Kiwanda Cafe is Zarraffa’s Founder Kenton Campbell’s pièce de résistance. Located in Eagelby, Kiwanda makes up a portion of the giant warehouse that contains both Zarraffa’s headquarters and roastery. There are huge plans for this area with the Distillery road markets on the way, in the past few weeks we have seen the opening of Sugar Creek Smokehouse marking the start of these plans.
Kiwanda takes up the main area of the warehouse-style building. It has a really nice raw, almost industrial feel to the place but with warm lighting, it feels comfortable. The rear of the building is filled with the large machines that make up the Zarraffa’s roastery.
This roastery has the ability to produce 10 tonnes of coffee per day, which is then distributed to Zarraffa’s franchises. It is really worth seeing, I did notice that they are offering roastery tours, so coffee lovers this might be something to whack on the old to do list!
Due to it being quite a hot morning I decided against a standard coffee and went for the iced option this morning. It was beautiful, refreshing and tasty. A great way to start a hot morning.
At Kiwanda you can order your usual Zarraffa’s food such as croissants and banana bread but on top of that there is the option for genuine cafe style breakfast food. The menu is currently limited with only 5 offerings but they all sound quite enticing. I went for the “Rosti Breakfast Burger” which at $14.90 is a fair price.
I’ll be honest I didn’t fully read the menu so when I was greeted by a black charcoal bun I was very intrigued. I really enjoyed this burger, the potato rosti provided a nice crunch through the middle and mixed well with the soft egg. The real flavour hero here is the sauce, a spicy hollandaise that is not for the overly faint of heart as it does have a bit of a kick to it. I found it a nice break from the standard breakfast burger and would highly recommend you to give it a try.
Service missed that personal touch that you get from a small establishment and had more of the “take away” style. The staff were nice but there was none of the small talk and rapport that you get from a “mum and pop” cafe.
Overall Kiwanda is a great location with good food. It is already a really nice place to spend some time in and as the Distillery Road markets section reaches completion, this part of the city will become a real hot spot. I for one can’t wait.
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