Melbourne’s Best Breakfast

We all know Melbourne’s obsession with breakfast has become part of our identity. There are no excuses when breakfast is the most important meal of the day! Don’t waste your time going to the wrong places. Check out one of these incredible places below!

Ricotta hotcake

In 2013, Top Paddock introduced a blueberry-and-ricotta hotcake that inspired countless other versions; you can still find it there and at its sister cafes the Kettle Black and Higher Ground. Sprinkled with colorful powders and edible flowers, it might seem like these hotcakes were invented exclusively for Instagram, but they’re more than just looks. Ricotta batter is cooked into a thick, fluffy pancake and covered in fruit, cream, maple syrup, nuts, and flowers. One hotcake is the size of a large plate, so if you can’t commit to eating it alone, share it with friends as a post-brunch dessert.

Potato hash

Similar to rosti or hash browns, a typical Melbourne potato hash is made of shredded potatoes, formed into a patty, fried until crispy, and topped with things like slow-cooked beef, poached eggs, and spinach. At Proud Mary, in the trendy Collingwood neighborhood (there’s also a second location in Portland, Oregon), the potato hash comes with crispy kale, short-cut bacon, a poached egg, and bagna cauda. Have a quick look around and you’ll see the hash on half the tables. In Fitzroy, the croquette-like potato hash from Addict Food and Coffee is stacked with mushrooms, onions, and an egg.

 Mark Roper

Japanese breakfast set

Japanese cuisine is big in Melbourne, cafes included. Meg and Zenta Tanaka popularized the Japanese breakfast set — grilled salmon, tamagoyaki, potato salad, rice, miso soup, and pickles — at their cafe and design store CIBI. Both hailing from Japan, they met while studying in Adelaide, then moved to Tokyo for a few years. After returning to Australia, they opened CIBI, which encompasses their love for food and design. Their menu also features miso-baked eggs in the morning and pork katsu sandwiches later in the day. To find a cluster of cafes with Japanese-leaning menus, head to Melbourne’s northern suburbs. In Carlton, Asako Miura and James Spinks put their own spin on the Japanese-Australian cafe at Ima Project Cafe. Their Japanese breakfast is all about sustainable fish and produce.

Crumpets

Similar to English muffins, the crumpet might hail from the British isles, but many Australians grew up eating them with butter and honey as after-school snacks. The bouncy cakes are made with a flour and yeast batter, while small holes on their surface make them a perfect vehicle for spreads. Melbourne’s most famous crumpets are made at Cumulus Inc. where they’re served with whipped ricotta and raw Rooftop Honey, a local brand from urban beekeepers. The city now also has its first dedicated crumpet cafe: Holy Crumpets opened earlier this year and offers six types of honey and a long list of spreads, including seasonal options like passionfruit curd and ricotta.

Updated egg and soldiers

The basic British egg and soldiers consists of slices of toasted bread dipped in a soft-boiled egg. Australian cafes often upgrade the dish to Vegemite soldiers by spreading the brown yeast onto the toasted bread. Twists on this classic abound: At Pope Joan in the Central Business District (CBD), the buttered toast and free-range eggs come with crispy bacon bits and herb salt. Hardware Société takes things to the next level by covering their soldiers with toppings like duck rillettes, potato tortilla, and prawn gribiche.

 Audrey Bourget

Jo McGann

Congee

This comforting rice porridge dish is a breakfast staple throughout Asia, and is increasingly popular at Melbourne brunches. You might not find it everywhere just yet, but Japanese or Thai-Australian cafes like CIBI and Oneyada offer versions. At Magic Mountain Saloon, in the CBD, the Thai coddled egg and chicken congee comes with condiments like ginger, chile, and dry anchovies. Australian cafes without other Asian influences on the menu, like Wild Life Bakery, are also latching on to the trend. The Brunswick East cafe and bakery makes its congee with brown rice, mushrooms, and furikake.

Breakfast panna cotta

Those who like to start the day with something sweet should know that the Italian panna cotta has traveled from dessert to breakfast at Melbourne cafes. The breakfast panna cotta tends to be very pretty, most often surrounded by a garden of fruits, granola, and edible flowers. There seems to be no limit to the flavors chefs are applying to the wobbly thickened-cream dessert: pandan, taro, Oreo cookies, basil, even peas. Try the Nutella panna cotta with torched marshmallows at Elsternwick’s Penta or the mango-and-saffron panna cotta at Northcote’s Tinker.

