There will be no wine reviews in this post, not even beer or a bloody mary review, this is my first non wine, food only review. It’s needed as breakfast is something I only do on holidays, as there are no high flying power breakfast in my day job!

First off the rank

Solarino
Just around the corner from the hotel we usually stay at when in Melbourne, opens early and closes late, serves Peroni on tap and has a short reasonably priced and interesting wine list.
Breakfast, nearly always have the Poached eggs on sour dough toast with maple glazed bacon. Just love the maple bacon it is crispy and the maple gives it another flavour dimension. The poached eggs are usually well cooked with runny yolks, the sour dough toast, lightly toasted and always fresh. The coffee is usually good to very good, depending on the Barista and the atmosphere is slightly laid back, not an iPad to be seen.

Cumulus Inc.
Next stop was Cumulus Inc in Flinders Lane, a very hip eatery with 1 chefs hat (The Age Good Food Guide). Smaller than expected, well worth the visit and the food would be worth a wait as they do not take bookings and seating is not always available. Ordered the Shakshouka – baked eggs with roasted peppers & marinated Persian feta, something I have not had before, have to say it is well suited to the cold Melbourne June weather and a great way to start the day. The dish arrived not in a dish but a small cast iron pan with the eggs swimming in a tomato based sauce with the feta scattered around, the pieces close to the edge melted and starting to brown, tasted brilliant and a nice balance of flavours. Also the coffee here is good as well. The feel is much more get up and go and if you don’t have an iPad sitting on the table you will look like some tourist or country yokel!

Comme Kitchen
One of the nicest restaurant spaces we have been to in Melbourne, with its high ceiling and old world feel blended with a modern bar slam bam in the middle of the room and I have to say this place has the perfect balance between hip and laid back, iPads were kept in their briefcases and we were not the only tourists eating breakfast that Tuesday morning.
I was going to order the Baked eggs, olives, basil, salami & hash browns or the Eggs Benedict until the very helpful waitress with a big smile recommended the Cassoulet with poached eggs that was on the specials list. Had to order the Cassoulet even though Cassoulet and breakfast did not compute it did when the dish arrived, smelled beautiful, looked appetizing and tasted delicious, another good start to a cold Melbourne morning. DB ordered the Scrambled eggs and bacon, the eggs glistened in the light and looked very tempting, there is definitely a chef who knows how to cook breakfast residing out back in the kitchen. The coffees were good, though they arrived late and after the food, but to our surprise this was rectified by the barista who brought over extra coffee after we had finished our coffee. With the comment that she had noticed the lateness of the coffees and here are two free coffees to make up for this.

All up these 3 places are a good start to the day and are on my list for when next in Melbourne.

Solarino

Cumulus Inc 

Comme