The Stranded Store in Adelaide’s Southern suburbs was celebrating its first birthday on this picturesque Saturday morning.
The café is quite small…make a reservation or beware! I didn’t like the entrance of the store….very confined, especially on this eventful Saturday morning. The dining room, however, is delightfully spacious.
Rustic floorboards, large windows and folding doors opening onto the footpath giving it a very calming feel. We were unfortunately seated in the middle of the room next to the main entrance, resulting in copious amounts of foot traffic and echoing conversations. Oh dear, my first world problem’s and me!
Bircher Muesli
The Bircher Muesli was outstanding. Fresh apple, strawberries, hazelnuts and chia seeds…..it blended oh so deliciously. The texture was crunchy and the combinations of the oats, seeds and fruit gave it a very wholesome flavour. One of the more creative Bircher’s I’ve had in Adelaide, no doubt.
Sourdough Fruit Toast.
My friend ordered the Sourdough fruit toast, she’d already eaten and wanted something lighter. It was a definite low point in my opinion – the toast too light, and not enough sweetness. It was slightly overcooked resulting in the texture being too crunchy, adding to its already bland taste.
Latte.
Green tea.
Finishing off with a couple of lattes and a green tea (both of which were excellent), the store was still very busy now that the lunchtime rush was picking up the pace. It can get very busy inside the store, but if your surround yourself with great company and delicious food….its the type of place where time seems so utterly irrelevant…..as if you were sitting in a small café on a European holiday.
The staff, no doubt, are a real asset to the Stranded Store’s success. Friendly, efficient and know the menu well. One hiccup however – they forgot my green tea after we finished eating, fortunately I wasn’t in any rush but might be a problem for weekday workers on a tight schedule.
Only a year old, this suburban café has plenty going for it. Undisturbed suburban location, friendly staff and a varied breakfast menu make The Stranded Store worth a try. It’s not without it’s flaws, perhaps try it for yourself……I’d love to hear your opinion!
Until next time, happy noms 
That bircher muesli sounds delightful! Shame about the sourdough fruit toast though, cause that sounds like it could’ve been a winner as well!
The late forgotten green tea seems to be a theme smiling foodie!
Green tea ADDICT
I must confess to being surprised by the not-harsh-but-not-glowing review, friend. The Stranded Store is one of my most frequent haunts, and a very solid and clear second on my list of favourite Adelaide breakfast/brunch spots. I have yet to have anything from there that is anything less than delightful. The choice of ingredients for the food items is excellent, and a key theme of the most successful of the brunch spots is that the food should be simple but delightful – that is, it should not be overwhelmed by clever sauces or overspicing or whatnot. At the Stranded Store, each dish accentuates each flavour in a manner that I find superb. Might I suggest you give it another shot with their summer breakfast menu? The French toast is without doubt the best I have ever had. I’m thrilled that you mentioned the staff, though, because they are always tremendous.
Finally, a quick note on the coffees: there’s a bit of a friendly cold war in Adelaide at the moment, between places that use Five Senses beans (Bar Nine, Coffee Branch etc.) and those that use de Groots (Stranded Store, Mockingbird etc.) We really should be grateful for this sort of competition, because coffee-drinkers are being spoilt for choice. I don’t think there’s a better, more versatile, or more palatable blend at the moment than the Black Label Five Senses that Bar Nine typically has on offer, but you’re by no means losing out at somewhere like the Stranded Store; usually, the beans on offer are the de Groots’ Mexican Fiech, which is a great, smooth, well-balanced coffee, excellently suited for a caffe latte or a cappuccino.
I envy you your job, fellow foodie