Uncle Joe’s Mess Hall is my most frequently visited new find on King Street. Located on the Wellington Bus Station end of King Street, this space used to be home to Zekka, my favourite coffee stop before work. Like most retailers along King Street, Zekka left the high-end shopping strip due to increased rents leaving the space now empty for a good while.
Uncle Joe’s had opened for a short period last year then closed again for further renovations. The first time I visited last year, the coffee wasn’t to my liking and I remember walking out smelling like the food as there was little ventilation – my visits of late have been a completely different experience.
I now visit Uncle Joe’s a few mornings in the week for my caffeine fix. A large coffee at $4 is on par with Perth city coffee prices and my latte is smooth to drink but strong enough to do its important job of waking me up before work. Best of all, my latte is usually ready within minutes.
On entry, there is now a barbershop which I’m told is open from 10am and don’t require appointments - I almost thought it was just an expensive decoration as I’ve never seen it open 😉
If you do happen to visit Uncle Joe’s don’t let the entry door mislead you, there really is no roof in the passage and the cobble stones are best walked on with flats.
For breakfast, I have tried the ham & cheese croissant ($6). The cheese is sliced too thick for my liking and makes the croissant a bit greasy but there are plenty of other breakfast items on offer which I’ll try next time. The sticky date cupcakes had looked yum!
A couple of Fridays ago, a group of 7 of us headed to Uncle Joe’s for my colleague’s birthday lunch. Uncle Joe’s don’t take bookings so we just wandered over around noon and secured a table before the lunch crowd arrived.
I had the homemade sausage roll with a side of pearl cous cous salad ($12)…
I’m pretty picky with my sausage rolls as burger boy’s Italian mamma and family makes them well. The sausage roll tasted as good as it looked and came with a homemade relish instead of the usual tomato sauce. The cous cous salad was light and complemented the sausage roll well.
I did have food envy when I saw that my colleague ordered the Friday lunch special which was a smoked cheese kransky hot dog and a coke ($15).The kranskies are from Dubrovnik Butchers and normally I can’t go past a Kransky but I was glad I did as I don’t think I would have made it through lunch without staining my white top 😉
Another one of my colleagues had the tuna patty with the same pearl cous cous salad I had and was impressed…
I managed to take another quick foodie snap before the last dish arrived 😉 scrambled eggs, avocado and crispy bacon with toast!
Yep, Uncle Joe’s menu includes all-day breakfast options - I know where to go when I’m cravings bacon and eggs on a week day!
My strawberry milkshake was a bit slow and arrived after I had finished my sausage roll. The strawberry flavour wasn’t strong enough for my liking and I prefer it creamier - a bit more ice-cream and syrup would have been great.
Uncle Joe’s Mess Hall is a welcome addition to the Perth CBD, coffee is good, food is fresh/affordable, EFTPOS is avail, service is usually quick and I love the cool décor except for the cobblestone as it is hard to walk on.
