Sayers Food, Leederville

On their website (http://www.sayersfood.com.au/) Sayers tells you that they are serious about food. How do we know this?...well they provide pink salt for diners. The fact that they provide good quality salt for diners to use is a testament to their commitment to providing quality food.

I was given the task of organising a place for my work Christmas lunch. Looking for somewhere nice and a little bit fancy, I booked lunch for six at Sayers.


Sayers has a relaxed casual dining atmosphere and its features walls, textural wallpaper and lines of cushions provide this place with a quaint character and a touch of class.  

A large glass cabinet at the front provides a display of daily prepared savoury dishes, an assortment of wraps, quiches etc. as well as homemade cakes and slices.


You order and pay for your meal at the counter, and help yourself to water, salt and pepper from a side table. This arrangement minimises the need for extensive human service but to their credit after two sips of my wine I managed to somehow knock over my glass and staff immediately came to my aid and cleaned up the mess that I had made.

Opps!

I ordered the braised rabbit with homemade gnocchi, roasted carrot and fennel seeds, and almonds. The dish contained big chunky pieces of gnocchi which had been pan fried to provide a golden slightly crisp exterior but the inside was light and fluffy goodness. The gnocchi was accompanied with falling off the bone braised rabbit, sweet roasted carrots flavoured with fennel seeds, wilted spinach, pesto and a spicy red pepper relish, scattered cubes of feta, roasted sliced almonds and shaved parmesan. This dish had lots going on, many different flavours and textures, which makes it an adventure to eat. With every forkful I would be piecing together different elements of the dish for a different taste sensation...a bit of gnocchi with some rabbit and pesto, and then maybe a bit of gnocchi with some carrot and spinach, and so on. Everything complimented each other and it was great to see such an intricate and tasty dish bring offered for lunch. 

My manager ordered the cumin cod cake, poached egg, rosemary scented tomato, toasted ciabatta, wilted spinach and hollandaise. The assessment of this dish was good. The cumin cod cake was crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside with a hint of cumin and filled with potato (and frankly anything with potato in it tastes good!). The poached eggs were a little overcooked though, apparently not coddled enough but this did not affect the overall enjoyment of the dish and in fact my manager liked her eggs a little less runny. Seeing a diner across from us with the same dish we asked her how her eggs were and she informed us that they were perfectly poached and runny. Poached eggs can be tricky, a matter of seconds can make or break it.

Some of my colleagues tried the savoury dishes offered in the glass cabinet. The quiche with field mushrooms and goats cheese was most appealing and tasted great.

Of course lunch had to end with some cake on display at the front (…also an excuse to prolong going back to work). The cakes were brought out slightly warmed with a big dollop of cream.

Carrot Cake

Orange and Poppyseed cake (gluten free)

Sayers is a place that you want to go back to again and again as the menu offers an extensive range of delightful meals that have a bit more thought put into them than your average café.