east terrace continental.

They say the best lunch is breakfast, and I'm not one to disagree.  A sunny afternoon brought a friend and I to East Terrace Continental (ETC) for a quick lunch before embarking on a shopping trip.  The last time I had lunch here I chose from their lunch menu and it wasn't very impressive, so I went with the more familiar and delicious breakfast menu.

Soft Poached Eggs & Hash Brown: $15.40

This came with two poached eggs, hollandaise sauce, pancetta, spinach and a drizzle of napoletana sauce on top.  The hollandaise sauce was runnier than usual and slightly bland in terms of flavour, but it was lifted up a bit by the taste of tomatoes in the napoletana sauce.  The pancetta was deliciously salty and the spinach was cooked pretty well.  The saving grace of the dish was definitely the hash brown.  Golden, crunchy and deep-fried to perfection, I almost wished I ordered two!

Fried Haloumi: $4.50

I also ordered a side of fried haloumi cheese which turned out to be pretty big for it's price.  I normally eat haloumi in slices so eating it in cubes was slightly weird - I ended up cutting them into thin slices and mixing them in with my toast.   

Baked Omelette with ham, cheese & spinach & Hash Brown: $16.40

My friend ordered the baked omelette which he devoured, so I'm guessing it was pretty good. 

I don't think I could call ETC the 'best' brunch place in Adelaide, but it is one of the longest-standing and is consistently good in terms of quality and service.  Our food was brought out in reasonable time considering a fairly full inside and counter service was friendly as usual.  The portion-to-price ratio was also normal.   It might be a bit on the higher-priced side if you compare it to other places, but I think it depends on what you order.  

Oh, and they've changed the menus!  Remember the large red and black menus?  Well, they've been replaced with a more vintage, pale-yellow design which is also featured on their website.  Quite cool.