date of visit: Sunday 8 July 2012

A long overdue note of our trip to The Coffee Club at Hallett Cove. The Coffee Club is a chain so you find them all over the place – we’ve actually meant to try the one at Marion before but not got around to it. I see that the chain’s website notes that there are stores not only in Australia and New Zealand but also Thailand, New Caledonia and China. That’s an interesting collection of markets there …

The Hallett Cove café is spacious and even has a few sofas scattered around for those with a bit more time on their hands. We perched ourselves at a table on the edge, given we were encumbered (as usual) with a shopping trolley. Yes, I hate shopping that much that I need the reward of coffee and cake to get me through it …

One thing I noted immediately is that The Coffee Club isn’t cheap and it certainly doesn’t believe in small portions. Our choices, a vanilla slice and a lemon coconut slice, were amongst the smallest things on offer. For the baby there was nothing really – all the biscuits were saucer sized. So I ended up buying him a (massive) slice of date cake. Do all café goers really want giant portions of cake?

Still, the coffee, cakes and service all passed muster. Nothing spectacular or exciting – and the cakes really weren’t worthy of their price tags. But also nothing wrong with the experience.

If you’re after a very generic, inoffensive, coffee and cake experience, then The Coffee Club will do. Just be prepared to splash some cash and eat a lot!