The heartland of Samuel Village, the real meeting hub where good and affordable produce (the specialty kind) can be purchased, as well as a decent meal, plus some other businesses, all combine together with everything a general shopping trip requires where this is the soul of it all - the Fig Tree Delicatessen. What I have said alone will indicate that it is quite welcome, and worth a try to any local or visitor to the local area.
Getting here, how that happened was more or less an occurrence on top of another occurrence. After a weekend away at the coast, my housemate/dining buddy had told me about this new village being opened up at the top of Camp Hill. It was already in its first stage with a few outlets in business, and a couple of others about to open, plus there was a second stage already being planned. I forget the name of it at the moment, but this was right next door to Samuel Village - which surprisingly with so long living not that far from it, I haven't really given it that much of a go. Well, that was soon to end.
A usual weekend trip with my dining buddy and I includes finding a place for coffee, which commences to a grocery shop. In checking the new coming village and what there is in store for that place - some of the outlets I am excited for - it was then giving a scour of Samuel Village for the eateries and such there. It has quite a few to tick off the list, and some of them do have coffee. Going from one side to the other, after scanning the choices here, the delicatessen was the chosen place.
Inside of this place is big, and even so they had to find new areas to accommodate all the seating. Half of the main area is the shop for all the produce, and in the main area are a few tables, mostly small with a couple of big ones for bigger groups. Expanding further, there is the island in the middle of the car park out the front and a couple on the side walk just out the front. Where my dining buddy and I sat was sort of like an alleyway mixed with a side entrance; once upon a time it probably was. Whichever way you put it, even in being in an affluent place, all of this can give an industrial feel which admittedly would give it character. This side entrance place was cool in temperature, had a calming atmosphere and a few nick-nacks around the place allowed it to look like they thought about it as well. Most of this is like design by circumstance.
This is probably indicative of the delicatessen as a whole, but the service is very much in the background and kept to the bare minimum. This is necessary as it adds to the whole feel and aesthetic of what it is. How it goes is that you go up to the counter and order your grub, then go and find a table. With how efficient it is, it depends if you have somewhere to be soon or that you have all the time in the world - chose somewhere around the middle of that and it describes the pace pretty well. Stay for a bit and be relaxed, or have a small meal but be on your way.
As for the menu, it is all simple, home style cuisine. The big selection comes at breakfast, where there is a range of light and big breakfasts in which most of them are pipping hot. It if is a simple pastry or piece of toast you want, or a hot meal like pancakes, they have you covered. Adding on to that is a good range of extras if you want to build up your meal.
Jump onto lunch, and it is still wholesome. What they have is a range of sandwiches, salads, burgers and tarts - the usual stuff. That is not counting for all the sweets in the cabinet to have with coffee. Which speaks of which ... their drinks selection. It is not the biggest one, just basically coffees, teas and shakes. This would definitely have PG rating at most if eateries could be rated like that, but it gets to confusing. Ignore that analogy please.
So on to some good old breakfast, what to get? After a bit of a look, and weighing up to get extras or go the whole hog, the value option would have been a big breakfast. It ain't the full English, but it does give a filling and substantial feed - bacon (requested crispy), pork sausage, hash brown, several cherry tomatoes, a couple of eggs your way (poached, yolk runny), mushrooms and haloumi with a side of buttered, toasted ciabatta. You know what you are getting with this, and it can be a filling and satisfying meal at the best of times - and this was pretty close to that.
The whole meal was substantially sized, and each part of it delicious. The cut of bacon was a generous size and smokey. It did not have too much fat on it, and was tenderly cooked. Next, the sausage was a homestyle and by Kobe. The meat that was in the sausage was tender, plus was really good quality, as well as having a flavour I could not quite put my finger on and knew regardless that it was great - I think it might have been honey mixed in. Because I am top bloke, I recommended my dining buddy try the last bit and he was impressed. The cherry tomatoes simply exploded either in your mouth or on the fork, the mushrooms were sauteed to the perfect degree, and the haloumi was a treat as per usual. Take or leave the hash brown, as it is essentially a hash brown, though I do like the hotness plus the crisp of its coating, and the eggs were excellent. The yolk ran like lava, and were thick and oozy. It was completed all up by a few bits of lovely ciabatta which were enhanced by butter already infused into the bread. This made me leave really satiated, and thinking really positively about the delicatessen as a whole.
Usually the coffee orders and critiques would precede the actual food order, however for the sake of flow - this is coming after. Essentially everything here had the potential to make this place have a perfect 5-star rating, and that is not hyperbole. I say this since the coffee here is only okay, possibly would be underwhelming if it were not drunk in conjunction to a full meal but adequate enough if so. It is Merlo, which really is a crap shoot and depends on the barista behind the machine. Here, it was competently made but not remarkable. That about sums up the doppio that I had. Otherwise, it was a fine meal in itself.
For his breakfast dessert, my dining buddy got a date slice, buttered, afterwards. I didn't request anything personally; the date slice was split in half. This was good and solid, the dates really came out in the mixture, it was tasty and the butter they put on was great quality and really thickly spread. It would be perfect with another cup of coffee, which I did not order - sorry about that.
Never mind what the narrative to getting here in the end was, but the ultimate end goes something along these lines. With where I have been living for the past eight years (since this review), from what I remember this deli was there from the start. So many times passing it, seeing it out of the corner of my eye, and supporting the local businesses - how it got this far without trying it out, I don't know. That especially goes for how good the grub at this place is, and general vibe of the location. Not that I have much experience with delicatessens, but I can assume that they are what they are; however, what they are are some of the most honest to goodness fare around with no sense of pretense about them whatsoever.
And wherever I may go with delicatessens in the future - on holiday, at work or whatnot - this will likely be the same conclusion with each one, however it is not in my beliefs that this is through a delicatessen being a delicatessen being a delicatessen. Why it is instead, is what they represent, and that is the highest quality food that is the best indication of local produce and it is not for exclusive prices. Little can be taken away from that.
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