After an early start catching the 7am train from Sydney to Newcastle for an induction at my new job, it was rewarding to escape for 45 minutes and feast upon a much needed early lunch to revive the brain cells! My new work pal and I soon stumbled across Ground Floor Café on Hunter Street which wasn’t too far away from Head Office and the café looked a safe bet with a number of outside tables full with happy diners catching up over coffee and cake.
We headed inside and sat at one of the wooden tables in the centre of the room and helped ourselves to the paper menus and tap water, to refresh ourselves after what seemed like hours of talking and listening to get our heads around the core aspects of business.
The menu was adequate for our needs with breakfast and lunch items including the likes of poached eggs, sandwiches and wraps, healthy salads, acai bowls and more. I was immediately drawn to the Bruschetta which comprised of avocado, tomato, basil, spinach, onion, feta and lemon with two poached eggs on the side. This sounded like perfect heaven to me and I quickly went up to the counter to order before I changed my mind.
The Ground Floor Café is a laidback, chic, yet rustic restaurant with plenty of character and natural light, helped by the floor to ceiling windows. Service was surprisingly quick, which was good for us as we were on a strict schedule and our meals were brought to us with friendly smiles from the waitress.
My bruschetta looked superb and full of beautiful reds and greens from the tomato and avocado that made my plate pop with colour and look even more tempting to eat. The two poached eggs were cooked to perfection and oozed with yellow yolky goodness as I cut through the white to reach the liquid gold within.
The bruschetta bread was crunchy and with the forkful of colourful toppings and a dip of the spicy tomato relish on the side, this made my first mouthful complete. The tomato was super fresh, as was the avocado, whilst the acidic nature of the onion was beautifully contrasted by the creamy texture of the feta and sweet kick of the spinach. Needless to say my plate was swiftly left clean 10 minutes later!
The Ground Floor Café certainly exceeded my expectations with good portion sizes and a casual setting which would make you feel right at home whether you were dining with friends or dining solo.
The café has plenty of seating both inside and outside, with shading under leafy trees when it does get a bit too sunny and hot. Overall, prices at Ground Floor Café are a little on the expensive side, but the food that is served, is fresh, healthy and exquisite and I would be happy to return on my next visit to Newcastle to explore more of the Ground Floor Café’s extremely tempting menu.