Where: 103-107 Errol Street North Melbourne

Contact: (03) 9326 7749

When: Mon-Fri 7am-5pm, Sat-Sun 7.30am-4pm

Dine-in

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Vego: :) :)

Lemongrass and ginger tea 

Walking into Auction Rooms on a Sunday morning is risky business, with lines of patient people and tiny expensively-dressed children waiting for a table. The place has a loud buzz to it with voices bouncing off the hard floors and walls. Fortunately the staff were very effective and managed to keep us waiting only a few minutes. Unfortunately we were seated at the bar. I’ll perch up at a bar on a Saturday night with a beer but I didn’t feel like teetering high in the air, legs swinging below (I am not very tall) over a lazy Sunday breakfast. The next best option was to sit outside in a sort of glasshouse where a little heater better-suited to a bedroom worked tirelessly to warm the cold space with little achievement. However, it was warmer than being outside completely.

Once we’d snuggled down and observed the menu we noticed that all the items seemed to be saying “look at me, look at me!”, with each option sporting a quirky twist or Cheffy glitz. You can still get your plain eggs and toast but you will need to add all your extras, one of the extras being ‘extra toast’, which I was suspicious of (One probably can’t expect sufficient toast if there is an ‘extra toast’ option). My Dining Partner took the risk and ordered poached eggs and toast with extra bacon and chorizo while I went for the ‘Coconut-stuffed French toast, with tamarind caramel, vanilla crème fraiche and coriander and lime.’ ($14.50)

Coconut-stuffed French toast, with tamarind caramel, vanilla crème fraiche and coriander and lime ($14.50)

While we waited not too long for our meals we tried the coffee. There were all sorts of in-vogue ways you can have your fix: cold drip, syphon, pour-over, French press. It’s all a bit contrived I think, but Melbourne seems to be digging all that right now. Just a regular latte for us, single origin for your information. It was perfect; well built, silky, strong with great flavour. We also tried the lemongrass and ginger tea which was packed with actual lemongrass, but not enough ginger to make it worthwhile.

When the food arrived I was curious as to where my Dining Partner’s $17 of breakfast had ended up. The plate was so bare and sad-looking with one piece of toast and two little fingers of chorizo to accompany the modest serving of bacon and eggs. As for the coconut toast, my first reaction was to recoil at the sight of the coriander on the crème fraiche. It just seemed inherently wrong; it reminded me of when I ordered a steak in Poland and had it served to me topped with whipped cream and a strawberry. WRONGTOWN. The toast itself was actually good and was indeed coconut stuffed but it needed a sticky sauce to counteract the dryness. The “tamarind caramel” wasn’t much help in this instance; I was horrified to find that it tasted more like sweet-chilli syrup than anything. Even if I had liked it I wouldn’t have had enough to make the toast go down easily. This sauce in combination with the crème fraiche was just sickening. It seems like the Chef’s were so desperate to make the food edgy that they’d lost the plot completely.

We got out of there pretty quickly as we were eager to get somewhere warmer and eat a second breakfast. I do feel like Auction Rooms have coffee and service worth returning for, perhaps on a weekday. However I will not be forking out for the pretentious food again anytime soon.

Poached eggs & toast with chorizo and bacon ($17)

Food: 2/5

Service: 5/5

Ambience: 3/5