Walking to Havenstone from our place of work involves walking through the grounds of Cumberland Hospital, a heritage-listed sandstone building complex with a lovely set of grounds. Seeing people have their coffees in the courtyards as we attempted to stay awake following a 13-hour night shift really hammered home the concept of the road not taken, as I’m constantly reminded of the fact that I almost became a psychiatrist were it not for the influence of one particular senior early on in my working career. Thanks HWJ.
The Middle Eastern breakfast platter ($29) served inexplicably on a piece of wood rather than a more antibacterial medium such as a ceramic plate features plain pita bread, two fried eggs, a choice of Lebanese sausages or falafel (predictably I chose the Lebanese sausages) some labneh and hummus and a collection of multicoloured vegetables including pickled peppers, olives, very crispy radishes, cucumber and some cherry tomatoes. The plate was overall not bad, featuring a combination of ingredients and colours that made it feel like I was doing the right thing for my body and eating my traffic lights. Despite this however I just didn’t feel it was particularly special, especially compared to a local analogue which is the Phoenician Kafta Bowl at Little Miss Collins in Pamada which provides za’atar rather than just plain pita bread. I honestly wouldn’t even be offended if instead of plain pita they provided za’atar from a well-regarded local manoosh shop like Mina’s Bakery in Westmead. It would just add a little something extra to what is otherwise a somewhat unexciting mixed plate.
The Havenstack ($27) is a physically compact but surprisingly dense arrangement of a hash brown, wilted spinach, grilled portobello mushroom, smashed avocado, bacon topped with a poached egg, Lebanese sausage, halloumi and a layer of Hollandaise sauce. I really didn’t think that such a small footprint of food could make one full, but I was surprisingly wrong. The combination and variety of ingredients led to a pretty good meal, actually, and I guess the form factor did help each of the ingredients to maintain warmth, minimising radiative heat loss rather than it being spread out on a plate.
Havenstone
5 Fleet St, North Parramatta NSW 2151