TWO poached eggs on lightly browned Tip Top toast with bacon rashers, slabs of tomato and hot chips.

That's your $10.50 breakfast at West Melbourne's Embassy Cafe, a popular taxi-pit stop since 1962 ... and mighty fine it is too.

But head round the corner to Twenty &Six Espresso in North Melbourne and you can start the day with house-cured salmon tarttare, Balinese sticky black rice, even Portuguese sardines with succotash.

Chef Chris Hamburger does it all at this lively cafe and reckons: "There's a huge move on to do really interesting takes on breakfast, to give customers new perspectives."

Who do you think serves up the best breakfast in Melbourne? Tell us in the comments or vote in our poll below.

He's right. Crisscrossing town in search of 25 must-eat Melbourne breakfasts, Weekend's food team has encountered adventure and experimentation at every turn.

Between Embassy Cafe and Twenty &Six Espresso, there are a host of affordable eateries breaking the breakfast mould and re-energising our first meal of the day.

Look what Matt Wilkinson is doing with eggs at East Brunswick's Pope Joan: laying them on black pudding, frying them with baked polenta and whisking them into an omelet of cauliflower and taleggio cheese.

Or check out the Duchess of Spotswood where Andy Gale is making merry with meat. Anyone for crispy pigs jowl or a bone marrow croquette?

Fish is the dish at Richmond's Top Paddock - local snapper with fried egg and chilli, to be exact - and you only have to look at the long queues forming outside this place on weekends to know people are hungry for change.

media_camera Baked eggs, creamed corn, streaky bacon, lardo soldier and thyme salt from Small Victories in Rathdowne Street.

Taste columnist Matt Preston calls Melbourne "a city of breakfasts'' with veteran places such as Mario's and Cafe Sweethearts (26 years young) "testifying to the fact that a good breakfast is far less at the whim of fashion than any other meal of the day."

Melbourne's 25 best desserts

The best burgers around Melbourne

The yummiest dishes around town

But long established brunch faves - Eggs Benedict, anything with smashed avocado - are giving way to exciting new options which Preston correctly have "grown hand in hand with this city's love of coffee.''

House-made crumpets are coming to the fore. So are condiments and relishes ... and we don't just mean HP Sauce. Then there are the exotic nuts and biodynamic fruits, the cold press juices and artisan milk. Chefs who take breakfast seriously are amping up their commitment to sustainability, to local producers and to long lost favourites. Bring on the banana bread, the baked rhubarb, the bubble and squeak.

Who do you think serves up the best breakfast in Melbourne? Tell us in the comments or vote in our poll below.

Sandwiches of all sorts are blurring the boundaries between breakfast and lunch. Vegetarian dishes are also trending. But 'dessert' breakfasts could well be the next big thing. On many menus now, there is at least one sweet dish going whether it be French brioche with a dulce de leche bavois at Hardware Societe or maple syrup-drenched pancakes at Merchants Guild in East Bentleigh.

You will have your favourite places. Here are ours in no particular order. What we can say for sure is, all of them will start your day sunny side up.

media_camera The Heirloom dish from Twenty and Six Espresso in North Melbourne.

THE HEIRLOOM, $14.90

Twenty &Six Espresso

594 Queensberry St, North Melbourne. PH: 9329 0298. Twitter: @TwentySixEspresso

This dish looks so pretty, it seems a shame to eat it ... but you must. The Heirloom at Twenty &Six Espresso is a warm-cool, soft-crunchy sensation which seems to almost vibrate with spring colour.

Chef Chris Hamburger sets a single poached egg on a mattress of vivacious vegies (radish and beetroot, carrot and turnips), lays in some lacy leafage (mixed cress, cavalo nero) and weaves halved pecans through the mix. But gorgonzola is the surprise element here, sneaking up on your tastebuds and giving the whole dish an appealing acidic edge.

