It’s been a while since I’ve really scoped out the Chatswood coffee scene, but I’m always surprised at how few good cafes there are to choose from. I’ve been to Flower Child a few times, expecting excellent looking and tasting fare, and it delivers, but just barely. My coffee was good, but not mind-blowing. My mushroom toast was also good, but the bread:mushroom ratio was way too light on the mushies. My side of smashed avo was just a puree in a cardboard cup, which was a bit “meh”, especially since it was accompanying an otherwise perfectly instagrammable dine-in meal. It certainly is a beautiful place – seated inside a delicate gazebo, adorned with plants and flowers, you feel like you’re a distinguished attendee of a 19th century garden party… except that you’re inside a Westfield. It’s a miracle they’ve managed to get some natural light in there, but the “outdoor” style is very, very much mitigated by just how indoors you really are. Their almost-outdoors Warringah Mall location definitely works better with the theme, but is somehow just not as pretty. But the real disappointment today was the banana bread: the corners were burnt to black on one side, and the other side was just completely dry. I literally picked out the moist bits from the middle and left the rest. It was like they’d overtoasted an already stale slice. The banana bread itself, though, tasted pretty nice. It’s a shame I couldn’t find out who supplied it – I asked a few times and no-one seemed to know or be bothered to find out for me. It seemed to be a decent quality banana bread, massacred by Flower Child. Given the long wait for a table, how tightly packed in everyone was and the brusque, indifferent service, my overall experience was negative. But I guess they don’t need to do anything differently, since the massive line out the door says it all.
Coffee: 0
BB: -1