the cool aroma - AR AR

I've been thinking that since i moved to Darwin my standards in terms of cafes have .....slipped? Hmmmmmmm not slipped exactly, maybe it's being aware of how little choice there is in terms of cafes and restaurants so you learn to .. adjust! To illustrate - the other day a mate, let's call her Director Chick 2, was looking through the yellow pages to try and find a cafe we could go to for breakfast - after she scoured the 3 PAGES!!! we concluded that there wasn't anything we didn't already know about... i was kind of horrified and realised that my denial ran deep alright, cos i'd never really considered that i'd been to all the good breakfast places, i just assumed that there was a plethora of untried untested places just waiting for me to rock up and eat. Sort of like when i moved here and refused to walk around town cos i didn't want to believe that the city here consists of 3 main streets. Eek!

Anyway the point of all this is that there a couple of cafes in Darwin that i go to a lot, that probably dont offer the best brekky or food that i have ever had, but they're cheap and consistent and are very welcoming. The Roma Bar is a Darwin institution - it's in Cavanagh St in town and any local can point you to it.... i have had the normal brekkies which are nice and the more tropical offerings are great.... i can recommend their coffee, which is rarely bad, the breakfast dhal is great, the raspberry thriller (muesli, yoghurt, home-made raspberry saucy stuff), the sago with coconut milk, grilled pineapple, dried pawpaw and palm sugar is yummo, they also do some very excellent home-made hashbrowns. They are open for breakfast and lunch weekdays and weekends and shut around 3 in the afternoon.

The other place i go a lot is the Cool Spot in Fannie Bay cos they are super kid friendly and the staff pretty much ignore them as long as they aren't trashing the joint or setting it alight. Also you can easily bribe small people to go by metaphorically dangling ice cream in front of them - it works every time. They have one of those big menus that makes you go oh my god couldja pare it down a tad!! (like they have a duck salad! scary!) - but if you stick to their burgers (the vego, bacon and egg, homemade hamburger and steak are all good), toasties, ice creams (they offer a territory gelati called Lo Castro which i don't reckon is that gelati-ish - it's more like neapolitan icecream) and coffees you can't go wrong. Last time i was there i ventured into unknown scary territory - i ordered a tandoori chicken fillet with rice and raita and salad and it was good! Also the Cool Spot is open late (10pm-ish). Cool!