Seal the deal with just-squeezed mandarin juice or let Twenty &Six co-owner Ned Rihmanovic pull you a Seven Seeds coffee. Breakfast in this town doesn't get much better. SP

media_camera Rockwell Restaurant Buttermilk biscuit breakfast dish with pork sausage

BUTTERMILK BISCUITS, PORK SAUSAGE, SAWMILL GRAVY, POACHED EGGS, $16

Rockwell and Sons

288 Smith St, Collingwood. PH: 8415 0700. Twitter: @rockwellandsons

If you were ordering this dish in the Deep South, the biscuit and the gravy would probably sit to the side of your plate. And the eggs wouldn't be poached. They'd be scrambled. But, hey, this is Melbourne and the American-born chef behind Rockwell and Sons can do what he darn well likes.

"This is the one everybody wants when they come in,'' says trucker-capped

Casey Wall. Easy to see why. Rockwell's buttermilk biscuit is a lovely thang - lighter than damper, flakier than a scone - and holds its own against gravy thick enough to mortar bricks. Wall - a native of North Carolina - dices fatty pork sausage through it, bolstering the flavour with chilli, sage and thyme. Then he

gently plops two perfect oozy eggs on top and hands you a bottle of Chrystal Hot Sauce from Louisiana. You might want freshly squeezed orange juice with that ... or a Bloody Mary. SP

media_camera Mexican Burrito Breakfast from Acland Street Cantina

BREAKFAST BURRITO, $15

Acland St Cantina

2 Acland St, St Kilda. PH: 9536 1175. Twitter: @AclandStCantina

Too much tequila the night before? Then fling open the doors of Acland St Cantina and order breakfast. This neon-bright eatery can load your ceramic plate with quesadillas and Rancheros-style beans, ham and cheese tortillas and a wild mushroom stew. But those with big appetites, and hangovers to match, are urged to order the Breakfast Burrito. This whopping great tortilla - parchment crisp around the edges but still pliable - is lathered with yoghurt and bulges with vegies: corn and zucchini, tomato and onion, green chilli and cherry peppers. Sticky Jack Cheese and coddled egg glues it all together and for a few extra bucks you can get bacon, avocado and hash on the side.

"This is peasant food," Cantina folk tell me. "Sets you up for the day.''

Sure does. SP

You're not a Melburnian until...

Part 2 - You're not a Melburnian until...

If Melbourne were a movie, it might look like this...

media_camera Buckwheat pancakes with grilled pear, chocolate fudge, hazelnuts and naughty whisky maple syrup from The Merchants Guild in Bentleigh East.

BUCKWHEAT PANCAKES WITH GRILLED PEAR, CHOCOLATE FUDGE, HAZELNUTS AND A NAUGHTY WHISKY MAPLE SYRUP, $14.50

The Merchants Guild

680 Centre Rd, Bentleigh East. PH: 9579 0734. Twitter: @merchantsguild

Who would have thought East Bentleigh was the source of brilliant breakfasts? But it's true. Merchants Guild, on an otherwise dismal stretch of southeast suburbia, has queues forming for its roast potato bubble and squeak with hot smoked trout, its bacon, avocado and chard corn salsa on sourdough and - most of all - its buckwheat pancakes.

Merchant's hardworking kitchen slaps two perfect pancakes on your plate - both frilled round the edges like doilies - and scatters this stack with toasted hazelnuts. Two grilled pear halves are added, then an orb of deeply rich fudge.

But this beauty isn't complete until you've drenched the lot with "naughty" whisky-infused maple syrup.

"The kids' version is whisky free,'' co-owner Vincent Conti advises.

Good. More for us. SP

media_camera Cauliflower and taleggio omelet from Pope Joan in Nicholson Street, East Brunswick.

