Our Breakfast Club

The Imp, East Victoria Park

(Almost) nothing mischievous about this delightful eatery on Albany Hwy

Businesses in the Victoria Park area are doing an excellent job of shaking its old-school ghetto appeal, with many developments going on along the long stretch of Albany Highway. There are countless excellent restaurants from all cultures in this area, the houses are beautiful and the main drag is always bustling. The Imp is just one of many small restaurants/coffee shops in the area, and for this Breakfast Club we clambered in the car and drove the short journey out of the city.

The Imp is located at 863 Albany Highway, a few doors down from the Park Centre (if heading South down Albany Highway). You’ll need a keen eye to spot it, spare the small sign hanging from the roof it’s easy to miss between restaurant after restaurant. There’s street parking if you’re lucky, or turn left or right down one of the many streets – remember, this area is a grid so it’s hard to get lost!

All the tables inside were full so we pushed two tables together on the footpath. There’s an excellent bar that looks out over the highway, perfect for a solo breakfast adventure. While there’s no table service but The Imp do take EFTPOS. They offer breakfast until 12pm and have a display cabinet of baked delights and a range of muffins available if you get in quick each morning. You can also purchase Fiore coffee beans for your home barista activities.

• 1x Pumpkin, fetta and spinach ‘open omelette’ – $13
• 1x Burcher muesli, yoghurt and honey – $9
• 1x Eggs florentine + bacon – $13 + $3.50
• 1x Bacon & egg baguette – $11
• 1x Eggs benedict w/ bacon instead of ham – $13
• Coffees – range from $3.80 up

We placed our orders at the counter, the staff helpful and they had no problems with changing some items on the menu. Suz swapped out the ham on the eggs benedict with bacon, a hangover from hell rattling around her mind (hmm, we seem to have an ongoing theme for these blogs…). Absolutely no qualms from Suz. It was burcher muesli for Nat, and we think there may have been some breakfast envy on the streets of Vic Park. Suz also reports the orange juice was freshly squeezed, and served with ice, just how we like it!

Guest blogger Liz ordered the bacon and egg baguette and was delighted when it arrived. Not only is it huge, it’s got everything a bacon and egg baguette should have: including aioli, chutney, tomato and spinach. Packed inside a lightly toasted baguette – mmmm.

David, resident vegetarian, opted for the pumpkin, spinach and fetta ‘open omelette’. We’re not quite sure what that means, it appears to just be a regular omelette with the toast on top instead of underneath. The four sprigs of baby spinach should hardly be included in the name of the dish, also. The omelette itself was quite bland – eggs and pumpkin are an interesting mix, but the dish really needs a condiment. I eventually used some of the chutney, which arrived for the bacon and egg baguette – it really brought this dull and dry dish back to life. The sourdough toast, lightly buttered, was delectable.

Our other guest blogger, Genevieve, craved bacon so ordered a side of it with the eggs Florentine. The meal is huge – even without the bacon, and Gen reports that the hollandaise was done just right, the eggs poached to perfection and all served atop a piece of toasted bread. There wasn’t much speaking from Gen’s side of the table until every last crumb was consumed.

The Imp are part of the Fiori coffee circuit – our favourite beans. The barista in charge this particular morning did an excellent job, our soy flat what long mac flat white just perfect. On the way out David grabbed a take-away iced coffee – he recommends doing the dine-in, iced coffees are never the same in a paper take away cup.

With the highest price paid for breakfast here $16.50 due to the addition of bacon, we’re going to file this review in budget breakfasts. You simply cannot get the quality and quantity like this in the inner-city area, and to be quite honest, East Victoria Park is not a far way out at all. The old Causeway will get you there in a flash, and we’ll definitely be back. Again, and again.

PS – The Imp are BYO for evening meals – and have a delicious tapas menu.

Highs: Cheap eats, great food, snappy service, excellent coffee
Lows: Dry omelette in desperate need of condiment companion
Our Breakfast Club’s final score: 8/10 coffee mugs

2 Responses to “The Imp, East Victoria Park”

1. Belle says:

   Monday, September 27 10 at 12:00 am

   Love this! The imp was the first place I ever blogged about.

   <3 from a fellow Perth food-blogger (ameteur compared to you guys)
2. Carylon Pullie says:

   Sunday, October 21 12 at 6:13 pm

   Very great post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to mention that I have really enjoyed browsing your blog posts. After all I’ll be subscribing in your rss feed and I am hoping you write once more soon!