Shakshuka

Pretty much every cafe sells some kind of baked egg dish, but shakshuka — at its simplest, eggs poached in tomato sauce with herbs and spices, and served with pita — is leading the way. Tahina, in Northcote and Fitzroy, does a green shakshuka with broccoli, avocado, and zucchini, and a white shakshuka with mushrooms, Jerusalem artichoke, and goat cheese. Bowery to Williamsburg serves versions of the dish with Italian sausage, haloumi, or smoked salmon. They all come with flatbread baked with a za’atar spice mix.

Clockwise from top left: Breakfast panna cotta at Tinker; shakshuka at Bowery to Williamsburg; the famous breakfast pasta at Small Axe Kitchen | Clockwise from top left: Tinker; Michael Woods; Timothy Grey

Mushrooms on “toast”

If you’re looking for something vegetarian or vegan and don’t want to steer too far from the avocado toast, you’ll find a mushroom dish in most cafes. The “on toast” part is where it gets interesting. Vegan cafe Admiral Cheng-Ho roasts four types of mushrooms and serves them with almond feta and chile oil on cornbread. Short Straw serves the wild mushrooms alongside crispy polenta, while at Two Birds One Stone, they come on a soy-and-linseed toast. Visit the city during the colder months and you might be lucky enough to get some of the prized local red pine mushrooms (also known as saffron milkcaps) on your toast.

Scotch eggs

Scotch eggs are hard-boiled, encased in sausage, breaded, and deep-fried. In Britain, they’re usually eaten cold as a snack, at picnics, or on the go. Melbourne cafes, you might have guessed, do things a bit differently. The essentials (egg, minced meat, breadcrumbs) are the same, but in Australia the Scotch egg is served warm, straight out of the deep-frier, and as part of a composed dish. In Richmond, Holla Coffee Roasters nods to the Vietnamese eateries in the area with a lap cheong Scotch egg served with heirloom carrots. At Lights in the Attic, one of the most popular dishes is the Egg Basket: two Scotch eggs on a rosti “nest” with a tomato-and-bean concasse.

Brekkie bowls

You can find bowls filled with yogurt, fruits, greens, or grains on almost every cafe menu. Serotonin Eatery does an acai bowl with a peanut butter, banana, and coconut “ice cream” bar, while Matcha Mylkbar’s Daily Ritual bowl is filled with pumpkin, mushrooms, kale, chickpeas, miso brown rice, and yuzu tahini. Porridge is also a popular option. The usual porridge is made with oats, although bases like quinoa, chia, and polenta are gaining in popularity. Alternative milks, like almond and soy, are often used to keep the dish vegan. A few to try: Journeyman’s apple crumble porridge; Vertue Coffee Roasters’ quinoa, ginger, and orange porridge; Grain Store’s maple rice porridge; or the chai porridge at Home One.

Audrey Bourget

Breakfast noodles

Noodles of all kinds have made their way to cafe menus, breakfast included. Mammoth, a cafe in Armadale, offers breakfast ramen with chicken dashi broth, bacon, and an onsen egg. At Terror Twilight, you can build your own bowl by choosing your noodles (soba or rice), broth (chicken and lemongrass or miso and shiitake), and vegetables and proteins. In Richmond, as well as in Footscray, Vietnamese restaurants sling piping-hot pho as early as 8 or 9 a.m. At Oneyada Thai Cafe, also in Richmond, you can drink a flat white while feasting on soy duck noodle soup, khao soi, or spaghetti in green curry.

Breakfast pasta

Distinct from Asian breakfast noodles is breakfast pasta. The first cafe to serve pasta in the morning was the iconic Pellegrini’s. Established in 1954, it was also one of the first venues in town to have an espresso machine. You can still have a 9 a.m. spaghetti Bolognese with an espresso there, right where Melbourne cafe culture started. More recently, Brunswick’s Small Axe Kitchen started serving their “famous breakfast pasta”: maccaruni with guanciale, peas, mint, salted ricotta, and a slow-cooked egg. Other cafes, followed suit with

Barry

NORTHCOTE

Barry is easily one of our favourite northside brekkie haunts, with a healthy twist.