OMELET OF CAULIFLOWER, TALEGGIO CHEESE AND GREENS, $17

Pope Joan

75-79 Nicholson St, East Brunswick. PH: 9388 8858. Twitter: @Wilkinson -Matt

Omelets are an endangered species, whipped up in hotel banqueting rooms, but rarely seen on cafe menus. But Pope Joan is making amends. An omelet of cauliflower and taleggio has been added to a breakfast menu already bulging with bestsellers such as pumpkin and haloumi pie and baked polenta bolognese. And chef/co-owner Matt Wilkinson is happy to report:

"It's going great guns.''

Rightly so. The Pope Joan omelet is perfect, light but not loose with teeny cauliflower florets nicely folded through the egg mix and just a whiff of pongy Italian cheese.

Piquant beetroot relish rides on the side. So does a nest of spanking fresh greens and grill-striped wedges of Phillippa's corn bread. Thank you Mr Wilkinson. SP

media_camera MELBOURN E'S BEST BREAKFASTS, Duchess of Spotswood serves up their Idle Tongues dish of seared ox tongue, pickled onion, smoked bone marrow croquette, poached eggs and toast.

IDLE TONGUES, $17.50

Duchess of Spotswood

87 Hudsons Rd, Spotswood. PH: 9391 6016. Twitter @duchesscafe

The Duchess loves pig. So when you dine at this western suburbs hotspot, go the whole hog and order crispy pig's jowl with fried eggs or pork belly with baked beans.

But if you want the full Duchess experience, the ox tongue is an offally good alternative. Owner-chef Andrew Gale sends out three livery lobes - pan seared and thick as your finger - with pickled onion and a bone marrow croquette. The salt-speckled croquette oozes nicely into the yolks of two perfectly poached eggs and a slice of hot toasted sourdough brings up the rear. Add strong black coffee (from Colombia) and you'll be glad you settled on Idle Tongues. SP

media_camera Bubble and squeak at Hobba, Prahran.

BUBBLE AND SQUEAK, $16.50

Hobba

428 Malvern Rd, Prahran. PH: 9510 8336. Twitter: @HobbaPrahran

The crowds queue at Hobba for its poached eggs. Specifically for its 62.5-degree poached eggs, which, with their translucent whites and slow-flowing yolks, are practically a rite of passage for every self-respecting, brunching, Melburnian (the kitchen cooks more than 5000 each week). But once you've ticked off the googly you'll probably never cook at home, you must return for chef Josh Powell's bubble and squeak.

The only dish that hasn't changed its recipe or presentation since the queues started forming at this Prahran hot spot two years ago, the rich and comforting bubble and squeak patty sits on a slice of Woodfrog Bakery sourdough with a roasted tomato, a fried egg, slab bacon (the sort with a width measured in cms rather than mms) and, the piece-de-resistance, a nutty and glorious brown butter hollandaise. Bubble and squeak may be a dish of leftovers, but at Hobba there's no such thing. ZC

media_camera Warm Coconut Rice at Prospect Hill Espresso in Camberwell

WARM COCONUT RICE, $14

Prospect Espresso

2a Prospect Hill Rd, Camberwell. PH: 9882 7359. Twitter: @PEspresso

If you've been scarred by the bland rice puddings of your childhood, get down to Camberwell's Prospect Espresso for the perfect remedy; a bowl of coconut rice with lime "air", lychees and kiwifruit.

Head chef Will Manning has a background in fine dining restaurants in the UK, clearly evident in the way he masterfully turns this classic winter comfort dessert into a light, tropical breakfast for all seasons (the kiwifruit will be replaced with mango for summer).

A garnish of puffed rice adds texture while microherbs give a final burst of colour.

Bland? Anything but. ZC

media_camera Snapper with chilli fried egg, avocado, salsa and corn tortilla from Top Paddock in Richmond.

SNAPPER WITH A CHILLI FRIED EGG, AVOCADO, SALSA AND A CORN TORTILLA, $17.50

Top Paddock

658 Church St, Richmond. PH: 9429 4332. Twitter: @TopPaddock

There's nothing fishy about the spectacular breakfast that graces our cover this week. In fact we reckon it's a prize catch worth getting up early for (let's face it, you'll need to if you want to beat Top Paddock's sometimes horrendous weekend queue).

