Sayers – Leederville, Perth

I often wonder what the owners of that cafe on the corner of Newcastle and Oxford think when they look down the road towards 224 Carr Place on Sunday morning

Perhaps we should refocus our menu? Maybe serve unsacrificed coffee? Or that we should check out the competition? Whatever the sentiment, I’m sure there is infatuation at a distance with the crowd tapping their watches waiting to get into a cramped little hive — Sayers.

There is no way I could call this a ‘find’ no sir-rey. Most people know Sayers is one of the places to take your East-Coast mates because you’re petrified with what you’re going to be culinarily spasmed with outside the know-zone of cafes in Perth.

This place – like Mrs. S – does a roaring trade.

Why? Inspiring dishes. Check. Reasonable prices. Check. Amicable staff. Check.

A confident yardstick to base your dining experiences on is your desire to replicate what youve seen on display. I call it inspirational. Sayers is inspiring. After making stilted small-talk on the footpath outside Sayers with other hopeful walk-ins, we were seated on the large centre table. Two other odd-ball groups shared our table at the same time. Apparently three patrons is an inauspicious number to dine with. You’re not quite a four seater but you\’re too big for two. Sensing my level of nitrosamines were down for the week, I chose the spicy Italian sausage, scrambled egg, wilted spinach with toasted extra virgin olive oil ciabatta. I’m curious to know where they source their Italian sausage from. It’s not Mondo’s. I know that sausage…um…quite well.

Claypot of sayers coriander cumin beans, babganoush, poached egg toasted rosemary oiled Turkish bread, who effused all morning about the coriander cumin beans, babganoush, poached egg and toasted rosemary oiled Turkish bread, was duly ecstatically satisfied while covetously glancing at the our friend\’s potato rosti, poached eggs and bacon with onion jam and lemon scented wilted spinach. These are meals that show there is more going on in the engine room. A love of food–an impetus for imagination–atypical of the humdrum Perth cafe.

To benchmark the coffee (long black), it was a straight-down-the-line uncomplicated style. Nothing too overpowering or wild and woolly going on. Hazarding a guess it’s denoticlly South American.

In all honesty you could whinge about how there was no cold water, or that the glasses were still warm from being washed, or that we had to inflict ourselves upon a shared table. But I believe in all fairness, Sayers does something extraordinary everyday 7am–5pm by inspiring diners with dishes they’ll strive to make at home.