Bacon and eggs are all well and good, but there’s something about hash browns that gets our drool on. Whether you say potato or, um potato, we’re sure you’ll love this list of Melbourne’s best hash browns and brekkie potatoes like a big-boned kid loves cake.
Addict Food & Coffee
Fitzroy
Mushroom + potatoes = a dream breakfast, in our humble opinion. Picture this: Addict’s big, fat roasted field mushroom balances on the plumpest potato hash you’ve ever seen, topped and tailed with mushroom duxelle and caramelised onion, served with a runny, golden poachie.
Archie’s All Day
Fitzroy
This gem of an all-day eatery serves up golden, crunchy-on-the-outside, fluffy-on-the-inside potato gems, or ‘tater tots’ as part of their epic Huevos Sucios (dirty eggs). Add jalapeno spiked Monterrey Jack, avocado and tomatillo salsa, black beans, fried eggs, chipotle mayo, and chorizo for a bellyful of goodness at Archie's All Day.
Mr Brightside
Caulfield
Some of Melbourne’s best hash browns can be found yonder in Caulfield. The peppy-sounding Mr Brightside is a fave of our marketing manager, and with breakfast dishes like this, we’re not surprised. The traditional, stringy style hash browns come with brisket, poachies, and grain mustard sauce for your dipping pleasure.
Liar Liar
Hawthorn
Don’t make a hash of your next brunch order. The sautéed potatoes in the ah-mazing Liar Liar Hash come with bacon, spinach (#cleaneats?), a poached egg, sourdough and creamy hollandaise. The breakfast spuds of your dreams.
Oscar Cooper
Prahran
We’ve never met a Benedict we didn’t like, but we just might be in love with this one. Oscar Cooper’s take on eggs benny comes with avocado and a potato roesti. Some people (Hi Paul!) just get us.
Proud Mary
Collingwood
A long standing fave at Collingwood café and roastery Proud Mary, this one’s another contender in the Melbourne hash brown battle (totally a thing). A golden square of carby perfection, it comes topped with smoked bacon, broccolini, two poached eggs, and a generous slosh of fondue-esque bagna cauda sauce.
Pavlov’s Duck
Fitzroy
What’s better than a regular croissant (other than two croissants)? The Sri Lankan inspired Lankan French at Pavlov’s Duck. That’d be an organic pastry filled with chilli fried ‘taters, Asian tabouli, green been puree and a soft-boiled egg.
The Penny Drop
Box Hill
This shiny newbie is doing breakfast just right, with a tasty East-meets-West twist. Drop by and say hello to the potato and garlic chive waffle at The Penny Drop, with poached eggs, ham, hollandaise and wakame (edible seaweed).
The Little Man Café
Seddon
Ain’t nothing undersized about this gut-busting herby potato croquette with poached eggs, mushroom, asparagus, and hollandaise at The Little Man. In fact, we reckon it’s just about right.
Ora Specialty Coffee
Kew
Part of Melbourne breakfast folklore, the Spiced Tiffin Egg is a stalwart of the menu at Ora in Kew. The Indian-style crumbed egg served with kasundi just wouldn’t be the same without that bed of spiced Bombay hash!
Oxford Larder
Collingwood
Potato waffle. Now that we have your attention, we’d strongly suggest you get your waffle-loving be-hind along to brand spanking new grocer-café hybrid, Oxford Larder. With smoked salmon, smashed avo, sour cream, beetroot relish, and a boiled egg, the Nordic potato waffle will give your taste buds a whole larder love.
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Image credit: Jenna Fahey White