Pan-fried nuggets of snapper (or kingfish in summer) are presented like a work of art on a fluffy tortilla with avocado and tomato salsa and topped with a sunny-side-up fried egg, lime wedges and chilli. It's a touch Mexican but mostly this dish is a first-class example of how fish for brekkie can be so much more than smoked salmon (Top Paddock's breakfast menu also features white anchovies, gin and lime-cured ocean trout and a soft-shelled mud crab roll) without venturing into kedgeree territory. We're hooked. ZC

media_camera The 'Shady Deal' at North Melbourne Auction Rooms.

SHADY DEAL, $17

Auction Rooms

Auction Rooms, 103-107 Errol St, North Melbourne. Ph: 9326 7749. Twitter: @Auction_Rooms

Any doubts about Auction Rooms' status as Melbourne's most popular breakfast spot are put to rest by crunching the numbers: 180,000 eggs each year, 37,500 litres of milk and the number of minutes you'll wait in a queue for a table on a Saturday or Sunday morning? Well, er, sometimes it's best not to know. Just order a cup of single origin coffee and know it's worth the wait.

There are plenty of highlights here but our fave is the Shady Deal, which has had various incarnations over the five years since Auction Rooms opened but it's essentially a spiced tomato stew, which currently features chickpeas, peppers, eggplant, Meredith goat's feta and two free-range eggs laid by happy chickens in the paddocks of South Gippsland. You'll be given a knife, fork and spoon but we reckon the fluffy flatbread is the perfect tool to get the stew from bowl to mouth. Regardless of how you do the numbers, Auction Rooms just adds up. ZC

media_camera Baghdad eggs from Richmond Hill Cafe and Larder. Picture: Manuela Cifra

BAGHDAD EGGS, $17.50

Richmond Hill Café &Larder

48-50 Bridge Rd, Richmond. PH: 9421 2808. Twitter: @RHCL3121

It's been years since Stephanie Alexander has been in the kitchen at this perch on Richmond Hill, but her legacy remains with the Baghdad eggs, a dish that also features in her best-selling cookbook The Cook's Companion. Named because the combination of eggs cooked in garlic butter with cumin, lemon and mint is popular in Iraq, this version is served with two fried eggs on a potato flatbread. It's so damn good we can't stop thinking about it. ZC

media_camera The Conservatory at Crown boasts a tasty breakfast buffet.

BREAKFAST BUFFET, $39.50

Crown Conservatory

Level 1, Crown Towers, 8 Whiteman St, Southbank. PH: 9292 5777. crownmelbourne.com.au/conservatory

Who doesn't love a hotel buffet breakfast that keeps you going 'til dinner? And you don't need to be on holidays to get your fix. Daily from 7am to 10.30am, breakfast is served in the opulent marble and glass surrounds of the Conservatory dining room overlooking the Yarra. It services guests at Crown Towers, but many diners are locals and visitors not staying at the hotel.

All the usual breakfast suspects are here - bacon, hash browns, cereal and eggs - but you'll also find cool extras like ready-to-go smoothies in flip-top glass bottles, a dripping slab of local honeycomb, and not one but two chocolate fountains swirling with milk, dark, caramel and white Sicao. Keep your energy up with muffins, Danishes and croissants made in house, or at the pancake station where a chef freshly griddles hot cakes to order. Team with ice cream, vanilla-infused cream, banana slices or give them a dunk in the chocolate river.

Brown your carbs (crumpets or olive, sourdough or rye bread) in a see-through toaster or go international with an Asian section of congee, steamed pork buns, noodles and dumplings.

Got reason to celebrate? Pop the cork on a $450 bottle of Dom Perignon. MM

media_camera Lolo and Wren cafe in Brunswick West tackle the crispy croque monsieur.

