Bang Bang is kind of out of the way for me. It’s never on the way to something, but is worth the detour to visit.
Cute interiors, good coffee and a monster vegetarian breakfast (for the princely sum of $17).
We recently spent the weekend in the Southern Highlands for a wedding and stayed at the lovely Links House. Apparently it’s the first hotel in Australia that had ensuite bathrooms. Fancy! We stayed in the Garden Studio which is this hella cute little cottage. It also has a bath.
It’s a B&B so breakfast is included, but not basket of stale viennoiserie to be found here thank heck. Quite a long set of choices..
The Boy had moroccan eggs which were served with dukkah and hommous.
I couldn’t pass up the eggs with roasted vegetables, Turkish toast, and onion jam. Not a bad way to start the day.
Hella cute little fit out at this lovely little cafe. Only open weekdays though, a trap for rookie Hobart visitors.
The menu is hiding inside these books.
Great coffee, black as night, rich but unburned and served with souvenir spoons.
The boyo loved his latte too.
Scrambled eggs with rhubarb relish. Love the idea of savoury rhubarb options, gorgeous tart contrast.
Mushroom brothers – seasoned with garlic and dark soy. Delicious and sweet.
Next time would come back for lunch – menu looks wonderful!
This place came recommended by twitter buddies and had some interesting spots on Foodspotting. It’s also perfectly located for a brunch before visiting Salamanca Markets (which I will discuss in a future post – suffice to say that though it had some lovely things, it is definitely not Hobart’s best market).
Started with a table menu supplemented with this impressive list of specials – some of which I believe are on the menu most of the time, others which come and go). 
First things first though – cappuccino. Good coffee. 
Green tea for me, always nice to have leaf tea rather than bags.
And this is why we came here – scrambled eggs wrapped in smoked salmon served on a Danish. Possibly not super healthy but boy what a combo! The Danish maintained structure and provided pleasing flakiness.
These were pre-prepared in the cabinet, them heated up for orders. Mercifully (miraculously even) the eggs were still nicely oozy and moist.
Breakfast was a large brioche bun filled till bursting with crème pâtisserie and topped with fresh raspberries. Decadent and delicious as you can maybe tell by my face here.
A visit to the toilets takes you past this gorgeous old industrial mixer and the other machine below whose function I couldn’t quite work out..
The cabinet had other gorgeous things too which would definitely call me back for a lunchtime visit next time!
Particularly this one – how good does this sound?
In Australia often the mark of a new city is the quality of its cafes. These do tend to be where you can feel a city’s pulse – how worldly it is and how much it has found it’s own culinary voice. On these indicators based on Pigeon Cafe alone Hobart is doing very well.
The shuttle bus from the airport went past on the way to our hotel, and boy am I glad it did!
Love a blackboard menu and this on has a great mix of new and unfamiliar things, at great prices (for a Sydney diner where $15+ breakfasts are the norm).
Couldn’t resist the raclette panino with onion agrodolce. Sweet and salty and oozy and crunchy – basically the perfect grilled cheese.
The Boy had baked eggs with talleggio & preserved lemons. Beautiful & with store made organic bread.
Coffee as great too, rich and strong but not bitter. Lovely sweet milk too.
A touch of history in the toilets.
The counter cabinets which would prove too tempting later..
… Practically forcing me to get this divine little rye bruschetta with fresh mozzarella, white anchovy & borage flowers.
Fresh salt crusted white baguette, out of the oven only half am hour before. Truly in the top 10 loaves I have has in my life. Would eat again!
What a lovely & welcoming entry to Hobart. And if the staff at Pigeon & other places are a guide, it’s true that Tasmanians are far more friendly than us mainlanders.
For the amount of coastline this city has it often amazes me how few places there are with water views. There are some of course but many are expensive or for tourists or both.
The Bird and Bear Boathouse is neither. It’s a perfect summer early brunch spot – as good as having your own boat really.
Isn’t that just a lovely sight?
The view from my table was a little distracting, this is why I didn’t finish the cryptic (and DS does super hard clues).
Post brekkie kayak anyone?
They serve T2 teas (bags) and great coffee.
Unfortunately due to some renovations the kitchen is currently closed. In the meantime there are pastries to be had, and muffins and stuff but frankly who orders a muffin when there are enormous almond croissants? These were actually surprisingly good, with tons of crunchy almonds and marzipan like paste.
The healthier option was the bircher – studded with pepitas and other seeds, topped with a creamy yoghurt and mixed berries (from frozen).
