The Cube in Birmingham has become one of my favourite hang outs of late. Following on from my review of the fabulous Bun and Bowl, last week I was lucky enough to try out the menu at another establishment; the French coffee house, Madeleine. I invited along one of my good friends, Jess who is quite the foodie and has seen her fair share of good restaurants and fantastic food. We headed over to The Cube for about 11am – the perfect time for a spot of brunch.
Madeleine is situated on Level 7 of The Cube, near the Commercial Street entrance. The second thing you notice when you walk is is how bright it is – I say second because the first thing you’ll notice is the vast amount of tasty looking cakes on the counter (we’ll come to that!) The decor is very French Chic, lots light wood with a French countryside feel to it. We sat right by the window and basked in the sunlight as it streamed through.
For drinks we ordered brunch favourites; coffee and orange juice. Jess’ coffee was delicious and brewed to perfection and my freshly squeezed orange juice was just that – fresh with just the right amount of pulp. We were just in time for the last breakfast run and both opted for egg based dishes although I was hugely tempted by the waffles.
My scrambled eggs with smokey streaky bacon was lovely. It came served with a green leaves salad and a piece of sourdough toast dressed with balsamic vinegar. The eggs were full of flavour and the bacon was cooked just how I like it – not crispy at all. Jess opted for the egg white omelette with spinach and tomatoes, sourdough toast and feta cheese and I’ll admit I had a bit of food envy -it looked so good. Full of feta, the omelette was tasty but not overpowering like some dishes with too much feta can be.
After we’d let our eggs settle we decided to make up for the fact that we hadn’t gone for the waffles by sampling a couple of their delicious looking cakes. We spent about 10 minutes at the counter chatting through the selection with the lovely gentleman who served us and finally landed on the best selling Nutella and Rum cake and the Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip cake. All I’m going to say about the Nutella and Run is that I can see why it’s a best seller. Deliciously soft, not too sickly with all the chocolate gooeyness you’d expect with it’s title. It was more tart like that cake but I’m ok with that! The peanut butter and chocolate chip cake was good too – not dry in the slightest with the right balance of chocolate and peanut butter so’s not to be sickly. The only gripe I have about the cakes is that they are presented on the counter uncovered – which is fantastic from a presentation perspective but I wouldn’t be keen to go in later on in the day if they had been dried out by being out all day.
Cakes can be boxed up and taken away if you don’t want to sit in and Jess made use of this service by buying her other half a slice of coconut cake. Another thing to note is that Madeleine also sell a selection of freshly made bread in a few different flavours. I’m quite keen to try the tomato or maybe the onion bread at some point.
I can see myself visiting Madeleine again in the near future. It’s reasonably priced and the perfect space for a Saturday morning chill out with good coffee and food. It had a great vibe and atmosphere that would also allow me to take my laptop for a bit of writing as I find cake very fuelling when blogging haha. Madeleine can be added to a small by growing list of great places to grab breakfast in Birmingham City Centre and I’m looking forward to returning.
♥
*Complementary meal provided by Madeleine, all opinions my own.
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