Australia Independent Travel | Melbourne City Food Guide | Popular Brunch Spots & Cafés | Coffee Capital | The Hardware Societe | Higher Ground
🥯 The Hardware Société
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| The Hardware Societe - Katherine Place |
The Hardware Societe is a French restaurant in the heart of Melbourne with a rustic-chic style, serving coffee, desserts and meals. It is best known for its brunch and coffee. In Melbourne, besides the original "Hardware Street" location, there is another branch on "Katherine Place", and it now also has branches in Paris and Barcelona.
This time we went to the "Katherine Place" branch, which was closer to our accommodation. Online reviews often mention long queues, but perhaps because we went on a weekday morning and to the branch rather than the original, we didn't have to queue at all — the place was only about a quarter full.
- Address: 10 Katherine Pl, Melbourne VIC 3000
- Website: http://hardwaresociete.com/
- Menu: https://www.hardwaresociete.com/melbourne
- Phone: +61396212100
The restaurant has a rustic-chic look with a bright, airy space. As soon as you walk in, a staff member shows you to your seat, hands you the menu, and immediately asks whether you'd like to order coffee first. At first I found this a bit odd since I hadn't even looked at the menu yet 😅, but it seems to be the custom here.
This time we tried the Baked Eggs and the Benedict, plus two coffees. Main dishes generally cost between AU$20 and AU$30, and coffee between AU$5 and AU$8. We spent AU$63 in total, which is mid-range by Australian standards.
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| Benedict |
BENEDICT *
confit garlic beef brisket, Pedro Ximénez sticky onions, orange hollandaise, crispy shallots
The burger contains a poached egg Benedict-style, paired with the beef underneath and a slightly tangy sauce. Overall it was quite tasty, and the portion of beef was so generous that we almost couldn't finish it.
The Hardware Societe's menu features a brunch dish called BENEDICT — a burger with a Benedict egg inside, paired with confit garlic beef brisket and a slightly tangy orange hollandaise. The flavour is very good overall, and the beef portion is huge; we almost couldn't finish it. If you like burgers, or want to try a different take on eggs Benedict, The Hardware Societe's BENEDICT is worth a try.
Notes:
- Confit garlic beef brisket: "Confit garlic beef brisket" is beef brisket slow-cooked until tender and mixed with softened garlic, giving the beef a rich garlic aroma. This dish usually requires several hours of slow braising to achieve the best texture and flavour, and it can be used in all sorts of dishes.
- Pedro Ximénez sticky onions: Pedro Ximénez is a Spanish wine, while "sticky onions" refers to onions that have been slowly braised, usually with sugar or vinegar added for flavour, making them sticky and sweet. In this dish, Pedro Ximénez is slow-cooked together with the onions to create a lightly sweet sauce.
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| Baked Eggs |
BAKED EGGS *
UN (V) — tomato and thyme tartare, semi‐dried tomatoes, basil pistou, stracciatella, smoked almonds DEUX — chorizo, potato, piquillo peppers, queso manchego, almonds, aioli
This is the must-try baked eggs dish recommended by many people online, and it comes in two flavours:
- UN (V) — a sauce made from chopped tomato and thyme, semi-dried tomatoes, basil pistou, smoked almonds and stracciatella (a soft, creamy Italian cheese)
- DEUX — a combination of chorizo, potato, piquillo peppers, cheese, almonds and aioli (something like a garlic-and-egg-yolk mayonnaise).
The baked eggs come in a small iron skillet, served with crisply toasted bread. The texture and flavour really are quite good — it's just that the price has gone from the AU$20 quoted online back in 2019 to AU$25 now 😅
🥞 Higher Ground
Search online for Melbourne cafés or Melbourne brunch and Higher Ground is almost certain to show up in the results — it's a well-known and widely recommended restaurant. From the outside it's an old red-brick building, converted from a disused power station, while inside it's a lofty industrial-style space. The whole place is very roomy, so even when it's completely full it doesn't feel crowded.
We came here because Higher Ground is right across from Southern Cross Station, so we had brunch here on our last day before catching the airport bus. Actually, we had walked over the previous Sunday morning hoping to eat here, but there was a huge queue. The next day, even though it was a Monday morning, the place was still full and we had to wait a little while before being seated — which shows just how popular Higher Ground is in Melbourne.
- Address: 650 Little Bourke St, Melbourne VIC 3000
- Website: https://highergroundmelbourne.com.au/
- Menu: https://highergroundmelbourne.com.au/menu/
- Phone: +61388996219
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| The rather inconspicuous entrance |
Blueberry & Ricotta Hotcake
blueberry hotcake with maple, seeds & grains, cream, seasonal berries, flowers v
For our order we again checked what people recommend online, and found that quite a few praised a rather unusual hotcake, so we decided to give it a go. It's a bit like a pancake (cake?) baked crisp on the outside and soft inside, drizzled with maple syrup and topped with assorted grains and fruit, finished with a big scoop of cream. It looks wonderfully colourful and tastes good too.
What impressed us most was that such a thick hotcake could be baked crisp outside and soft inside — really well done and delicious. That said, one plate is quite rich for a single person, so it's best to order something else to share alongside it.
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| You probably couldn't finish this plate without a coffee |
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| The bread display case — so open that flies can come and go as they please |
One thing worth mentioning: we happened to sit right next to this open bread and pastry display case, and we noticed it was so open that flies could come and go freely — there were quite a few flies on the bread... And whenever someone ordered bread or a small cake, the staff would come and take it straight from here. So at Higher Ground I wouldn't really recommend ordering these breads and cakes, unless you have a very strong stomach.
When you visit Melbourne, the coffee capital, if you have the time why not seek out a local spot, sit down for a cup of coffee or enjoy a leisurely brunch, and experience the pace of local life!
If you enjoy my sharing, feel free to follow the travel accounts below. I regularly share beautiful spots I've found and practical travel tips — and I'd love to hear your recommendations for fun places too!
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