Our Breakfast Club

Il Circolo, North Perth

Newly opened Italian inspired eatery on Angove Street

After a Sunday morning SMS bomb as we changed, changed, and changed again our restaurant choice, we finally settled on Il Circolo. Il Circolo is the latest addition to the growing North Perth area and the hub that is forming around the intersection of Angove and Fitzgerald Streets. Next door to Juice Box Creative, the restaurant provides diners with inside and outside dining options. Italian inspired, the main space is fresh, light, and inviting. There were a few of us on this adventure, including guest blogger Amanda (who ensures she orders an iced chocolate wherever she goes), so we had to push two tables together.

Some good tunes were playing as we sat down, in the form of PJ Harvey and Thom York. Add to that large water bottles for those who had a little bit too much fun the night before (we speak no names), and generous copies of The Sunday Times (trash, but perfect for this time of day), and everything was off to a good start. But not so fast, our first qualm: bad chairs. Il Circolo has managed to find some vintage fold-up theatre-style chairs, which come in pairs. They’re quite pleasant to look at – polished wood – but that’s where the fun ends. They’re uncomfortable and nearly impossible to get in to or out of without pushing the entire frame out and climbing over whoever might be next to you. Some of the smaller tables have regular wooden chairs, but all the tables against the walls have these awkward contraptions.

• 1x Asparagi alla fiorentina – $12.50
• 1x Crostone di fagioli – $10
• 1x Bacon & eggs del circolo – $12.50
• 2x OJ
• 1x Iced chocolate – ~$3
• Many coffees, they range from $3 to $4.50ea

David’s Asparagi alla fiorentina roughly translates to: toast, poached eggs, asparagus, and grated Parmesan. The bread is delicious, toasted, and not too thick. There’s nothing worse than toast that requires a combine harvester to cut into edible pieces. The poached eggs were cooked all the way through, not the way I like it and not what most would expect.

Suz and Arran had the bacon & eggs del circolo and reported that their eggs were cooked hard too – a pet hate! The bacon serves were a tad on the small side, but this seems to be unanimous throughout breakfast restaurants. A warning: Il Circolo don’t do fresh OJ and offer bottled, so if you’re after a fresh OJ look elsewhere.

Amanda opted for the Crostone di fagioli, aka “Beans on Toast”. Not any old beans though, fancy beans cooked in a tomato and rosemary sauce on sourdough toast. Amanda was excited: how would they cleverly transform the classic “beans on toast” into “fancy beans on toast?” Well, they didn’t. It was more bland mush on toast, with neither the tomato or the rosemary punching through to add a robustness to the meal and Amanda was left “direly underwhelmed”. Luckily Amanda had just ordered something that would change her life:

“Il Circolo’s Iced Chocolate should stand tall in Perth and teach all the other iced chocolates how to taste. It is VERY GOOD. I have organised to meet a friend at Il Circolo’s tomorrow just so I can have another. It’s a mix of high end chocolate sauce, not that awful faux chocolate syrup used at most places, generous scoops of icecream with minimal ice and milk, just the way I like it. It also looks like it would make your heart sing with childish pleasure if you sipped from it. Even the cool coffee drinkers around me looked on with envy and soon my fellow diner Jet ordered one for himself. I am partial to a good milkshake or iced chocolate it is true, but the ones served at Il Circolo elevated the enjoyment of my entire meal.”

Il Circolo’s coffees are made from Moka J-Enna beans, an Italian company dating back to 1878. It’s… okay.

The staff are gorgeous, helpful and eager, and our experience at Il Circolo was lovely. The beans were a let down, especially considering they’re presented so nicely (albeit a bit sparse), but the taste just wasn’t there this particular morning. Suz reported that she’d ordered the beans on a previous occasion and enjoyed them greatly, so we do wonder what went wrong this time. We’d be back again, but would avoid the ridiculous folding theatre chairs and opt for an outside table to watch the world go by.

… oh yeah, there’s some pretty sweet art out the back too:

Highs: Iced chocolate, great staff, reasonable prices
Lows: Orange juice from a bottle, bad chairs, beans were under par
Our Breakfast Club’s final score: 6.5/10