One of the customers next to us ordered a big breakfast, which surprisingly came with no bread 🤣🤣. The customer even asked, “Where’s the bread?”

I usually don’t write reviews unless necessary, but I’m very disappointed with the service. It would have been better to simply provide the ice cream as advertised. I believe it only costs you $0.30, Boss of Cafe L.A. Unless you provide high-end ice cream, which I doubt.

Regarding the atmosphere, you'll be given a super small table for two, more like a small desk for kids to draw on. The tables are placed very close together, so you’ll hardly be able to hear your friend.

Regarding their reply below: What a joke. They even made a mistake with my order in their reply—iced mocha, not matcha. They’ve only proven their own...