CRISPY CROQUE MONSIEUR, $15.50

Lolo &Wren

484 Albion St, Brunswick West. Ph: 9001 8755. Twitter: @Lolo_and_Wren

At this little locals' breakfast spot, the humble ham and cheese toastie - that mainstay of weekend breakfast tables across the city - has been elevated to eye-popping, heart-stopping heights. The croque monsieur was first served in a pre-WWI Paris cafe, but it is in West Brunswick a century later where we find its most perfect incarnation. Here, two hefty slices of organic sourdough come slathered in Swiss cheesy, chive-y béchamel and layered with generous rough-hewn hunks of ham. The whole lot is then covered in Panko crumbs and fried to a deep golden crunch. A pot of sharp relish sits off the side and helps to cut through what is very much a knife-and-fork undertaking. It's unabashedly decadent and undeniably delicious. DS

media_camera Fu Manchu's Japanese pancake

JAPANESE OKONOMIYAKI PANCAKE, $17

Fu Manchu

2 Gilbert Rd, Preston. PH: 9484 8686 facebook.com/Fumanchupreston

It translates roughly as an "as you like it" pancake, a mishmash of ingredients which, in Japan, will often be cooked DIY at the table. Here at Fu Manchu the okonomiyaki is a hands-off affair: what comes delivered to you is a crisp-fried pancake made from shredded cabbage, sweet little peas and slices of capsicum, carrot and shiitake mushroom. Powerfully smoked salmon sliced thick is draped atop, and a punchy wasabi-laced mayo zigzags across. While admittedly it all sounds scarily healthy, this flavour-packed savoury sensation will get your day going in a most excellent - and guilt-free - way. DS

media_camera Fried brioche with dulce de leche, poached quince and toasted hazelnuts at Hardware Society, Hardware Street in the city.

FRIED BRIOCHE, $18

Hardware Societe

118 Hardware St, City. PH: 9078 5992. Twitter: @hardwaresociete

What's more decadent than French toast for breakfast? French toast made from brioche, of course! And at Hardware Societe, one of the city's best breakfast hotspots, the sweet indulgence doesn't end there.

The Societe tops the billowy, buttery fried-crisp slice with a dulce de leche bavois, no less. Quarters of soft quince, poached in a cinnamon-heavy star anise and orange-spiced stock, sit alongside, and toasted hazelnuts provide nutty texture.

No two ways about it, this is a diet-busting, sure-fire sweet spike to send you surging. But if you're going to be naughty, you might as well be really naughty, and this is the place to do so. DS

media_camera Sweet roasted Berkshire pork neck with fried egg, spring onion roti, and BBQ sauce from De Clieu, Gertrude Street, Fitzroy.

SWEET ROASTED BERKSHIRE PORK NECK W FRIED EGG, SPRING ONION ROTI &BBQ SAUCE, $16.50

De Clieu

187 Gertrude St, Fitzroy. PH: 9416 4661. Twitter: @DeClieu

It's bacon and eggs Jim, but not as we know it. The simple staple gets the De Clieu treatment and comes out looking decidedly Gertrude St glam.

Gloriously sticky thick slices of pork neck - cooked sous vide with housemade tonkatsu sauce for 24 hours - are topped with a yolky fried free-range egg. Toast is replaced with a nicely savoury pliable roti studded with onion, while more of that good spicy-sweet sauce and little bits of diced tomato complete the pretty picture.

De Clieu's most successful dish since opening, this is a star take on a classic that's well worth making a trek for. DS

media_camera Breakfast Madeleine at Cumulus Inc in Flinders Lane.

MADELEINE FILLED WITH LEMON CURD, $2.50 each

Cumulus Inc

45 Flinders Lane, city. PH: 9650 1445. Twitter @CumulusInc

So much to choose from. Toasted honey granola with poached rhubarb, grilled Lyonnaise sausage with braised beans, baked eggs with roasted peppers and shanklish ... but sometimes all you need for breakfast at Cumulus Inc is a madeleine. Just one warm little sponge cake, oozing lemon curd.

