Dining review: Bronze Kiosk at Mona Vale Surf Lifesaving Club on Sydney’s northern beaches

Casual Bronze Kiosk does breakfast, lunch and coffee right by the beach at Mona Vale Surf Life Saving Club.

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LOOKING through the latest edition of Beachy Breakfasts, Bronze Kiosk has the complete A to Z of trendy must-haves ready and waiting for the beachside surfie set.

Avocado on toast — a Nigella favourite — yes, that’s there, and it’s served with zatar (a Middle Eastern spice mix) eggs and soy linseed sourdough.

Love the view: buttermilk pancakes with the green power smoothie.

Then there’s Bircher muesli made with rolled oats and chia seeds, buttermilk pancakes (they’re only available on weekdays) and pretty jars of pannacotta, layered with fruit and muesli. Bacon, brekkie wraps, spelt, eggs benedict and kale-loaded omelets, the darlings of healthy foodies.

Well almost.

Run down the list and one ingredient is conspicuous by its absence. There’s no mention of acai, the superfood hot from the Amazon.

It’s hard to ignore the meteoric rise of this pretty but tasteless fruit that’s blended into fruity slushies and served in smoothies and breakfast bowls up and down the beaches.

You won’t find it at Bronze, the cafe at Mona Vale Surf Lifesaving Club. As summer slips away and the new menu rolls into action in a couple of weeks’ time, acai won’t be on it either. That’s because cafe co-owner and menu creator Nicola Rich isn’t a big fan.

Nicola and her carpenter husband Peter — who built the cafe — have just racked up five acai-free summers.

Buttermilk pancakes are a weekday option.

And as you’d expect, the relaxed cafe-that-Peter-built next to the sand dunes works well with the casual food, this tiny kitchen turns out.

Breakfast runs until 11.3am daily, so there’s plenty of time to grab a couple of stools at Peter’s carefully crafted perimeter, where the fence is deep enough to double up as a narrow table top, and watch the passing parade of designer dogs and surfers heading to the beach.

Dairy-free smoothies like the tropical mango, pineapple and lychee frappé are good, but for caffeine lovers, nothing beats a the buzz of a good coffee. Bronze’s barista pumps out a blend from Golden Cobra from six every morning.

It’s called My Brother’s Wife and goes nicely with milk, Nicola Rich says. She’d love to do single origin for espresso drinkers, but there just isn’t the room.

If you are hungry for more, there are two flavours of homemade muffins, which are made daily. Ours is bursting with mango, passionfruit and macadamia. Quite naughty, but delish.

Breakfast pannacotta comes with a free view.

For something filling and savoury, roasted field mushroom on sourdough toast. Bronze serves it with salty haloumi, scrambled eggs and minty salsa verde. It hits the mark. Less so is the bacon and avocado on sourdough toast. The toast is burnt and the avocado is rock hard. Shame.

Come the cooler months, Bronze is still finetuning its lunch menu, but there will be a new, more Americanised burger and a soft shell crab taco, pimped with blackened corn and chipotle mayo.

There may be a shortage of purple exotic fruit on the menu, but brush up on those ancient grains because frekkah is on the way.

Twitter: @beverley_hudec

ESSENTIALS

Bronze Kiosk

1 Surfview Rd, Mona Vale

Phone: [phone]

Open: Seven days, from 6.30am with last coffee order at 4pm.

Go for: roasted field mushroom, haloumi and scrambled egg, $18; buttermilk pancakes, $16; homemade muffins, $4.50

Coffee: Golden Cobra

BYO: wine, $6 corkage per bottle

Vibe: Oh-so beachy

Bottom line: $52.60