When I moved into the area, my friend Steven who had also moved to a neighbouring suburb, was telling me that I needed to visit the café near the Ashburton train station but wasn’t sure what it was called. Flicking through The Weekly Review, there was an article on a café in Ashburton called “The Resident” which piqued my interest. So I made plans to head there for breakfast last Saturday morning and invited Steven and his wife Sophie to accompany me. When we arrived there, it turned out that The Resident was the café that Steven had been recommending to me all along!

The one thing I’m started to notice when I look at different breakfast menu’s is that the dishes on offer are somewhat familiar. What intrigued me at The Resident was that the menu is refreshingly unique with its offering of a pork belly and manchego omelette for breakfast, which was my selection. Steven chose poached eggs with mushrooms while Sophie opted for the cured New Zealand King salmon, samphire, potato rosti, poached eggs and dill mayo. Samphire! What’s that? Samphire is also known as sea asparagus and is similar in taste and texture but with a fresh, salty burst of flavour.

My breakfast dish had thin slices of pork belly within the folded omelette and pockets of melted manchego cheese on top of a slice of lightly toasted sourdough bread. However, without the accompanying smoked tomato chutney, the dish was somewhat bland and lacking any real flavour. The pork belly was engulfed by the plain egg omelette and didn’t have any real taste which was a shame because the dish sounded delicious. The melted cheese didn’t contribute to the taste or texture of the omelette which is unusual as manchego has a sharp, distinctive flavour which couldn’t be detected.

All of our dishes were beautifully presented, but I will admit to a very serious case of food envy towards Sophie’s dish. The dill mayo looked thick and creamy while the potato in the rosti had been through a ricer and had been uniquely constructed.

The Resident has excellent coffee and great service and it was a wonderful opportunity catching up with friends on the back decking underneath the warmth of the ceiling heaters.