It was a hot day and Romana’s has the choice of outdoor seating in the street or air conditioned indoor dining. We went with the indoor option. The menu had all of the traditional brunch items such as the customary $8.50 museli, a full cooked breakfast or various pancake combinations however there were a few stand out items.

Eggs Benedict

Gabrielle went for the Eggs Benedict which was very good, with great hollandaise and top notch poached eggs, the only quirk being that instead of being served on English Muffins, this Eggs Benedict came served on smallish hash browns making it a serious rich dish with not much available to soak up all the hollandaise sauce.

Green Eggs and Ham

I however ordered the Dr. Seuss special and went with the Green Eggs and Ham. The green eggs were created by mixing Basil Pesto into the scrambled eggs mix. This was then served on top of some double smoked ham on Ciabatta toast topped off with a garnish of rocket leaves. I have to say this was pretty tasty and I’d definitely order it again, I may even try to make my own at some stage too.

Overall

The atmosphere of the cafe was very comfortable with seating around the edges and bench seating down the middle of the cafe and there was a TV styled fish tank that acted as a stand for the water cooler. The Campos coffee was  made to a high standard and there was a broad variety of different freshly squeezed and blended juices on offer.

The only draw back was the waitress who served us who is best described as an ‘ice queen’ and just looked like she did not want to be there. To sum up though, I’d highly recommend hitting Romana’s for brunch as the food and drink were all of a high calibre and the pricing was reasonable as well with most brunch dishes topping out below the $16 mark.

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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