I was delighted to stumble upon Degraves St, and adjoining Centre Pl one morning. Both are narrow pedestrian alleyways, lined with small cafes and coffee bars. We chose Cafe Andiamo, located in Degraves St for brunch, as my friend spotted thick toast – always a good sign for a cafe.

The brunch was a great selection of the regular options, eggs, pancakes, french toast, muesli, eggs benedict, and usual fried meats. The not so commen options included baked beans on ciabatta, and gourmet toasted sandwiches. Something unique, the “house brunch” was the Andiamo consisting of scrambled eggs, tomato, sausage, prosciutto, and basil pesto toast. As the cafe was out of sausage, my friend opted for bacon substitute.

Between the table we also ordered eggs benedict with both ham and bacon, as well as eggs on toast with mushroom and tomato. The food tasted great, and the thick ciabatta worth stopping for.

While the food was good, there were a couple of downfalls in the service, and the crucial orange juice was forgotten. Unusually, the cafe only offered fried eggs and were inflexible to offer changes to the menu, even a change to poached eggs. I think its not unreasonable for cafes to offer eggs anyway as a standard, so this was another let down for Cafe Andiamo.

The coffee was average, and easy to beat in a city passionate about coffee, however the cafe was licensed so perhaps a champagne brunch is the order of the day?

For any prospective Melbourne brunchers, I definitely recommend talking a walk down Degraves st and Centre Pl, then stopping at any cafe that takes your fancy. Melbourne is definitely a city where you have to look down all alleyways and side streets as some of the best cafes, restaurants and bars are in lesser known, and non-obvious locations.

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Have you had a good brunch in Melbourne? Leave a comment below to let us know your favourite cafes