Eggs Florentine a La Veen

Weekends seem to pass by so quickly these days, and I have to admit I am a person who tends to spend most of my weekend catching up with friends or family, rather than taking time to relax. Recently I had one of my manic Saturdays, which included catching up with my girlfriends at La Veen for breakfast, a blogger's lunch at The Court and then night markets and dinner with my boy. In between all of those was lots of shopping since it's that time of the year, plus it feels like everything is on sale. I may pretend it was "Christmas shopping" but it was more like "Kristy shopping". 

Finding the time to see my friends isn't always easy but it's so important to me. So while it might not be as often as we'd all like, I so look forward to the catch up dates that we plan. Throwing around some venue ideas it didn't take Carlie, Sherilyn and I to land on La Veen.

Neither of the girls had been there before and I'd visited only for lunch so breakfast was a new experience for me here. Having enjoyed the food last time but felt it was too small in portion size, I was keen to see what an early meal would bring.

Starting my day off with a cooked breakfast is always a treat since I usually eat yoghurt or make a smoothie during the week. Arriving at La Veen I was actually surprised to see there wasn't a line out the front like most brekky spots have on the weekends. We slid into a table near the entrance and devote our attention to looking at the menu to decide on what to order. Thankfully it's a shorter menu with bagels, hot food and baked goods. I'm definitely in the mood for eggs (I always am though!).

Choosing is relatively easy, I see a couple of options that sound good but I'm really in the mood for something with hollandaise so I choose the eggs florentine ($17.00). Needing a drink to accompany my food I order a freshly squeezed watermelon, strawberry and lemon juice ($8.00) which comes out quickly and looks light and frothy. I adore fresh juice and this one is definitely refreshing and cool, quenching my thirst but also giving me a little sugar rush to kickstart my day.

Carlie also orders the eggs florentine with a coffee, and Sherilyn opts for the shakshuka which is a pretty little pan with poached eggs, chorizo and capsicum. I didn't try it because of the capsicum but all reports were that it tasted delicious - the only downfall being that the dish arrived without it's promised olive ciabatta so we had to ask them for it which was a little disappointing.

Carlie's dish comes out with Sherilyn's and after some prompting from me, they dig in so they'll be able to enjoy them while they're hot. Sadly mine took about another 5 minutes before arriving which was slightly annoying just because I do think it's preferable to enjoy a meal all together.

The eggs florentine is made of two slow cooked eggs with spinach, mornay sauce and hollandaise. It's normally accompanied by olive ciabatta but we both swap this to sourdough toast instead. It's great to see that they're so accommodating. Diving in to my dish it looks good and I immediately devote my attention to the eggs. I love slow cooked eggs and the way the yolk can be so sticky and ever so slightly oozy.

Sadly when my fork spears through the centre I immediately notice that my eggs are both overcooked. Argh! It's a big deal to me when I don't get a runny yolk... I know that mind sound silly but I think a little part of me becomes completely devastated! Putting that aside though, the flavours in the dish were tasty and though I personally prefer a thicker hollandaise, it was a nice sauce ribboned throughout the other ingredients.

It's an enjoyable dish but I have to admit I did find the serving size too small again on this occasion. Don't get me wrong, despite what you may think of food bloggers I actually don't eat huge serving sizes unless I'm feeling particularly greedy. But I finished up at La Veen feeling like I needed a few more bites to really hit the spot - lucky for me I only had a few hours until lunch so it wasn't too much of an issue.

All up, La Veen was a nice place to sit and relax with my girls. Was it perfect? No, but all up I was still reasonably pleased with the meal and in particular my tasty fresh juice.