"We sell more than 150 madeleines a week,'' Cumulus' head chef Colin Wood says. And, yes, they are all made to order (allow 15 minutes). For the batter, Wood follows the classic "genoise" recipe (beaten eggs and sugar, sifted flour) and bakes them in special oval-shaped moulds. Feel those ribbed indentations between your fingers. Then take a bite and savour the tang of fresh Meyer lemons.

One madeleine is never enough, of course. But stirred by Marcel Proust-like memories, you know you'll be going back for more. SP

media_camera Mixed Business in Clifton Hill serves porridge with fruit, nuts and yoghurt.

PORRIDGE WITH BAKED RHUBARB, POACHED PEAR, NUTS AND SEEDS, $9.50,

Mixed Business

486 Queens Parade Clifton Hill. Ph: 9486 1606

It's difficult for many Mixed Business regulars (well, this one, anyway) to breakfast on anything but the poached eggs/rosemary-flecked potato rosti combination with Dench toast, a fan of avocado and relish on the side. But die-hard porridge-lovers swear by the cafe's oaty offering.

Humble oats are cooked fresh to order in water and milk - just as you would at home, says co-owner and kitchen chief Tom Crowe - and finished with cinnamon and brown sugar. A chunk of hot pear, poached with spices such as cinnamon, cloves and star anise, and pink baked rhubarb top the creamy cereal mix.

A blob of natural yoghurt that's been hung overnight and combined with honey adds tang while a sprinkling of whole and chopped almonds, linseeds and sunflower seeds add crunch and ticks the "good for you" box. Some variation of porridge has been served since Crowe and Lauren Bieber opened Mixed Business five years ago and despite its perception as a winter warmer, it stays on the summer menu when its milky, fruity goodness brings in the early-risers. Goldilocks would be happy. SB

media_camera Baked eggs with creamed corn, streaky bacon, lardo soldier and thyme salt from Small Victories in Rathdowne Street, Carlton.

BAKED EGGS: CREAMED CORN, STREAKY BACON, LARDO SOLDIER, THYME SALT, $17

Small Victories

617 Rathdowne St, Carlton North. Ph: 9347 4064‏. Twitter: @SmlVictories

A turntable and vinyl collection sits behind the marble-topped counter at Small Victories. But it's not just the coolest tunes that get a second spin at this 18-month-old Rathdowne Village cafe bar that's ricocheted into the ranks of the city's finest casual diners.

The return three months ago of eggs baked into a bed of sweet corn, creamed and preserved in house, was a comeback to delight any brekkie-lover who embraces pork and the flavour its fat provides. The thyme and salt-infused corn and two eggs - yolks more firm than runny - are teamed with a rasher of bacon cured on premises by chef Alric Hansen from rare-breed Berkshire pork belly.

Topping it off is a chunky baton of sourdough wrapped in a fine layer of lardo, which is then dipped in bacon fat and grilled; it's a fine substitute for toast in this rich, but light dish. Vegetarian? Swore off bacon after Babe? You can have your baked eggs two other ways at Small Victories: with house-smoked salmon, potatoes, quark, pickled onion, rye crisp and horseradish or with braised leek, potato, fontina cheese and sage. SB

media_camera Kensington Eggs with green olive tapenade, Persian feta and zucchini, lemon and currant salad from The Premises in Kensington.

PREMISES EGGS, $17

The Premises

202 Bellair St, Kensington. Ph: 9376 7565. Twitter: @ThePremises

Chef Kate Holloway does a fine line in buy-to-take-home little cakes and jars of jams and pickles at Kensington cafe The Premises.

And a recent extension into a vacated shop next door has provided extra bench space for turning these valuable old-time talents to the condiments that add an element of surprise to the cafe's all-day brekkies.

