The perfect mid-week lunch.

Loveon is a quiet suburban over-achiever – the type of place that, by provisioning uncomplicated but excellent coffee and food, makes its neighbourhood a vastly better place to live.

The café opened in Mile End in 2013, and while it has a solid base of regular local customers, it is little known among those from further afield.

We don’t live in Mile End, but still we’ve found ourselves returning there again and again – for long lazy coffee dates, for brunch dates and, on many occasions, for quick caffeine stops as we pass through the area.

It’s become a favourite because the café provides a type of food which is becoming rarer as Adelaide’s hospitality scene matures and begins focussing more on higher end creations. Sometimes we’re in need of something that is not small, not fancy, not expensive, but that is unquestionably delicious.

It’s the kind of meal that makes the perfect midweek lunch, and Loveon specialises in this kind of food. There’s a lot of things on the menu that could satisfy this brief, but our pick is  the Infamous Chicken Cob.

Inside its soft Turkish bread exterior, the sandwich is filled with roast chicken, Swiss cheese, sautéed spinach, fresh avocado smash, and onion jam.

Loveon’s owner and barista, Rasheed Kabir, designed the café and its menu and the space has the air of a well-loved home – with doors always open in invitation to all. Trinkets and toys and fruit decorate the interior as well as the exteriors, where an open frontage and small courtyard sit next to the inside dining area.

Patrons have their fair share of choice places to sit, things to look at, and menu items to order.

But, our suggestion has proven successful time and time again – go on a sunny day, sit in the courtyard, eat the chicken cob, watch on as families and children play with the tiny toy vehicles sprinkled around the palm tree.

And have a very good time.