V-Rating: VVVVV
Where: Windeyer Street, Watson Shops, Canberra
When:Tues - Fri: 8.30am - 3.30pm. Sat: 9am - 4pm. Sun: 9am - 1pm.
Prices: Breakfast: $4 - $12.50. Light Meals and Mains: $6.50- $12.

Not so long ago I was bemoaning the lack of good brunch venues in Canberra. Sure, cafes abound. But try finding a place that uses fresh, quality ingredients, has an interesting and tasty menu, and doesn’t have a price range in the double figures.

After listening to my diatribe, a good friend recommended that I try Satis - a reasonably new cafe in the Watson shops.

One visit later I breathed a sigh of relief - Satis has all (or at least most of) the things I look for in a brunch spot: good coffee, a great, cheap menu, friendly staff, and a slightly alternative vibe. The fact it’s vegetarian is the icing on the cake.

Satis clearly defines itself as a brunch spot - it doesn’t open before 8.30am and is closed by mid afternoon. The menu isn’t extensive or finicky, but everything on it is delicious and well-presented. The decor is friendly but funky - paintings and stencil art by local artists on the wall mixed with chunky, dark wood fittings.

The breakfast menu has sweet and savoury options including banana bread with berries and baked ricotta, free range eggs on toast, and home made granola. Most of the standard items on the menu are not vegan but can easily be adapted - for example, Satis has one choice of vegan bread and can substitute scrambled tofu for eggs. The food is great value - of the nine choices, only one costs over $10.

One of my favourite choices is the big brekkie. It comes with an egg or scrambled tofu, toast, zucchini, tomatoes, mushrooms and spinach (basically, all the veggies I love in the morning). Yesterday ours came with mashed potato and feta as well. Yum!

Potato and cheese… the perfect breakfast food?

Tempted as I was by the big brekkie, in the interests of this review I tried the wild rice porridge with compote and coconut milk.

Berry compote gets my vote!

I’ve never tried wild rice in porridge before, but it worked well. Andy said it reminded him of an Indonesian breakfast porridge of green beans and black rice porridge. I liked the slight crunchiness and savoury taste of the rice, and the coconut milk base was a nice, light accompaniement. The berry compote was the highlight of the dish - rich, a little sour and a little sweet and topped with toasted coconut.

Satis also has a small menu of light meals and lunch foods, a very tasty looking selection of baked goods, and a good range of fair trade coffees and teas.

The only real problem with Satis is its success. The cafe is squeezed into a narrow space better suited to a greasy fry takeaway joint. The tables jostle for space out the front and along the interior before spilliing out into a small, sunny courtyard. On my last visit at around 10am there were frequent lines to get in, although the wait was only 5 - 10 minutes.

While the staff are very friendly and the service is quick when the cafe is not too busy, the service was slower and more haphazard on my last trip. We waited about twenty minutes for our coffees to come, and in the meantime watched bemused while people who arrived after us were served coffee and breakfast before any of our order arrived.

Still, I’m always happy to see a vegetarian place thriving, and the occasional wait for service is a small price to pay for finally having a good brunch spot in Canberra.

Share This