Back in January, I went to Melbourne with my sister. We were there for a week just for a holiday exploring the city and eating all the food. We had an amazing time and we found the coffee and brunch scene in Melbourne central amazing so I wanted to share them.

If you’re heading there soon, check out all the brunch spots below. I highly recommend you check them out.

First of all, I thought here in NZ we had good coffee. I don’t know what Melbourne is doing differently but I ordered a cappuccino every single time and they were so good and so much better. I was so impressed by the quality of the coffee.

Higher Ground

Location: 650 Little Bourke Street (right across from the Spencer Outlet Centre)

This place was highly recommended. We went here one morning just before we did our outlet shopping and this place did not disappoint! The coffee here was the best out of the cafes we went to. I don’t know what they use but I almost got a second cup of coffee which is so rare for me.

This place is inside an old building with high ceilings and just an amazingly designed space. It’s quite fancy but so worth it.

My sister got their Benedict Eggs with dry cured ham, emmental, bearnaise, sourdough vinegar powder. She said it was one of the best eggs benedict she’s ever had. I got the Ricotta Hotcake Maple Syrup with seeds and grains, seasonal fruit and flowers as photographed above. The hotcake takes 20minutes but it’s worth it and I need to warn you that it is HUGE. I could only eat half of it so order when you have a big appetite. It tastes amazing though. It was fluffy and not sickeningly sweet.

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Rustica

So Rustica was the first cafe we went to in Melbourne. They have various locations around the city but since we were staying beside Melbourne Central, we went to that location. It’s within the shops on the way from Melbourne Central mall to Emporium.

Rustica’s pastries look amazing too. We wanted to try everything.

I had the basic eggs on toast because I wasn’t too hungry at the time but my sister had the Bread and Butter Pudding Croissant which looked and tasted amazing.

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The Hardware Societè

Location: 10 Katherine Place & 123 Hardware St

If I had to rate all the places I’ve featured here in this post, I would rank The Hardware Societè as number 1. This was also highly recommended to me.

This cafe is pretty small in comparison to the amazing spaciousness of Higher Ground but it’s cute and cosy. We sat at a big round table at the back shared with a few others. I like how there was a variety of jams/spreads in the middle of the table. They sell these too.

The main reason The Hardware Societe stands out from the rest is because of their menu. I’m not one to usually order breakfast food for brunch. People who has brunch with me would know I’d rather get a burger than eggs benedict. So I always go for the non-typical breakfast food in cafes. The variety in this cafe’s menu was great.

Pictured above on the left was mine: Pork Belly and Fried Eggs which has manchego croquettas, paprika aioli and rye toast. This was so good but also quite massive. I loved the croquettas and the paprika aioli (that looked like egg yolks on the side) were such a good combo. The pork belly itself was so nice. I could’ve done without the eggs and rye toast to be honest but it’s great overall if you have a big appetite.

On the right was my sister’s Tuna Millefeuille which has seared tuna, tartar of scallop, tuna & radish, avocado, yuzu aioli, pickled cucumber and poached eggs. She said this was also amazing and The Hardware Societe is also her favourite.

Can you see how good that looks?! Amazing.

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Brick Lane

Location: 33 Guildford Lane

This was the last cafe we went to in the city and the walk there was quite nice. Guildford Lane is cute with some art, plants along the street and brick buildings. This cafe is also across from the cat cafe.

For our last day, I opted opted for the Wholemeal waffle with banana, strawberry,  raspberry coulis, nutella marscapone, lemon balm and flaked almonds. My sister opted for their Eggs Benedict with poached eggs, tabasco hollandaise, fennel and red radish salad on pumpkin sourdough and pulled pork. 

This was another great brunch meal. The nutella marscapone was so yum and not overly sweet and this was a great portion size for me. I highly enjoyed it.

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Cafe Blush

Location: Level 2, Emporium Shopping Centre

Last but not the least is Cafe Blush which we discovered through their Instagram as they followed my sister when we where there and we saw how pretty it is.

This place is BEAUTIFUL. It’s interior goals and we had the place to ourselves as we went when they just opened.

The decor here is on point and it’s so classy and ‘grammable.

As it was early, they didn’t have their cooked breakfast food to order yet so we opted for a light breakfast that day. We had their scones which tasted great. I had a cappuccino as per usual and my sister had tea. They serve high tea here and it looked amazing.

If you’re shopping, you may miss this place as it’s located amongst higher end shops but it’s close to an escalator. It’s gorgeous.

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I hope you enjoyed this post. We had an amazing time in Melbourne and I want to go back. There were still so many food places to try that have been recommended to me but in our short time there, we still managed to go to great ones.

If you have more Melbourne cafe recommendations, let me know. I’m sure I’ll be back there for another visit!

PS. All photos above were taken either by myself and my sister Joan (joan_alyssa) except for the ones linked from the cafe’s Instagram accounts.

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