Hoopla Coffee & Kitchen: The Perfect Getaway
PUBLISHED August 6th, 2014 04:00 pm | UPDATED April 21st, 2016 08:12 am
Nestled in the suburban bohemian enclave of Portsdown, Hoopla Coffee & Kitchen is a new established lifestyle café definitely worth the trip all the way down to Infinite Studios. These new kids in the café scene serve up a good range of proper coffee, epic breakfasts, and tongue twisting slushies with mega playlists going all the way back to basics – vinyls!
The first thing that grabs your attention upon entering Hoopla is the large amount of space – a welcome change from the usual cramped-up eateries that try to fit in as many tables and chairs as they possibly can. The owners have tastefully managed to marry modern and vintage in both architecture and décor, punctuating it with delightful little quotes on brown paper bags and entertaining ‘Table Talk’ games at every table, making it quite the visual feast.
The actual feast came in the form of Hoopla’s breakfast signature: Grene’s Baked Eggs ($13). Grene’s Eggs is a warm, deep dished glorious mess of ingredients and flavours. It’s got chick peas, baked beans, capsicums, and melted Emmental cheese tossed in homemade pomodoro sauce, topped with perfectly baked eggs, fresh greens, served with a side of toast. Each dip into the bowl yielded a spoonful of savoury goodness.
You could also check out Frank’s Baked Eggs ($15) for a meatier option that comes with chicken sausage or Sally’s Baked Eggs ($16) if you’re in the mood for some smoked salmon.
We love that these guys have got pizza on their menu – because why not wake up to pizza? Hoopla’s delectable oblong-shaped Wild Mushroom and Turkey Ham ($17) pizza’s only shortcoming was a crust that was much too tough on one side for cutlery to penetrate. (Who eats pizza with a fork and knife anyway?). Sides came in the form of a generous tin of Truffle Parmesan Shoestring fries ($11) which paled in comparison to the fiesta of flavours we’d already been pampered with.
The final stop was desserts – the real showstoppers. Their signature Chocolate Fudge Cake ($8.50) is an absolute must-try. Three gorgeous layers of surprisingly light, unadulterated bliss topped off with chocolate shavings. We also got a thick slice of Apple Crumble ($6) which was served together with a bowl of warm caramel sauce. It was the kind of dessert that leaves you wanting to write poetry or breaking out into song about how good it tastes.
Sometimes all you need during a lazy weekend is good all-day breakfast spot to momentarily transport you away from the city life. We highly recommend Hoopla Coffee and Kitchen, ‘cos this is the place that will remind you how to embrace Lazy Sundays wholeheartedly.
Written by Shalini
