Caffe Veloce, South Yarra

Next time you're shopping for a new Maserati, fuel up at Caffe Veloce, 9-11 Claremont Street, South Yarra, Tel +61 3 8080 9995. Conveniently located in the middle of Dutton's ultra-luxury-tosser car showroom, Veloce allows you to stare at fancy cars as you eat breakfast. Actually, I think it's all pre-loved cars at Duttons, so you should really only come here for an old Maserati. No Gran Turismo's here, unfortunately.



Breakfast options are simple but good. Eggs are either scrambled or poached ($12-14), the latter served with a delicious, buttery sauteed spinach, tasty bacon, and Baker D. Chirico sourdough toast. No complaints about the quality of the eggs, but one was hard-poached.

An interesting lighter option is the biancomangiare (a "yoghurt terrine"), served with "mint coulis" and strawberries ($8). This was excellent.

Veloce's edge, however, is that they have their own pastry chefs slaving away in the basement. So, you can drop in for a coffee (a very good signature blend of Di Lorenzo) and scoff down a few house-made custard bombaloni or rip into some excellent fritella (doughnut-like frisbee's sprinkled with sugar).

Finally, in the interests of full disclosure, Veloce is where I lost my virginity. I was given a free sampling of various dishes at a launch thing hosted by the boss, Mauro Marcucci (of Caffe e Cucina fame, yadda yadda yadda). I did, however, go back on the sly (paying for my own breakfast), and the two experiences were not wildly different.

16/20 "uova in camicia"

Caffe Sienna, South Yarra

If you like posing and perving, then get yourself to Caffe Sienna, 402 Chapel Street, South Yarra, Tel +61 3 9827 1353. It is a poser's and perve's paradise. And if you manage to score a table fronting onto Chapel Street, there's generally plenty to perve at. You know... Ducatis and Lamborghinis and hot chicks and stuff like that.



The "mediterranean" pork sausage looked like it got caught in a Ducati sprocket, but it was tasty and good. The scrambled eggs Sienna were also pretty good, souped up with capsicum, spring onion, bacon bits and tasty cheese. The toast ("Jurgens cob") was a bit dry and stale.

The menu aims to cover all bases for its target customers. For the skinny, narcissistic, Posh lookalike, there's Special K (presumably a small bowl served with low-fat water). For the iron-man lookalike there's a bowl of Nutri-Grain, followed by a "Big Brekki" of eggs, bacon, sausage, tomato, mushroom and mass-produced hash browns. Or your choice of muesli, porridge, bagels, croissants and omelettes.

Service was OK, but not great, mostly because it was slow and not very attentive. I hate it when staff are nowhere to be found, right when you need them. Like when you want to see a menu, or place an order, or pay the bill, etc.

12/20 "impressive sausage"



Eggs & Bacon $9.70 BB100 -3%

Back to the Bot

This morning we achieved the impossible. We booked a table for breakfast at The Bot. I know this because when I asked for our table, I was told "we don't do breakfast bookings". Hmmm... then why did someone take a booking last night? Oh... that's odd... you do have a booking. How did you manage that?



After a short wait, they managed to boot some other poor sod off our table and ushered us inside for what turned out to be a great brunch. I went the full woody, otherwise known as the full wood-roasted Botanical breakfast. Served on a hot iron plate, this monster-truck of breakfast includes cheese kransky, smoked bacon, baked beans, black pudding, roasted tomatoes, field mushrooms, roasted kipfler potatoes and a toasted muffin topped with eggs (scrambled in my case).

The back pudding was probably the highlight, with a funky taste and almost fibrous texture. I think it was made with barley and walnuts... and fat and pigs blood, of course. A rare treat.

We also tried the salmon benedict which was almost too perfect for words. The poached eggs had been carefully trimmed and groomed like a pair of prize poodles, and the hollandaise was neatly flecked with just the right amount of salmon roe and a hint of chives. Pretty as a picture.



To wash it all down, I had a glass of the 2004 Delas Viognier. Excellent. Viognier may well be my new favorite wine. That, and Petit Verdot.

17/20 "moving up"

Harveys, South Yarra

It's hard to escape footy fever on grand final day in Melbourne. Today's match might well be dubbed the battle of the birds, as the West Coast Eagles take on the Sydney Swans. So it was no surprise to be surrounded by several tables full of Eagles fans (and the odd Swan) as we settled in for breakfast at Harveys, Murphy Street, South Yarra, Tel +61 3 9867 3605. Very colourful.



Which makes me wonder. Has anyone ever had a swan egg omelette? I know you can get goose eggs and duck eggs. And I'm a big fan of quail eggs, boiled with celery salt... yum. But swan eggs never seem to make the menu. Maybe it's illegal? Who knows?

Getting back to the humble chook egg, I had an enjoyable serve of scrambles on sourdough, with a home made sausage and some pesto baked beans on the side. The eggs were a little bit watery for high marks, but the snag (quite gamey) and beans (sweetened with honey) were very good. They also did a good job with the poached eggs, sauteed spinach and hash potato (a tad salty).

For the egg-challenged, Harvey's has plenty to offer. The porridge was excellent, served with poached pears and dusted with cinnamon. Ditto the fruit salad. I also liked the sound of the thyme and garlic sauteed mushrooms (served with toast and feta) and the goats cheese on toast with fresh asparagus, pesto and roasted tomatoes.

The venue and service are very polished, although it gets a bit noisy when the place is full. And I was impressed by some of the little things. White linen. Plenty of fresh water. HP sauce. They even had Peugeot pepper grinders.

It is, however, expensive. The goat's cheese on toast, for example, will set you back 17 bucks. Ouch.

17/20 "très bcbg"