Last week Pseudodom and I, spontaneously decided to getaway to Melbourne to watch the Australian Open for 2 days. I've heard about and seen many photos of the delicious food at Hardware Sociéte and I knew that we just had to stop by for breakfast.
Since we accumulated quite a sleep debt over the past 2 days, we started the morning off with some caffeine. I ordered a Mocha ($3.50) and Pseudodom had an Earl Grey tea ($4.50) which was served in a little pink tea cosy (below). I don't usually order coffee but it was seriously the best Mocha I've ever had. It was so creamy and definitely satisfied my chocolate and caffeine cravings.
Onto the food. Everything on the menu sounded so good we were seriously considering ordering two meals each. In the end we listened to our heads instead of our stomachs and negotiated to order three meals with one to share between us.
As we both can't resist anything with chorizo sausages, we shared the Baked Eggs with chorizo sausages, cherry tomatoes and thyme salsa, crunch almonds, queso decabra goats milk cheese ($16). It is as delicious as it looks. The dish was served with fresh slices of bread which we used to mop the addictive tomato salsa.
I always have a sweet tooth, even in the mornings and was immediately drawn to the Fried Brioche with whipped salted caramel, toasted peanuts
and bananas ($17). The salted caramel was lighter than I expected, similar to a buttery melt-in-your-mouth texture which complimented the crisp sweet brioche. This is something I would definitely order again!
Pseudodom also ordered the Bircher muesli which was served with
raspberries, oranges and salted pecans ($13). I had a taste of the muesli and it was quite sweet but was very light. Pseudodom said it was
'neverending' but in a good way as he finished the whole bowl.
I really loved this cafe, the interior was very cute and bright but also presents a modern feel. This is a place you can come to anytime of the day whether it is for morning coffee, brunch or afternoon tea. The staff was also very friendly and attentive and the service was quite quick. I would definitely make it a priority to come back on my next visit to Melbourne.
The Hardware Sociéte
Address:
18-120 Hardware Street, Melbourne,
VIC
Phone: 03 9078 5992
Opening times: Mon-Fri:
7:30 am - 3:00 pm, Sat-Sun:
8:30 am - 2:00 pm
In the spirit of Valentine's Day, I wanted to spread the love with some Strawberry Cheesecake Macarons! All you need for this recipe is plain macarons shells (refer to previous post for method) decorated with crushed oatmeal biscuits.
For the strawberry cheesecake filling you will need:
