Breakfast @ Auction Rooms

Looks might be deceiving

http://www.auctionroomscafe.com.au/

103-107 Errol Street, North Melbourne

Open Tues - Sun, 7am (8am weekends) - 4pm

Tel: 9326 7749

Auction room has been voted as one of the best cafe in Melbourne. They are famous for their coffee and they have a special counter with a barrista that serve their specialty coffee for all coffee lovers. I love food and I love coffee even more. Despite how busy this place is and how long I have to wait, I marched to Auction room to try out their food and coffee.

As Madison saying goes,

" Awesome breakfast will brighten up your day, and with a combination of a good cup of coffee, you will feel like paradise."



I went to Auction room on fine Saturday morning/afternoon, it was packed, I have to wait for 20 minutes to get a table. The customer service was alright, I heard rumours about their customer service, therefore, I did not expect much from them. Well, as I expected, their customer service on that day confirmed the rumours. (Unlike their neighbour, Fandango- my current favourite place, the customer service there is awesome. A friendly smile will really brighten up your morning). The floor staff looks so gloomy on a Saturday afternoon.

I ordered a cup of mocha. Well, it taste like a normal cup of mocha. It is not bad, but it did not make me jump up and down. It is really very normal standard cup of mocha that is not going to give you "paradise". (Unlike the one I had in Hardware Societe, just thinking about it makes me happy, they melted chocolate in the coffee tasted so good. It is like the combination of good and evil, the sweetness of the chocolate and the bitterness of the coffee, it explodes in your mouth)

I ordered the eggplant dish. It is like a grilled eggplant with chickpeas in tomato relish and topped with some "Kapai Puku".
Well, it really taste like how it looks. There is a lack of texture in this dish. It will be better if they could add a toast in it to contrast the texture. It leaves you feeling something is lacking and it is a really simple dish. If you asked me will I order this again. NNNNOOOOOO... not in a million years. Looks like ratatouille(Australia style). 

My husband ordered the duck eggs which he said it is alright. It really looks like fancy sausages on eggs with toast. It looks really simple and it taste like what it looks like. "Simple"
Nothing much can be commented on this as how hard is it to cook sausage and eggs with bread, even a 5 years old can do this. We saw this in Junior Masterchef, didnt we?











My friends, Cinvin ordered a chicken wrap and Tim ordered a pork dish. Cinvin dish looks like a normal chicken wrap that can be bought over the counter, nothing spectacular, not even worth to be post on a picture cause really, it just looks like a wrap from Mcdonalds cafe.
Poor Tim, he is a well built man and about 6 feet tall, ordered some pork dish. Well, we did read some blogs before ordering, and they did warn him about the portion. It was so small and I think he has to drive-thru Mcdonalds later to fill his stomach. Not just about the portion, but that dish look and taste weird too.

All in all, despite this cafe being well-known famous, my personal opinion and experience, I wouldn't recommend this place to anyone. To be honest, I don't think I will be visiting this cafe again.Unless, it is by force.  Melbourne has tonnes of good brekkie places, why torture your wallet and your tummy on things that aren't worth it. But, dont get me wrong, the food is edible and the coffee is "averagely" good. It just that I personally think that it is not worth the money. Chinese doesn't mind spending, but it has to be worth spending.

 BREAKFAST @ FANDANGO

http://fandangocafe.com.au/fandango/fandango.html 

Address
97 Errol Street, North Melbourne, VIC 3051
Telephone
03 9329 0693

Monday - Saturday  7:30am - 3pm

Sunday 9am - 2pm

I have heard about this place from my friends about how fabulous this place is. I finally manage to try this breakfast place yesterday, and I never looked back since then. It is the best breakfast joint I have eaten so far. I would rank this place above Tom Phat (http://www.tomphat.com.au/) to be my favourite breakfast place. (Btw, their roti omellete is my favourite - It is awesome too!!!) In my opinion, I prefer Fandango coffee to Tom Phat. Even though, their coffee art is not the best, but they taste good. Sometimes, we can't judge a book by its cover.



Vanilla pancakes with bacon

I ordered the vanila pancakes with bacon. The pancakes were served with fresh strawberries, raspberries, strawberry and plum jam (I think it is plum), instead of fresh cream, it is serve with honey cream cheese with sprinkle of icing sugar. I ordered add-ons with bacon. They serve with maple syrup on the side too.

It is the best pancake I ever taken in Melbourne. The pancake is so soft and fluffy. It just melt in your mouth. The best thing is when you combined the ham with the honey cream cheese and the strawberry jam on the pancake and fit all these into your mouth. The combination of the sweet and savoury flavour just exploded in your mouth.

I have compliment on the home made strawberry and plum jam. I am very particular about jam and this jam is one of the best I tasted so far. I like the way they kept some of the big chunk plum slice in the jam and it added extra texture to it. 

I would say, in my humble opinion, the chef really knows how to cook good food. This is a winning breakfast dish with good pancake and awesome jam. 



My partner ordered the beetroot eggs. It is toasted breads serve with 2 poached eggs, spinach, and the beetroot sauce. It is one of the popular selection in the menu.The beetroot eggs are awesome. It is not as good as my pancakes but it is a good dish. I would definitely recommend this dish for those who doesn't have sweet tooth. 

All in all, these are the two selection that is highly recommended by a lot of other bloggers and I definitely will recommend these two selections to all the first timer who is visiting this Fandango.