Early lunch at Leonardo’s

On Saturday morning at Carousel Shopping Centre, we decided to grab a bite at Leonardo’s Cafe, which is located outside the Target Home entrance. We’ve eaten there before (see this post, and this write-up I did for Eating WA).

From Leonardo’s selection of gourmet sandwiches, Jac chose The Beach Comber (AU$9.95) on wholemeal bread. This sandwich consisted of crab meat and shrimp in seafood sauce with lettuce and New York style cream cheese, served with salad on the side.

The Beach Comber

There were real little pink shrimps in the sandwich, but the crab tasted like tinned or imitation crab, which is fine, of course, if you like tinned or imitation crab. I wouldn’t expect a cafe in a shopping centre to make crab sandwiches with fresh crab, after all. I took a bite, and all I could really taste was seafood sauce. I do like seafood sauce but I find that it smothers the flavour of the seafood unless used sparingly. Jac thought her sandwich “okay” but it wasn’t anything she’d rush to order again.

The Beach Comber close up

I had the warm chicken salad (AU$11.95), described on the menu as “plump juicy strips of chicken cooked in Cajun spices served on a garden fresh salad with lettuce, tomato wedges and snow pea sprouts”. You can add avocado for an extra $1.00 or add sundried tomatoes also for an extra $1.00. The chicken was breast meat, and while the Cajun spice was tasty (I think I am definitely currently in a spicy food phase!), the chicken itself had been grilled a little too long, and was as a result quite dry and especially hard along the edges – not at all “juicy” as claimed on the menu. Along with the lettuce and tomato, there was thinly sliced red onion and sliced green capsicum – no snowpea sprouts. A minor quibble, I suppose, as snowpea sprouts are often used as garnish rather than a vital element of a salad anyway, and there was plenty of salad there. I didn’t care for the tomatoes – they tasted like they were on the dangerous edge of overripeness. There was no dressing whatsoever on the salad, which left the dish quite dry (not helped by dry, overcooked chicken). Still, as I was hungry (and fresh vegetables are good for you!) I ate everything on the plate, apart from most of the red onion. I was happy with the amount of sundried tomatoes I got for my extra dollar – at least they helped add a little moisture and tasty flavour to the dish.

Warm chicken salad

Sometimes when I look back at the photos of certain meals I’ve eaten, I realise that looking at the photos is far more enjoyable than the experience of actually eating the food. I guess this is one of those occasions. It wasn’t a terrible meal by any means, but in this case I think the photographs are much better than the food. Sometimes I think you guys really do miss out on something special (not trying to rub it in :)), but not this time! We have enjoyed our previous meals at Leonardo’s though – I do like their nachos, and Jac is quite partial to their Caesar salad.

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