The Café – Radisson Blu, Azuri Mauritius

We return to the northeastern coast of the beautiful island of Mauritius and back to Radisson Blu Hotel in Azuri Resort & Spa for more of their fresh cuisine.

Having already reviewed two of the four restaurants situated in the vibrant village of Azuri – namely L’Azuli and Ocean One, the former being rated an impressive 4/5 and the latter 3.5/5 – this time it’s the turn of The Café.

Located next door to a convienient store and within a minutes walk of said restaurants, the resort’s dedicated café has its own bakery dedicated towards making “fresh bread and pastries everyday”.

While the interior is bright and airy, with marble counters and some eye-catching watercolour paintings by local artist Didier Wong, the place to enjoy a dine has to be outside, with some breathtaking views.

The Café offers a varied menu too with homemade delicacies that include pastries, breakfasts, gourmet lunch, burgers and pizzas, along with a selection of freshly-made coffees.

Shakes– Mango and Banana, Rs 200 each

Freshly-prepared shakes made from the island’s fantastic range of quality fruits will always produce flavourful ones.

In this case, there’s a good choice of drinks, with far more fruit choices available to mix ‘n’ match, including freshly-pressed juices.

English Breakfast Rs 400 (Breakfast available from 8-11am)

Yup; all the above for just £8 (Rs 400)! An English Breakfast that comes with a pot of tea (or coffee), fresh bread rolls with butter, and the atypical chocolate croissants.

Quality-wise, the breakfast was “very good”. While the mini-bucket full of bread rolls was fresh and plentiful, the chocolate croissant was a touch on the dry side. With a large glass of freshly-pressed pineapple juice (other choices available), there was also a pot of tea (or coffee).

As for the breakfast itself, then you have the option of substituting the pork sausages for chicken ones (cooked separately), which turned out to be quite delicious, and which came with eggs made to your liking (omelette, fried or scrambled), with our omelette being well executed.

It also came with a bowl of beans, two crispy hash browns, and plenty of meaty-textured mushrooms. All in all, a really satisfying breakfast that’s a must at such an insanely good price.

Parisienne Baguette Rs 250

This was meant to be a quick bite, but turned out to be a decent sized baguette. Although the bread was nicely toasted, we did consider the filling to be a little on the simple side, with not enough mayo to compensate for all the lettuce therein, and slices of chicken that turned out cold and dry. Average to say the least!

Pizza Margarita Rs 350

Everything about this Pizza Margarita screamed freshness – from the rustic nature of the thin crust dough, which held its shape perfectly, to the Italian-style runny tomato sauce – all topped with plenty of tasty cheese. Given how surprisingly large it was too, this is one of the better margaritas we’ve had.

Pizza Parmigiana Rs 400

While this did have the addition of the Halal parmigiana, along with thin slices of aubergine, this didn’t have as much of the tomato sauce base as the Margarita; and so wasn’t as engaging as the above.

Tagliatelle Pasta Rs 400

Being a cafe, don’t expect bold flavours. This nicely made Tagliatelle Pasta had a good bite to it, and was mixed in a simple, tomato-based pasta sauce to make this dish a fresh and tasty one. A good option if you’re looking for a quick, light lunch.

3-Mini Burgers (Cheese & Beef, Chicken, and Fish) Rs 400

… or Sliders as they’re known elsewhere! What made this selection such an intriguing one was the option of four different types of patties – beef, chicken, fish, and veggie – with quite distinct condiments for each one.

We decided on the option of three – Cheese & Beef, Chicken, and Fish – with one burger available for Rs 150 and two for Rs 280.

Cheese & Beef – Gravy sauce, tomato, arugula, pickle, chaddar, tempura fried basil.

Cheese & Beef – Gravy sauce, tomato, arugula, pickle, chaddar, tempura fried basil.

Chicken Burger – BBQ sauce, tomato, greenb salad, olive, cheddar, tempura fried basil.

Chicken Burger – BBQ sauce, tomato, greenb salad, olive, cheddar, tempura fried basil.

Fish Burger – Tartar sauce, tomato, green salad, lemon confit, cheddar, tempura fried basil.

Fish Burger – Tartar sauce, tomato, green salad, lemon confit, cheddar, tempura fried basil.

If first impressions count for anything, then we were presented with an attractive trio of carefully constructed burgers, all coming in crusty, sesame-seeded buns.

The most surprising of the bunch was certainly the Fish slider whose patty was made out of minced fish, had an ever so slightly crispy exterior, and rested atop a confit lemon, which, although different, not only had a bitter edge, but required longer cooking to make it less chewier than it was. Nevertheless, given its unique flavour profile, it all came together decently, with the lemon judged well enough not to overpower the taste of the soft fish patty.

The chicken was the weakest of the bunch, with not much sauce to speak of. Thankfully, since this is a slider, you’ll be done in two or three bites.

As for the Cheese & Beef, then while the patty turned out well done, it did have a good beefy taste to it, which was nicely complemented by the brown sauce, small slices of pickle that offered that tangy aftertaste, tomato, lettuce and cheddar cheese.

Fries Rs 150

Standard fries done crispy, and which went well with the two accompanying dips below: viscous ketchup, and an enjoyable apple and avocado yoghurt dip.

Dips – Apple and avocado yoghurt; ketchup

Brownie Rs 150

Arguably the most impressive part of The Café has to be its wide variety of cakes and pastries, all said to be “baked with love”, and proudly displayed in a counter like a pretty little chorus.

With options like Tart Au Citron, Tiramisu, and Opera, we went simple and opted for a slice of their Brownie.

In this case, however, appearances deceived. What looked like a well presented slice actually turned out to be positively dry and very disappointing.

To make things up, we decided to try a cookie from the jar, which, being hard and crusty, wasn’t any better.

One scoop ice cream (mang0), Rs 100

Vanilla

After the underwhelming cake and cookie, we found redemption in the form of these ice creams.

Like most of the fruit- and veg-based dishes, these were flavourous and quite memorable, with each scoop topped with an actual shard of tuile.

The mango had more of a sorbet texture to it, we felt, making it even more sweet and zingy in taste than it might otherwise have been.

As for the vanilla, then this was smooth and creamy, and a good finale to this review.