12 Colourful & Quirky Cafés

Colourful & Quirky Cafes

Across the Margaret River Region, the coffee and cake experience is different everywhere you go thanks to the characteristics of the region’s colourful and quirky cafes.

WORDS | Dianne Bortoletto Busselton

Bistro Breton

Traditional French cuisine with your coffee? Yes please. Bistro Breton is located on Queen Street in Busselton and offers savoury and sweet buckwheat crepes. This is the real-deal of French food, with the Bistro/café’s owners hailing from Brittany, a north-western province of France (and historically regarded as the birthplace of the crêpe). Using ethically sourced coffee (The Cape Effect from Dunsborough) and tea (Seven Seas in Cowaramup), you can pull up at chair at Bistro Breton from Monday – Friday for breakfast or lunch.

Hippo Lakes

Farm shop, event venue and café, the familyowned Hippo Lakes sits on 30 acres about 16km from Busselton in Chapman Hill. The BYO café focuses on locally sourced seasonal produce for its dishes with plenty of gluten free options. Go for a short drive for a serene weekend breakfast or a lingering lunch and take in the stunning gardens, mature trees, bird life, and lake views that includes a floating island with water reeds, grasses, plants and two sculptures of baby hippos. There are photo opportunities galore. Dog friendly.

Anniebrook Farm and Flower Emporium

This place has it all – a farm with roaming animals including a chicken coop where you can check through a little window for eggs, a gift shop with everything from shawls to garden gnomes to essential oils, a vineyard, a truffle orchard, a café and veggie garden. The café serves award winning scones, homemade jams, pies with house-made pastry and other dishes using farm produce. Their lemon butter is to die for. Located in Carbunup River between Busselton and Yallingup, Anniebrook Farm and Flower Emporium hosts weddings and other large events too.

Yallingup

Lagoon Yallingup

Right near Yallingup main break, is ‘newish’ to town – Lagoon. If you want to indulge in a special breakfast on a romantic getaway, this is the place. They have great gluten free options (try their chilli Shark Bay crab omelette) and the best eggs your way, with Yallingup sourdough and saltbush dukkah. Booking ahead is recommended.

Cowaramup

Dunsborough

Goanna Bush Café

Plan everything else around your breakfast when it comes to dining at Goanna Bush Café. The food is healthy, wholesome and just downright delicious with twists on Modern Australian, European classics and spicy Asian flavours. Nestled in the Western Australian bush, and with native ingredients peppered across the menu, this place ticks both ‘quirky’ and ‘quality’ boxes.

Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse Café

Built in 1903, the Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse is a sight to behold and its views of the Indian Ocean unsurpassed. Nestled inside a lighthouse keeper’s cottage, antique furnishings and quaint touches make the café feel like a step back in time. It’s the perfect place to replenish with a coffee or tea, muffins, cakes, sandwiches, and raw treats after a 30-minute lighthouse tour. There’s beautiful grounds to explore as well as the chance to purchase local products such as condiments, jams, olive oil and crackers to take home.

Gourmet Food Merchant

Cowaramup is brimming with cafes, but a lesser-known little gem is Gourmet Food Merchant. This place serves up coffee and cake from 9am – 5pm daily and sells gourmet hampers, goodies and gifts all hailing from the south west. While the magic formula for coffee is always up for debate, there is no doubt that the Gourmet Merchant brew one of the best. Made with a Slayer Steam Two Group espresso machine, these guys are grinding the Midnight blend by local coffee roasting legends at Margaret River Roasting Co. Best consumed with a decadent cake to give you a gutsy morning kick.

Woody Nook (The Nookery Cafe)

Set against a backdrop of jarrah and marri trees in Wilyabruyp, The Nookery has rustic charm and top quality food. Catering for families, you’ll find a grassy play area with swings for the kids. Open for breakfast and lunch, and serving coffee all day.

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ALBANY AUGUSTA BUNKERBAY BUSSELTON DENMARK DUNSBOROUGH EAGLEBAY MANDURAH MARGARETRIVER PEPPERMINTGROVEBEACH SWANVALLEY WALPOLE YALLINGUP

Finding your nearest and best coffee shop is important to the morning ritual even when on holidays.

Inside, the centrepiece is a polished wooden boat which has been transformed into a bar

Margaret River

Drift Café

Just off the main street of Margs is the colourful Drift Café, loved by locals and one of my favourites for an all-day brekkie. Located in the converted Old Shire Library, the front has alfresco dining overlooking Willmott Avenue and inside you’ll find mismatched tables and chairs, wooden spoons as table numbers, really good Five Senses coffee and banging food, the latter two drawing customers back time and again. Check out the fresh juices and homemade baked beans.

Café Mosaic Margaret River

Tucked away in Margaret River at ‘The Local’, the hidden gem at Café Mosaic is its tranquil dogfriendly outdoor courtyard with a rock waterfall, lush ferns and greenery and the original mosaic wall. Inside there’s speciality coffee and tea, locally made treats and a retail gallery selling a range of regional gourmet produce. Live local musicians can occasionally be found strumming away, entertaining customers.

Witchcliffe

Yardbyrd

Yardbyrd in ‘Witchy’ is a short 10-minute drive from Margaret River but worth a visit for its relaxed vibe, friendly staff and excellent food with just about everything made from scratch. Enter through the plant-filled front courtyard which has plenty of table and chairs, some open and some undercover and water bowls for dogs. Inside there’s a toasty fire.

Augusta

The Colourpatch Café & Bar

What was once a humble café, The Colourpatch has evolved into licenced restaurant with stunning water views of the inlet. Inside, the centrepiece is a polished wooden boat which has been transformed into a bar. It still operates as a café during the day serving breakfasts, share plates, pizza, burgers and fish and chips.