Take, for example, its eponymous poached eggs. Two local free-range Villa Verde eggs sit on top slices of Dench sourdough toast which have been spread with green olive tapenade mixed in the kitchen.

To the side is a little salad of zucchini ribbons and lemon preserved in house, tumbled with currants and dill. Mix everything together with a dollop of Persian feta and you have a Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, meat-free flavour sensation.

It's filling enough not to need a sweet chaser, but why not take home afternoon tea? SB

MATT PRESTON'S FAVOURITE FIVE

media_camera Matt Preston at Proud Mary eating the cassoulet. Picture: Nicole Cleary

CASSOULET, $17.50

Proud Mary

172 Oxford St, Collingwood. PH: 9417 5930. Twitter: @proudmarycoffee

While best known as the bubbling buzzy site of some of Melbourne's very best coffee, the hot breakfasts here are magnificent, whether it's slippery flakes of hot smoked salmon with the bitterness of witlof, the aniseed fragrance of fennel, the ruby-pop of pomegranate seeds and the sweet of a chutney or the earthy decadence of roast field mushrooms on butter-golden brioche with a fat pat of smoky chipotle-ladened butter.

The star, however, is Proud Mary's take on baked beans. White beans are cooked cassoulet style under a herby breadcrumb crust of oregano, parsley and sage. The beans are loaded with lots of shredded chicken, cubes of ruddy pork hock and a little stringy pull of melted gruyere around the edges of the earthenware bowl in which it's been baked.

Dee-licious, but also usually mouth-savouringly hot when it arrives on a wooden board with slices of buttered toast. Proud Mary is also still one of the best places in Australia to experience the elegant subtleties of cold drip coffee, especially if owner and barista champ Nolan Hirte is on hand to be your guide rather than the iPad menu. Journey from a $6 Colombian that has a flavour profile of a fine shiraz (all cherries and blackberries) to an exclusive $15 Costa Rican geisha that will make you look at coffee anew with a riot of flavours like bergamot that are actually perceivable in the glass rather than just in the menu's tasting notes!

media_camera Smashed avocado with feta, ricotta and mint from 30 Mill Espresso in Malvern

SMASHED AVOCADO WITH FETA, RICOTTA, MINT AND LEMON, $12.50

30 Mill Espresso

66 Milton Pde, Malvern. PH: 9804 3653.

"Location, location, location," chant the BMW-driving real estate agents of Malvern. Close to good schools, a short walk from Tooronga train station, deep in the heart of the much sought after and tightly held Malvern Vale, on the sunny side of the street.

If this cute little cafe was a property, it would come with a high six-figure reserve, but you can buy in to 30 Mill far more cheaply with just a great Five Senses coffee (a 30ml shot, naturally, given the name) and a plate of their most popular breakfast - smashed avocado on toast. Pureed, mashed, whipped and creamed, avocado on something bready and served with something salty and acidic (Vegemite and lemon; flake salt and lime) has become something of a Melbourne cafe signature.

At 30 Mill there is another avocado dish on the menu - the spring smash where the creamy green is hit with chilli and coriander - but for me the original is still the best. Toast is thickly spread with roughly mashed avocado; its creaminess cut with the salty hit of crumbled feta, some squeaky ricotta, the fresh breath of mint and the zing of lemon.

