Thursday 8 January 2009

Surprisingly meh breakfast at A Minor Place

A Minor Place
103 Albion Street, Brunswick (map)
9384 3131


A Minor Place

Just before Christmas, Schatzi and I were complaining to each other that we hadn't had a long chat one-on-one in weeks. We decided on a secret brunch, in a place neither of us had been to before. As she lives in North Carlton, I decided to choose somewhere Northside, and looked back through my Google Reader account for posts I had tagged. One venue that Michael and Cindy, Johanna, Fi and Jamie had all written favourable reviews of was A Minor Place, up in Brunswick. I suggested it to Schatzi - when she saw the pretty pictures from Breakfast Out she was sold!

A Minor Place

A former milk bar in Albion Street, A Minor Place has blossomed into a hip cafe (Breakfast Out's photos and Johanna's words had warned us in advance that we may come across hipsters tapping away on MacBooks... and sure enough, a girl with chunky framed glasses, a severe bob haircut and a vintage blouse was tapping away on a MacBook directly across from us... I didn't take a photo of her but I'm sure you can picture her!).

A Minor Place

So why the "meh", you may ask? Well, apart from one notable exception, everything we had was surprisingly disappointing.

Schatzi ordered the Brazilian Eggs ($15): poached eggs on toast with avocado, roast tomato, Henry's beans and spinach. I ordered the A Minor Place breakfast ($15), which was the same thing except that the avocado was replaced with grilled ham. We're not fussy eaters, but the both dishes just felt kinda... average. Watery eggs and tomatoes, bland bread. The one notable exception was Henry's beans, which were delicious. They can be ordered separately for $10 - with garlic and rosemary, served with rocket dukkah and toast.

No doubt we would've been happier had we just ordered Henry's beans, or if we'd gone for the French toast ($10, with poached pears, honey lemon labne, roasted walnuts and pure maple - nobody appears to have a photo of it on their blog but Miss Hipster ordered some and it looked fantastic).

Brazilian Eggs
A Minor Place breakfast

I wanted to like A Minor Place, and was prepared to write it down to poor menu choices on our part, but then we ordered a slice of the banana and chocolate bread to share and it arrived smeared with a horribly salty margarine, which was really unpleasant combined with the icing sugar and sweet bread (I prefer my choc banana bread any day!).

Banana and chocolate bread

When Schatzi's coffee came out burnt, that decided things for us - we won't be back in a hurry. We appear to be alone in our assessment! Their dumplings/tapas dinner menu looks interesting though - perhaps we'll head back to check it out at some future stage.

A Minor Place Caffe Latte

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Keep up the blooming awesome work on your blog! I'm addicted! Went to Tutto Bene for special dinner with my beau on strength of your review and had a wonderful experience there... Will probably steer clear of A Minor Place though!
Cheers!

Cindy said...

I'm surprised too! If your photos are anything to go by, it doesn't look as if high demand can be blamed for mediocre work either. :-/

I'm glad that the beans at least lived up to their reputation - they're the favourite in the breakfasting circles we move in. :-)

Johanna GGG said...

I agree with cindy that it looks quiet in the photos - it was so crowded the morning we went there! But you are not alone in your refusal to go back - E is not keen on going there again either! I think I wanted to love it more than I did but I liked it enough to try it again!

Anonymous said...

I remember the beans being good when I went there, but the service was terrible (45 minutes wait for food without a warning - I don't think so).

So we haven't been back. There are just too many other good places.

Mathew said...

Great to know to avoid yet another cafe that struggles with a good breakfast (my favourite meal). Why is it that so many places in a city famed for its coffee seem unable to do a decent brew?

claire said...

Wow, thanks for your kind words Em! Very glad you enjoyed Tutto Bene. :)

claire said...

Hi everyone else, thanks for comments. Glad to hear others liked the beans, but yes it's a shame that otherwise AMP simply didn't deliver the goods on our visit!

Lucy said...

Heeey Claire... Loving the blog as usual. Must check out Movida Next Door (can't believe I still haven't checked it out).

Anyway, Just thought I would write and say don't bother checking out A Minor Place for tapas at night! I went recently for the first time and would also describe them as 'meh'. Oily and kind of boring-tasting. And expensive for what they were. I left thinking 'maybe the breakfast is better'.

These guys used to be great... but perhaps they're gotten a little complacent.

However next time you're heading out to Brunswick let's have some food at Hellenic Republic and then a drink at Mr Wilkinson!

Lucy x

claire said...

Hi Lucy! Lovely to hear from you, and LOVE the idea of a Hellenic Republic/Mr Wilkinson double feature... how does sometime after Australia Day sound (got an essay to write)? I'll be in touch! x