Short Round, Thornbury

Where: Short Round, 731 High Street Thornbury

What: Brunch fare good enough to make my dad think he can’t make it himself

Who: Mr Whatever Floats Your Bloat, Papa Whatever Floats Your Bloat, Mama Whatever Floats Your Bloat

Bloat score: 0 – Living the dream

My parents are nothing if not creatures of habit, which is how Mr WFYB and I found ourselves traipsing to their favourite creperie Le Café Flo in Thornbury. Alas, the creperie had decided to take its New Year break later than everyone else and was shut.

We had plenty of brunch options around, but Papa WFYB is of the opinion that cafes serve nothing but eggs, which he can easily make himself, and so I proved him wrong by taking him to Thornbury favourite Short Round, which I hadn’t visited in years.

Short Round was crowded at the relatively early hour of 10am and quite noisy to boot, but we managed to find a spot outside under the awning where it was quieter and cooler.

Mr WFYB branched out from his usual ‘eggs on toast’ breakfast staple and ordered the toasted waffles, berries, lemon curd, fresh ricotta and toasted pistachios. As picky as they come, Mr WFYB isn’t a fan of fresh ricotta and so I was interested to see how this would go. Quite good is the answer ­– he pushed the fresh ricotta to the side and devoured his fluffy-looking waffles, generous splodges of lemon curd and assortment of fresh fruit.

Papa WFYB almost went for the avocado and haloumi on multigrain bread with a poached egg, but I steered him clear of that because it did indeed sound like something he could have made himself, and encouraged him to get the brioche roll with slow cooked pork, a fried egg, crushed peanuts, chilli and kewpie mayo. He enjoyed his hefty breakfast burger, particularly liking the tenderness and rich flavours of the slow cooked pork, but it was a big serving size and he grew full. The apple didn’t fall far from the tree, however, so he stuffed himself past the point of fullness.

Like me, Mama WFYB likes chilli in everything, and so she went for the sriracha scrambled eggs with spring onion, coriander and feta on sourdough. It is hard to wrangle a compliment out of my mum, but she appeared to approve of her dish.

I was in the rare mood of wanting to follow my intolerances after a particularly fructose-heavy weekend of pies, chips and pizza and so I ordered the black sesame rice cake with avocado, pickled kohlrabi, kewpie mayo, toasted nori, radish and ponzu dressing – not really knowing what to expect. I tried my luck and asked for barbecue tofu on the side, but was told it was marinaded in onion and garlic.

The sesame rice cake was my favourite brunch dish I’ve had in a long while. I’m not particularly a fan of eggs or toast (I know – why do I even bother going out for brunch?) but can’t go a day without eating rice, so this dish was perfect for me. Sticky sushi rice speckled with sesame seeds that had been formed into a flat and compact block was an umami feast in my mouth when paired with the soy vinaigrette, crunchy strips of seaweed, creamy avocado and the pleasing sweetness of the best mayo there is, kewpie mayo. The pickled kohlrabi was a bit much, but I ate it because I knew it was good for me and it added a brilliant splash of colour to my plate.

Short Round was as good as I remember. If I’m ever in Thornbury with my parents and a shut creperie, I won’t think twice about visiting again. Mr WFYB left brunch having branched out, Mama WFYB didn’t have a bad word to say about her eggs, Papa WFYB didn’t exclaim that he could have made his breakfast burger himself and I left with zero bloats. A good time was had by all.

Short Round is open from 7am to 4pm Monday to Friday and from 8am to 4pm Saturday to Sunday.