Simon & Lee
Simon & Lee is my new favourite everything. Let me plagiarise a sonnet to help me count the ways.
How do I love thee, Simon & Lee? / I love thee to the depth and breadth and height / My stomach can reach.
I love that you've now opened on weekends (because I don't want to only be able to visit you pre- and post-night shifts during the week). I love that you have free 2-hr parking on the backstreets of Parnell, and are a stone's throw away from my house. I love that your menu is a breath of fresh air in a cafescape overcrowded by eggs bene and *voice darkens* smashed avo.
I love that if I want to eat Korean Fried Chicken at 10am on a Saturday, I can eat Korean Fried Chicken at 10am on a Saturday. I like that you have a ring-burner option for chilli-nerds like myself (and that you offer those hilarious plastic gloves to eat them with). I'm not sure if they're to avoid sticky fingers, or to stop myself accidentally touching my eyes (and other places...) with chilli-laced fingers afterwards. I love that you have called your hottest KFC 'Danger Spicy'. I love that it tastes exactly as it sounds.
I love that you use suppliers that create products with so much love and care. I love your coffee, and the infused bacon slab that adorns your Benedict. I love that your Benedict doesn't resemble loathsome eggs bene; that it has this awesome (albeit slightly funny coloured) miso-truffle béchamel that is flavoursome without making you feel ill; I love that you use nutty buckwheat and tapioca crumpets (although they kind of taste like muffins, but like who cares).
And I love your congee. Oh my god I love your congee. I love that your mixed grain congee feels like it has magic soul-healing properties when you eat it; it is easily the tastiest thing I've eaten this year. The marinated egg has a gooey yolk, and is dope. The wood ear mushrooms are a great texture contrast. In short, could you please make your congee available on the weekends? Kthanxbai.
Here is a not exhaustive list of things I've eaten already:
Congee - savoury porridge, wood ear mushrooms, mixed mushroom paste, chives, marinated egg, sesame seeds, sesame oil, house soy sauce.
Benedict - poached eggs, buckwheat and tapioca crumpets, kimchi, miso truffle béchamel, nori, sesame seeds with bacon or smoked salmon.
Broken eggs - roasted Brussel sprouts, kimchi, chestnut puree (or pea puree on the day we tried it), Pecorino, Freedom Loaf.
Dolsot bibimbap - rice, sautéed and pickled vegetables, seaweed cracker, egg yolk, house gochujang sauce served in a sizzling stone pot.
Korean Fried Chicken - danger spicy. Pretty self-explanatory.
Simon & Lee
115 St Georges Bay Road,
Parnell
Auckland