Run by the team behind names like Pillar Of Salt, Touchwood, and Tall Timber you know what you’re going to be in for with a visit to Barry. Tuck into the ricotta hotcake with strawberry compote, vanilla cream, and crumble.

Top Paddock

RICHMOND

If you’re planning on hitting up Top Paddock on the weekend, prepare for a bit of a wait. This spot is still super busy.

Top Paddock pumps out a heap of delicious dishes, but if savoury isn’t your thing, the blueberry & ricotta hotcake with seasonal berries and macadamias is sure to satisfy.

Terror Twilight

COLLINGWOOD

One of the best openings in the past couple of years, Terror Twilight does a hearty brekkie and brunch menu. Try out one of their BYO bowls with either a broth (ie: chicken broth or veggie miso broth) or rice.

Top it off with some chicken, Angus beef, salmon and enough toppings to keep you hunger-free for the rest of the day.

Hardware Societe

CBD

Hardware Societe is one of the best spots for breakfast in Melbourne CBD, and definitely a destination for tourists. The baked eggs here are pretty stellar, served in a little pot for one.

Hardware Societe dishes up a range of Spanish and French-inspired dishes.

Clubhouse

MALVERN

If you’ve been to Tinker, Bentwood, Penta or MOB, it’s the same crew that’s behind Clubhouse. Serving up a black forest pannacotta with cherry and dark choc, topped with the freshest berries and honeycomb.

Three Bags Full

ABBOTSFORD

We’ll take three bags of their delicious food and coffee.

Our top pick at Three Bags Full is the smashed avo (naturally) with Meredith’s Feta, cherry tomatoes and grilled corn & quinoa salsa is one of the prettiest and darn tastiest breakfasts in Melbourne.

Industry Beans

FITZROY

Industry Beans is in a class all of its own, with an award-winning fit-out, premium coffee and some of Melbourne’s best breakfast dishes.

The avo smash is a staple, but it’s stuff like cinnamon-dusted brioche with delicious tonka bean ice-cream, maple roasted peanuts and coffee caviar (uh, yes please) that tingle our taste buds.

Axil Coffee Roasters

HAWTHORN

A staple for many, Axil Coffee Roasters attracts the crowd with their sweet corn and halloumi fritters.

And did we mention the peanut butter and jelly stack? Highly recommend.

Proud Mary

COLLINGWOOD

Proud Mary has a cool, rockabilly vibe, great coffee and a smashing breakfast menu. Their avo on kim chi toast with wombok + daikon kim chi, and fermented sago is pretty epic.

Rustica

HAWTHORN, CBD, HIGHPOINT, SOUTH YARRA & FITZROY

Take all three, the Rustica empire is slowly growing. You can either grab one of their bakery goods home (freshly made sourdough or a cheeky cronut), or if you’re dining in, chow down on the french toasted hot cross bun w/ cinnamon.

The Vertue Of The Coffee Drink

CARLTON

Known to many as ‘Vertue’, the team roast their own beans in-house as well as having some of the cosiest interiors that make you want to sit and drink coffee all day. Go for their Umami mushroom, with house-baked cornbread, kale and a poached egg.

For the sweet tooth out there try their sugary ‘Waffle On’ Waffles with raspberry, chocolate soil, popping candy and mascarpone.

Archie’s All Day

FITZROY

It’s a good thing Archie’s All Day is open all-day, because there is so much to tuck into.

We highly recommend the poached eggs and daikon kimchi, enoki mushrooms and sesame dressing.

South Of Johnston

COLLINGWOOD

South Of Johnston is the bomb for all things vegetarian. Try out their mushrooms, ladled with juicy cubes of beetroot and silky fetta. They even have an open fire, so you can cosy up and drink your coffee in the chilly morn’.

Miss Jackson

ST. KILDA

St Kilda is in the middle of a renaissance but there are plenty of older venues that are definitely worth a visit. Miss Jackson serves up Allpress Coffee and a great menu that will suit any mood you happen to be in.

Bentwood

FITZROY

Similar to the above, Bentwood in Napier Street serves up a sweet timber interior with ultra-mod influences. The fluffy hotcakes with raspberry coulis should absolutely be on your order.