Melbourne in May 5 - Breakfast at Auction Rooms

Auction Rooms Cafe
http://www.auctionroomscafe.com.au/

On our last day in Melbourne, we could have either slept in and gone straight to the airport or wake up early and have breakfast somewhere on the way. Of course we chose to get breakfast.

Mochi had shown us 2 cafe options the night before and being lazy and indecisive, Nina and I  gave her the 'surprise us' routine. At 7:30am sharp, she picked us up from the city and off we went to our unknown destination.


This turned out the be Auction Rooms Cafe and although Nina and I hadn't been aware that this was our preference, we realized it was once we saw the place and thought 'oh good!'

It was nice and quiet when we got there. I adored the interior of Auction Rooms. It had my favorite mix of clean and airy yet rustic, with the high ceilings, brick interior and smattering of contemporary light fixtures. I liked that there was a lot of natural sunlight too - I think that's important for a breakfast establishment.

Cappucino

We were quick to order our coffees; Auction Rooms is famous for their coffee, offering a house espresso blend.

 Latte and flat white

My skinny latte was a bit temperature-cool, which affected my judgement. I also found the bean slightly too sweet for me. I never add sugar in my coffees but this sort of had a natural sweetness to it that I wasn't too fond of.

Chorizo and manchego sandwich - with fried egg, rocket and chimmichuri

Nina's breakfast pick was the chorizo and manchego sandwich. It was quite a large sandwich with a gooey slice of fried cheese, grilled chorizo, fried egg and a mountain of fresh rocket.

Roasted pork belly - served on corn crepe, with coffee BBQ sauce, black cabbage slaw and fried slow-poached eggs

I went with the pork crepe because it sounded the most interesting, in a 'can't get it elsewhere' way. I'm really glad I did because it was delicious! I had feared it may be too heavy for a breakfast item... and well, it sorta was but whatever. I ate it all anyway.

 Close-up of pork crepe

The pork filling was definitely crispy, as described. I didn't mind the coleslaw but it was slightly underseasoned. The fried poached eggs were interesting but I didn't really see the point of frying them. Plain poached would have been fine.

House-made banana and walnut bread - served with espresso butter and maple syrup

Mochi ordered the banana bread, much to my relief because that was something I really wanted to try too. I had been craving banana bread that entire week, ever since my housemate proclaimed he was going to bake some, defrosted a bunch of ripe bananas, and forgot all about them (no banana bread resulted from this). The banana bread at Auction Rooms is delish. It was moist and dense, everything I love in banana bread. What made it really special was the espresso butter. I had no idea that coffee and banana bread went so well together. That's something to try at home!

We loved our last moments of girly gossip together at Auction Rooms Cafe. The service was friendly and the whole cafe just made us feel really relaxed. The food was delicious too. I basically had 2 courses there with the pork sandwich and a dessert of most of Mochi's banana bread. Yummo!