Beetroot, Melbourne

I wouldn't recommend eating beetroot for breakfast. But I would recommend eating breakfast at Beetroot, 123 Hardware Street, Melbourne, Tel +61 3 9600 0695. Especially if you like bircher muesli. They do a very thick and fruity bircher topped with berries and a generous sprinkling of whole pistachios. Yum.



Beetroot is all nice and white and modern and sleek, like an iPod. It's more of a Sydney look than a Melbourne look, but luckily it comes with friendly Melbourne service. They also score bonus points for quirky details, like serving a chocolate freckle with your coffee. Or maybe a micro-muffinette (the tiniest I've ever seen).

Despite naming itself after a root vegetable, Beetroot seems best at the sweet stuff: French toast stuffed with berries and topped with marscapone; fresh mango cheek with yoghurt, toasted almonds and granola; or toasted banana and hazelnut bread with golden syrup butter. And that's just a taste.

About the only "opportunity for improvement" is the eggs. The scrambled eggs were nice and creamy (Bills-style), but you should tell people if they're laced with pesto (lucky for me, I quite like a bit of pesto). The problem was the toast. It was a whole slab of Turkish pide, uncut and seemingly untoasted (it was hard to tell). Maybe they lost the breadknife?

16/20 "best bircher"



Eggs & Bacon $7.50 BB100 -25%