We didn’t really mean to end up at Orto Trading Co – the plan was to meet at Devon Cafe but of course there was a queue and in a bright spark moment I suggested we check out Orto seeing as it was basically around the corner.
What a pleasant surprise! The space is gloriously bright and airy, almost Scandinavian in its feel. The food however was great Sydney style breakfasts – with great new takes on classics & quite a few good vegetarian choices.
I was feeling a little worse for wear so baked eggs were just the thing – pumpkin roasted until just sweet, slivers of shiny grilled red capsicum, creamy goats cheese, still wobbly orange yolks and punchy juicy little tomatoes. AND two pieces of demse dark toast – what a feast!
The boys had crispy zucchini cakes with oozy haloumi & a crisp quick pickled carrot. Springtime feels right there.
We also noticed a tasty sounding breakfast cocktail menu, and the option to reserve tables. Can’t think of any other place in Surry Hills that is so good where you can book – would be lovely for a birthday brunch..
Orto Trading Co
38-55 Waterloo Street
Surry Hills
tel: 0431212453
Shakshuka is all the rage right now. The next hip breakfast thing. Which is good, because corn cakes and bircher had their fair share of time. Also good because it’s healthy and generally vegetarian friendly.
Three group espresso on Darlinghurst Road is a tiny little place – 4 tables with a seat on each side. Most of their traffic is in the coffee takeaways but I personally think the people who choose not to duck inside are missing out.
As well as coffee they do this. It is called an LSD – latte soy dandelion. If you see something like this on a menu you practically have to order it. Was nice, kind of like a latte, but a bit sweeter and less coffee-ish.
Here’s the proper business though. Just lovely – strong and rounded and a tiny smidge burnt.
I go to this place so often here is shakshuka from 2 seperate occasions. Only difference is one time I got multigrain baguette, and white the other.
They only have the one kind of shakshuka – with onions, tomato and capsicum and served with a whole loaf of bread, green tahini and hummous. It also has two eggs. It is wonderful. It is also only $13. BARGAIN.
And once more with feeling. The whole small baguette just drives me wild with carb happiness.
3 Group Espresso
199 Darlinghurst Road
Darlinghurst NSW 2000
Room 10 is a neighbourhood cafe, and given its size, guarded rather jealously from interlopers. It’s hella cute, amazing coffee and a really good menu with some different options for those jaded by the avalanche of eggs benedict around Sydney.
There are about 12 spots inside, and about the same number of crates and tables outside – Llankelly place can get a bit cold in winter but there are blankies provided for those who aren’t rugged up enough.
On this particular morning I was feeling *ahem* a little worse for wear, and craving something sweet. This almost never happens. I was very pleasantly surprised by the red rice and fruit bowl with yoghurt. There were all sorts of goodies in there like quinoa and every kind of seed, unsweetened yoghurt and rhubarb and fresh sliced fruit. Was served cold which was quite pleasant, though not what I was expecting!
Gorgeous green tea (I chose the sencha)in a covetable little teapot.
We also ordered their toasted eggs benedict with salmon (amusing considering my complaint about how ubiquitous eggs bennie is) which was served like a grilled cheese. Really delicious, I was lucky to get almost a full half of this. Somehow cooked or even warm smoked fish is my poorly self’s panacea.
The smoked salmon sandwich came in a “meal deal” with a small glass of freshly pressed OJ which definitely hit the spot. Looked and felt like a little cup of sunshine. Hangover successfully cured.
Room 10
10 Llankelly Place
Potts Point (Kings Cross)
There are so many cafes on the little strip at Bronte that it can be hard to choose – you walk up and down umming and ahhing trying to choose. We made the right decision on this occasion – wanting something hearty with lots of vegetables & different flavours; a buffet on a plate as it were.
The coffee was quite excellent. Rich and deep, no hint of bitterness.
I ordered the vegetarian breakfast board – feta and lovely pesto with sesame seeds, juicy meaty mushrooms, perfectly oozy poached eggs, roasted tomato and golden slabs of gorgeously squeaky haloumi. Not cheap at $17 but did count for 2 meals after all 😉
Only let down was the kind of boring white bread, forgot to ask for an alternative so my own fault really!
BF had more of those amazing mushrooms, haloumi, spinach, poached eggs and hommous ($15). He raved about the mushrooms too.
Love the little planks/surfboards the food came on. Would definitely eat again, but maybe share next time – if I wasn’t so hungry!
Cafe Q
469 Bronte Road
Bronte Beach
Little Belgian Waffle 