My Place Bar & Restaurant

It is not often that I have breakfast at breakfast time.

It is not even often that I have lunch at lunch time.

It is VERY often that I have my breakfast at an afternoon tea sort of time.

And so if by rare chance that I am up in the early morning, albeit bleary eyed and zombie looking, I will crawl to a cheery breakfast serving institution to make the rest of the day a bit more bearable.

But on a cool Autumn Saturday, the weekend has not even begun for the majority of people still snoring away in bed. The lack of patrons at My Place certainly did not make it a cosy nor cheery breakfast serving institution on a cheery Saturday morning.

From initial thoughts, I'd much rather my own place called home rather than My Place in the Perth CBD right now.

Breakfast Buffet

The place, on top of visibly looking empty, feels very empty with its dull atmosphere, minimal decor and missing the usual buzzing activity that comes with good breakfasts that kick off a good weekend. This was quite a lonely breakfast, with one other lonely table which made our lone table relatively less lonely.

But still. Lonely.

And while the words "buffet breakfast" is just enough to make me bounce stumble out of bed, their offering of a buffet breakfast was honestly unappetising, sad and disappointing, said in the nicest possible way with a nicest possible face. I wish I was still snoring back in bed.

Breakfast Buffet

This picture accurately depicts all the hot items available from the buffet. Had I known this, I wouldn't have got excited when I read the menu promoting a $20 Full Buffet Breakfast! with toast, preserves, fruit loaf, croissants, danishes, english muffins, fruit salad, yoghurt, cereal, bacon, eggs, tomato, hash brown, sausages, baked beans and unlimited tea/coffee/juice.

By no means was it misleading as they did have all the mentioned items, but with quality that can be dramatically improved on. Sadly, everything was mediocre quality and lukewarm at best. And priced at $20, I probably wouldn't even have used the enticing Buy One Get One Free breakfast offer during Eat Drink Perth season.

At least I had fun with their conveyor belt toaster that spits out DIY hot toast and croissants?

Trying to end on a sweet note

I think I set my own personal record of eating the LEAST amount at a buffet. Losing the will to make multiple trips to the buffet table, I tried injecting some sweetness into my breakfast instead but to no avail :(

Despite being one of the first customers of the day, these sweet pastry items do not send out any message of being freshly baked, or even really fresh. They have a slight sign and taste of being stale, and an undesirable softness with dry centre fillings. Good old never-really-fails Banana Muffin was no different with its dry, bland muffin body and overall hardness.

And I have never, ever seen decorations atop muffin tops go hard to such an extent, until now that is. Picking off the bananas and praying they could be swallowed, they boomeranged right out of my mouth. And I wasn't even expecting them to be soft nor sweet! Just like dehydrated, tateless, non-crispy banana chips on my muffin.

I really tried to like everything. I really, really did.

...

Honestly, no more words are needed for this particular experience. It is NOT, however, a be all and end all situation that will blacklist My Place in my books. It is just this one aspect of theirs that is not the best that they offer to their customers, so maybe their forte doesn't lie with buffet breakfasts, but when the place comes alive at later hours towards the evening.

Looking at their promotions, they do attract a decent crowd at night that would be a major transformation to what I saw on an early Saturday morning. It was utterly dead but it could be a different story with a live DJ on Saturdays and karaoke on Friday nights. Mixing alcohol, microphones and music is really a fail-proof cocktail after all.

With quite a large menu and good prices, maybe I will find myself back one day in the far future but judging by the food on this particular experience - I would probably never be back. But judging by their A La Carte breakfast menu, I actually would be back if food is prepared fresh from the kitchen this time round. I would much prefer that I will be waiting for my food, instead of food sitting around in metal pans waiting for me.

And at that hour of morning, it didn't even look like there were staff even working. There was the one staff member who took our payment initially, and no other staff were seen. Ever. Again. Even with our plates stacked high, tables were uncleared for the entire duration. Fine by me, as they didn't have to see my big pile of leftovers until I was far, far away from the premises.

I can't say how the ambiance is in the evening. They seem to say they cater to all but with such a lacklustre interior in the morning, they definitely do not cater to early breakfast goers with even more reason not to get out of bed in the morning. If you are an early bird, stay home for breakfast.
Because your place is probably so much better than My Place. At least in the mornings.

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(08) 9225 6665
Monday - Sunday: 6.30am to late
Kitchen close 9-9.30pm
Open 365 days, no surcharges

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