Ikea; an unlikely source of brunch

Isn’t it every guys dream to spend at least one day of your weekend at Ikea? Well, not really in most cases but Ikea does brunch so it was enough to convince me to endure a trip to the shops to look at Kitchens and other interior decorating focussed doodads.

I have to say it is a bit disconcerting to buy food from a furniture manufacturer but I think Ikea actually sells the cheapest cooked breakfast you can buy in Sydney. There is a small set of options to choose from but everything on the breakfast menu is less than a fiver.

Options on the menu

You can either go down the sweets path with the dual pancakes for $3.95 or the savoury path which is a cut down version of the more traditional cooked English. I went down the savoury path which led me to even more options, the vegetarian breakfast and the hot breakfast. I managed to obtain both of these breakfasts for the princely sum of $5.50.

The vegetarian came in at $2.50 and consisted of scrambled eggs, bakes beans, hash browns and half a tomato.

The Hot Breakfast was the meat eaters option and consisted of scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, hash browns and a half tomato and cost $2.95.

The ingredients on the breakfasts were highly varied in quality. The hash browns and sausages were pretty tasty I have to say even though they were highly generic. One of the tomatoes presented to our party was not ripe and green and the eggs were being brought out to be served in massive trays that looked like platters full of tofu.

I also bought bottomless coffee which was good value quantity wise but some of the most terrible tasting coffee in existence.

So Ikea, good for those on a brunch budget. One breakfast isn’t enough if you have a hearty appetite but it is easy to scale up for a low price. If you are not very tolerant of shopping and other shoppers, avoid this place on the weekends as it gets pretty intense inside the store.

The cafe/restaurant actually opens half an hour before the store does so you can fuel up before you hit the showroom floor without losing any valuable browsing time. If you finish up your shopping and you’re hungry again, then there are $1 hot dogs for sale as you get through the check outs.

All in all, you cannot complain about Ikea’s interpretation of brunch, it is amazingly cheap and where else could you find a cooked breakfast like this for such a low price, check it out.

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Let’s Brunch has the perfect gift for your special brunch lover, or anyone else. Check out our 2009 Brunch gift buying guide for ideas.

Most gifts listed below are available for purchase online, simply follow the links and your Christmas shopping will be a breeze!

Don’t forget to check out earthgreetings.com.au to order some eco-friendly cards and wrapping paper, and you will be ready to settle down with a well deserved bubbly!

Eggs

Love eggs? OO.com.au has an interesting selection of egg poaching equipment, including an elaborate 7 piece stainless steel egg poacher set. None of which have been tested or condoned by Let’s Brunch, but hey, they may make for an interesting Christmas morning. Don’t forget to check out www.tjoos.com.au for any vouchers before purchasing from OO.com.au.

Omelette Maker

Looking for something affordable and multi-functional? How about a $19.95 omelette maker from crazysales.com.au? An omelette is a great way to use up left over Christmas ham, and a completely acceptable meal as dinner or lunch as well as brunch so excellent value for money and multi-purpose!

Looking for something even cheaper?

You cant go past an egg timer for a classic cheesy Christmas gift, but the Burton’s Egg Timer is a nifty twist on the old school egg timer. The Egg-Perfect egg timer is shaped like an egg, and sits in the boiling water with your eggs, and changes colour according to the “done-ness” factor. According to thegoodstore.com.au, this is the first egg timer to be produced in a factory that also produces ET The Extra-Terrestrial night lights with a red glowing tummy!

The egg-perfect egg timer retails for $10 at thegoodstore.com.au

Waffle Maker

Christmas day waffles are a childhood favourite of mine, and anyone young or young at heart would appreciate the gift of a Belgium Waffle maker. The elaborate Sunbeam Belgian waffle maker even allows you to flip the plate 180 degrees for perfect waffles! Check out Bigpond Online Shopping to purchase

Brunch Cookbook

What better way to encourage your special someone to make you brunch in bed, than with a brunch cookbook! Thenile.com.au has an excellent selection of brunch cookbooks available for online purchase, including:

Brunch by Joy Skipper

Brunch by Louise Pickford

Brunch by Rebecca Clunes

Lazy Brunch by Simon Rimmer and Tim Lovejoy

Russell Hobbs Toaster

If you are looking to really impress someone special this Christmas, you cant go past a limited edition Russell Hobbs Glass and Swarovski limited edition toaster. There were only 1000 of these beauties produced, containing 228 small and 9 large Swarovski crystals. Each comes with its own certificate of authenticity and identification number. Toasters are available to purchase at Harrods.com for a cool £149 (AUD 267), although you may struggle to ship it over this way in time for Christmas

Have we missed something?

Let us know your favourite brunch gift, tacky, cheesy, useful or otherwise by commenting below.

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