With the number of American fast food stores opening up around the city, South Australia is slowly becoming the next American state. Yankee Cafe is the latest to open it’s doors and is located literally metres away from Henley Beach.

The cafe is tastefully decorated with patterned wallpaper and picture frames along the wall. The combination of neutral and dark colours, together with the low hanging light fittings gives this place a casual feel. The store itself is rather small with enough seating for about a dozen. The menu is fairly straight forward and can be summarised with the following words; bagels, baguettes, sandwiches, hot dogs, burgers and Mexican. One of the owners just happens to be American so you already know the food is going to be authentic.

Today, I ordered the Reuben Sandwich. The meal was ready after a 15 minute wait and all meals arrived at pretty much the same time. The sandwich was nicely presented but my first thought was that it was a bit small. The rye bread was lightly grilled but incredibly buttery, so much so, I could tell just by looking at it. The corned beef was thinly sliced and the sauerkraut wasn’t over powering. When combined with the melted Swiss cheese and Russian dressing, the flavour combination worked really well.

The following is what the rest of the group had and everyone was quite content with their dishes.

One of the specialties at this store are the Cake Donuts. These are donuts that are baked and not fried. The texture is similar to that of a cake, hence the name. I didn’t actually try one, but I was told it was good.

The staff here were friendly and welcoming. I’ve never met such friendly people. They treated us as though we were friends and discussed everything from the menu to how they got started. They gave us samples of their products and even cracked a few jokes for comedy relief. The service was excellent. Errors in ordering were quickly fixed, drinks were brought out promptly and dishes were cleared as we finished. The atmosphere was relaxed with Dido music playing in the background. The pricing here is reasonable depending on what you order. My sandwich was $11.90 which I thought was a bit dear considering the portion size, but the other items were fair in price. The donut cakes were also $3.50 each which raised a few eyebrows within the group.

The criticisms of my dish; small portion size for the above average price and too much butter on the rye bread. I’d come back to this store but I’d probably order something else.

WHERE: 11 Henley Beach Rd, Henley Beach