Swedish Tarts - Personally, go for the tarts...

Swedish Tarts - 40 Semaphore Road, Semaphore SA 5019

Visiting my friends in the West always seems to lead to a visit to Semaphore Road for brunch. Our blog team have done a few reviews of eateries in Semaphore. Click our Semaphore selections for our other reviews.

Many a time have I passed Swedish Tarts but have not had the chance to go in. When I heard that they had expanded their premises and were now serving brunch in addition to the pastries which they were known for - I did not pass up the chance.

Great selection of pastries on show

After perusing the appealing blackboard menu I decided to order the Raggmunk - a traditional Swedish potato pancake.  I hadn't had this dish before so decided that I would give it a go on this visit.

Raggmunk - $21

For those who do not now much about Swedish cuisine (myself included) a Raggmunk is a grated, seasoned, shallow fried potato pancake. Swedish Tarts provides many different Raggmunk options - all with the same base then flavoured with different toppings. I went for the Raggmunk with bacon and lingan (cranberry) jam and added mushrooms.

I don't know about you, but when ordering, the first ingredient on a dish is usually what I expect to be the main item. In this case, I was expecting their to be a mound of bacon on this dish but what was provided was a small serving of bacon with a lot of underseasoned mushrooms.

I haven't had a Raggmunk previously, so this review is based on my personal taste I would have liked the pancake and the mushrooms to have had a little more seasoning and the pancake to be a little more crisp. The lack of textural elements on this dish made it bland to eat and I struggled to finish the dish.

Latte - Always a good start to the day!

To try and save the afternoon, I moved towards the pastries: Peanut Butter and Chocolate cookie, Lime Tart, Chocolate Ganache Tart and the Lemon and Poppyseed Tart.

Gotta love a good tart!

The Peanut Butter and Chocolate Cookie is gluten free. For lovers of peanut butter you will like this cookie as there is a definite peanut butter flavour. The cookie was a little powdery for my liking and I would have enjoyed this with a little more chew.

The Lime Tart, as one would expect had a distinct lime tartness. Having said that, it was not overpowering. I didn't have the 'fake' lime flavour that some tarts have and the balance of sweet and tart was perfect.

The Chocolate Ganache tart is decadent. Again, one would expect that this could be overpowering and very sweet however they have managed to provide balance. The ganache itself was also very smooth.

The lemon and poppyseed was similar to the lime tart in the sense that the balance of flavours was good. The consistency of the lemon and poppyseed tart was different to the others where the tart casing was reminiscent of a cheesecake - a very nice surprise!

Food: 6/10 - Pastries were good, but couldn't save the Raggmunk
Service: 3/5 - Solid service as expected
Ambiance: 4/5 - Warm weather, casual feel

Mirko gives Swedish Tarts 13/20 chops on The Chopping Board.