The Middle Store, on Winston Ave, Clarence Gardens, has been a place on my go-to wish list for some time. Ever since MasterChef, in fact. Readers may know I do enjoy MasterChef, especially when a local contestant is doing so well.

Former MasterChef contestant Rose Adam and her family opened The Middle Store while the 2015 series was still airing on television.

Rose has tapped into her Lebanese background and produced a delicious sounding menu. Having a day off of work it was nice to go out for breakfast with my husband.

When we arrived, Rose was behind the counter and greeted us with a big smile. We took a seat and perused the menu.

I chose the bagel with avocado, home made labne and zattar (spice mix), fresh mint and cold pressed olive oil. I am not a big fan of bagels as I find them quite dense, but I really wanted to try this dish. I wasn’t disappointed. The bagel was light and the avocado fresh and there was plenty of labne to spread over the whole bagel. I really enjoyed the fresh mint and zattar spice mix, usually a blend of oregano, basil and thyme.

My husband had The Middle Store Lebanese Mezze breakfast consisting of fried eggs, tomato, cucumber, home made labne, Lebanese sausage, olive and zattar man’oushe (flatbread). It was a bit of a different combination to what we are generally used to and the tomato and cucumber was refreshing on the plate. I managed to grab a sausage to taste and I really liked the flavour although a little dry. It was a good option to spread the labne with the olive oil over the zattar covered man’oushe.

I love the look of the menu for breakfast and lunch and look forward to returning to this friendly café for some falafel or a burger.