La Grande Bouffe

There is a cafe/restaurant in Rozelle that I have driven past many times called "La Grande Bouffe". It looks very French, with people sitting at nice tables out the front and waiters with little black aprons running around with coffees on trays etc. I have never had a feed there because it always seems so hard to find a parking spot.

However, I was heading towards breakfast in Balmain recently when I got stuck in traffic nearby and I thought, "Bugger it, might as well park now and eat there instead of sitting in traffic for another half an hour", so I did.

The place was way less than half full. It was also bucketing down with rain, so no one was game to sit outside. I made the mistake of sitting near the coffee machine - the barista had this bad habit of absolutely pounding his coffee thingy on something every time he needed to empty it, and although the place was fairly empty, he was still making lots of coffee. I was trying to have a quiet read of the paper and he kept smashing this thing down every few minutes. It meant that I only read the first section of the paper, and not all the other bits that you get on a Saturday.

My spot however did allow me to observe all the staff, and I was amazed to find that half of them were French. At least they babbled to each other in French. Those staff knew what they were doing - the locals were a bit of a shower. I never through I'd say it, but perhaps we need to import more French waiters.

For breakfast, I had a salmon hollandaise, and it was the smallest feed that I have had in a while. I know that the French like to have say half a croissant and a cup of short black for breakfast and not much else, but I need to be fed. I would have ordered seconds, except that a coffee and two small eggs with a bit of sauce set me back close to $20. I could not afford to eat an extra slice of toast, let alone another breakfast.

Apart from that, the coffee was not the greatest either - it tasted a bit overcooked. It was alright, but not great. I want to go back there for dinner, as it looks like a good little Frog bistro, but I am in no hurry to have breakfast there again. Even if the traffic is complete crap.

And what does "La Grande Boueffe" stand for? I know it doesn't mean "The big cow", and although boueffe is close to oeffe, I don't think it means "the big egg". Is it "big hair", as in big boofy hairdo?

Stupid frogs.