Yes, you could make it at home but you won't, you don't and, to seal the deal, it's unlikely you'll have all today's papers, a wall covered in a giant black and white still of the New York skyline with Frank Sinatra's famous lyrics burnt out of it and cool, unpretentious, but competent young staff to bring water without asking and keep the caffeine flowing. Always a great soundtrack too - Alabama Shakes, The Strokes, Lee Fields and the Expressions - played at a level where you can still gossip.

media_camera Banana Bread from Friends of Mine in Richmond

BANANA BREAD, $14.90

Friends of Mine

506 Swan St, Richmond. PH: 9428 7516. Twitter: @FriendsofMine_

They like to do things a little bit differently at this sprawling two-room cafe at the "wrong" end of Swan St. The usual cafe walls of roughly whitewashed and exposed brick are contrasted with sparkling glass chandeliers, their Bloody Mary comes with a shot of organic cucumber vodka and pretty much everything to eat is a welcome twist on the norm whether it's their crumpets with lemon syllabub, the eggs benedict that come with a smoked ham hock terrine and a hollandaise spiked with apple cider or their egg and bacon roll which throws scrambled eggs, bacon and cheddar cheese into a brioche roll with a tomato chutney.

It's the banana bread that turns our head here, though. It's a huge stack with two slabs of banana bread morticed together with mascarpone whipped with maple syrup and fresh banana. Adding crunch and colour are a handful of roughly crushed pistachios and the sweet tangy pop of blueberries in a berry compote. Two other things to like about this perennially busy corner cafe: the champagne is far cheaper when you order a couple of glasses and if you keep your eyes peeled, you may see an ex-football great or even the legendary Greg Evans coming out of the radio station opposite.

media_camera The three cheese toastie at Little Henri in High Street, Thornbury

THREE CHEESE TOASTY, $9.90

Little Henri

850 High St, Thornbury. PH: 9484 8857. Twitter: @LittleHenri1

Over the past few years there has been a slow cafe renaissance spreading up Thornbury's High St, best represented by the likes of the earthy and (coffee) worthy Lowlands and the old bank on the corner that is now home to Little Henri. Outside is white, angular and solid; inside the large dining room is flooded with natural light and rimmed by high wooden wainscoting, artfully distempered walls and floors of polished concrete and pitted wood. Seriously, if this place was any more modern Melbourne it would be in Copenhagen or Brooklyn.

The Big Boy breakfast might lure you, but resist in favour of their famous three cheese toasty - pepita-crusted multigrain comes topped, somewhat confusingly at this hour of the morning, with a melt of haloumi, smoked mozzarella, parmesan and cheddar. Bonus! The three slices of melty gooiness come flecked with flake salt and herbs, their faces leopard-spotted by the heat from the grill.

You can also add bacon or an egg, but it's hard to improve on the simplicity of the original. The only advice is that this is a dish to share as this melty cheese moment is best eaten fresh and hot. And we'll save the debate on whether a toasty has to be a sandwich or can be open-faced for another day.

media_camera Corn fritters at South of Johnston.

CORN FRITTERS, $17.90

South of Johnston

46 Oxford St, Collingwood. PH: 9417 2741. Twitter: @southofjohnston

Deep in new warehouse apartment world of hipster Collingwood, "SoJo", the long sprawling space of South of Johnston - once a valve factory - feels like a particularly stylish and pretty interior design shoot gone right. Not a detail is overlooked from the flowers and guttering perfumed candles you walk past on the way in or the little blackboard signs on the front counter that announce "yoyos" and "Portuguese custard tarts" in scratchy white chalk to the wood-burning stove, which looks like it's been made from an old engine block, at the back of the room.

Low soft grey couches surrounding the stove usually seem to be full of dudes and dudettes polishing up that blockbuster indie film script or their pitch for an App design account. At the minimalist black tables and Danish blonde wood chairs old girlfriends catch up, bouncing new babies, next to suits mulling over pages of jumbled figures.

For me there are three culinary reasons for coming here - the very correct brioche French toast with no more than pure Canadian maple syrup and slightly charry bacon draped over it, a decadent cheese and ham toasty that's butter-fried and loaded with old-school French mustard and a little bechamel just in case there wasn't enough of an overload of richness, and perhaps the most complete breakfast of the three, their signature corn cakes. They come with excellent avocado, tender little spinach leaves, gnarly bacon, good oozy poached egg and chutney. To drink, the fruity Romcaffe espressos eclipse the milky coffees here.