When you are as particular (some would say ‘pedantic’!) as us about your food choices, eating out can be challenging – if possible at all. Therefore you can imagine our delight upon discovering Pollen Tea Room in Battery Point, Hobart. I stumbled upon Pollen by complete accident when searching around online a few years back. I was in the early days of my pregnancy with Marlin and we were looking for somewhere Chilli and I could go in the wee hours of the morning whilst Papa attended a business network meeting in the city. Pollen fit the bill perfectly. It is cosy, inviting, friendly and of course serves mindful food that is inline with our eating values.
Pollen Tea Room is the brainchild and baby of Matthew and Shae – a couple that are the perfect picture of radiant health and abundant energy. Merely being in the presence of these two gorgeous souls is inspiring and uplifting. Matthew and Shae are the type of people who you come away from feeling refreshed by merely having just spent time with them. Coupled with the amazing food and beverages they serve, which nourish every cell in your entire body – Pollen Tea Room is a true recipe for totally revitalising you. Making a choice from their well thought out and planned with mindfulness, menu is the biggest challenge when you go to Pollen. The menu offers a lovely range – you’re not overwhelmed with choices, but there is a nice variety of dishes to choose from. The problem? Everything looks, sounds and is so delicious!
Shae has been featured on ES Wellness’, Well Women series – and rightly so! This couple really do practice what they preach and the proof really is in the (chia) pudding – so to speak! When we recently visited, Graham (my iridologist husband!) commented once we left, on both Matthew and Shae’s; friendliness, great energy and how clear their eye’s are.
Everything on the Pollen menu is created with love, thoughtfulness and attention to detail. Pollen’s instagram feed often features pictures showing something new Shae’s been creating in the kitchen, or Matthew’s latest herb and spice blend coming together for a seasonally supportive tea infusion. There’s the old story everyone knows about how love is the secret ingredient in every successful cook’s heart, that permeates their food with an undefinable deliciousness. I would have to say without a shadow of a doubt that apart from the mindful food, organic ingredients*, vitality of their kitchen alchemy and the passion that Matthew and Shae create food with – love for not only what they do, but also the food they create and serve to their customers is an unmistakable ingredient in their recipes. I’ve read a few various interviews with these folk now and each time it rings out loud and clear from their words, that they sincerely have a passion for feeding their community with nourishing food and that they honestly just love to meet and get to know their customers.
On Mother’s Day we stopped in, after a morning of picking rosehips and hawthorns, for a lunch date with Pollen Tea Room. We couldn’t have chosen anywhere better to visit for a nourishing, wholesome and refreshing meal after an early morning adventure to one of Tassie’s most gorgeous little nooks. Thank you Matthew and Shae for the space you have created there, for the wonderful food you serve and for the gorgeous memories I have of sitting in Pollen with my family, chatting about this and that over a cup of hand blended, amazingly delicious, organic chai.
* I wanted to add a foot note that whilst not every single ingredient used in the Pollen kitchen is organic, I do know from not only talking to Matthew and Shae, seeing the ingredients in their kitchen, but also devouring their plates of deliciousness – that Pollen Tea Room does use a substantial amount of organic ingredients and it is their preference to source chemical free and locally produced food wherever possible.
:: Please excuse the fact that most of our photographs are of half eaten plates or half drunk cups. Pollen’s presentation is of course, exquisitely delightful – but everything looks so delicious when it is served that taking a photograph doesn’t even creep into my mind until I’m half way through the meal!::