Find myself bored in self-isolation and looking through some of my photos and decided to write about my recent visit to Tartines Cafe. I have never eaten at Eastbourne since I was really young with my parents and a group of my friends decided to go out there to have some kai. My friend who lives in the area mentioned Tartines and also said it was a bit bougie, and I was interested why so we all went there.

Tartines is a French-inspired cafe. Interestingly the cafe has filled out the covered courtyard of what you could call the Eastbourne Mall with its seating area and has occupied one of the shops for its cabinet food and small kitchen. The seating area is nice and on a sunny day, it is a really nice place to sit.

I decided to order a Flat white and Mon Croque-Madame for lunch. The Flat White was not good, not good at all. I could already tell when it arrived due to the presentation of it. Not sure what beans they use, but it was burnt and too much milk at the same time. If you can avoid it, don’t order a coffee here. However, the Mon Croque Madame, was really nice. The salad on the side was a good addition, but I really loved the bechamel sauce and the cheese. Presentation-wise, I was slightly disappointed as my egg yolk had broke during the cooking process, and I thought they would have just cooked another one and put it on top, but they served the broken instead. But as I said it tasted all very good, but didn’t really get the runny egg yolk experience.

The Cakes look really nice in the cabinet, so I had to get a cheeky dessert, I tried their baked caramel flan and that was really good, but not really what I expected. Not as sweet as I thought, but still tasted good. It did miss something though, maybe some fruit coulis?

Overall, a nice place to visit if you want to take your mother somewhere. I wish they had some almond croissants available but they had sold out. This place, does feel bougie and feels like a High Tea alternative, with good food and maybe go for the tea and not the coffee.

Address: Village corner 1, 2 Rimu Street, Eastbourne, Lower Hutt 5013

Facebook Page: Tartines Cafe