Pork Paninis and Pear tarts at Pigeon Hole Café with the Parking God

Now try saying that 10 times! Well call us slow, but Rob and I finally got to Pigeon Hole for lunch for the first time today. We have been meaning to get there for a while but the parking situation always beats us. Rob believes he’s the parking God, and if we are not within 2 metres of the desired destination it’s obviously not meant to be! (This attitude seriously hampers his botanical field surveys too).

But today we took our Canadians (how we think of our visiting friends) to lunch there. The little café is cute and simply decorated with a retro edge. We were lucky to get one of the larger tables at the back. Our friends have been in search of a Huon pine and they finally found it in the form of our table. I think they’d prefer to see a living tree though.

I liked the little blackboard menu. Not too many dishes to pick from when you just want a quick lunch. We all decided on the same thing - the Wessex saddleback pork and quince aioli paninis. The waitresses were smiley (always something to be commended) and it wasn’t long before we were served our paninis on little wooden chopping boards. Although a simple flavour combination, the sweetness of the quince went well with the pork, which was moist and they were quickly devoured by us all. The panini had just the right proportion of filling to bread, we didn’t feel like we were just eating bread. We each ordered a coffee or tea with just a little sweet treat, three open pear tarts and a chocolate friand. A perfect finish to our lunch.

I think the parking God was suitably impressed and will smile upon Pigeon Hole again soon.