North & Eight – Dani Valent

North & Eight restaurant review Melbourne The Age Good Food by Dani Valent 

Back to restaurant reviews
285-287 Buckley Street, Essendon, 9331 3858

My score: 3.5/5

Melbourne is in the midst of a breakfast menu smackdown. Fronting up in the green corner: cheeky chia, hale kale, fresh coconut and all their activated cousins, toting superfood cred and not afraid to use it. Kicking back in the naughty corner, there’s brioche to the horizon, bacon on bacon, caramel both crisp and gooey, plus chips for ballast. Lurking on the sidelines, looking forlorn, are yesterday’s heroes: eggs every which way, toast with spreads and your standard fruit salad. Who’d be a cube of melon in 2015? So yesterday.

North & Eight is a smart, spacious new cafe in a part of town that badly needed something contemporary and fun. It’s leapt into the breakfast battle with efficient glee and is having a bet each way with exuberant flair. There’s the supposedly healthy stuff: chia porridge, jugs o’ juice, protein balls and a satisfying quinoa salad with kale, juicy carrot sticks, corn, black beans, brown rice, sprouts and goji berries. Then there’s the evil stuff: brioche French toast topped with custard and orange blossom syrup (you bet I added bacon!), fried chicken on a waffle with (not-spicy-enough) chilli mayo (of course, plus polenta chips!) and the diabolical Northella Houseshake, a mega choc-hazelnut milkshake topped with Nutella-stuffed doughnut.

We already knew breakfast was important; now it’s a statement, too. You’re either telling the world your body is a temple or you’re giving health the finger with a recklessly upsized, fully fried and bacon-topped blowout. The upshot? Breakfast is a forum to announce that you’re in control (“Just come from Crossfit so excuse me while I eat chia porridge in my activewear!”) or that you’re happily haywire (“Just preparing for my food coma!”). Whichever it is, eat your ethic loud and proud.

See their website.

More breakfasts:

Hannah, 141 Chapel Street, St Kilda, 9534 4442.
Weekend brunch specials are always killer at this local favourite. Recently, carrot cake pancakes with butterscotch apples and vanilla mascarpone rocked the hood.

Naughty Boy Cafe, 499-501 Lygon St, Princes Hill, 9041 7870.
The food menu runs the gamut from gym bunny to big buns but this Boy has become known for its XXL freakshakes.
If you’ve been wanting to Instagram a milkshake topped with a pavlova, this is your place.

Santuccis, 1392 Toorak Road, Camberwell, 9889 6335.
From detoxing to sugar rush, Santuccis has it covered. Feeling sleepy? Wake up with the threeway caffeination of the ‘coffee flight’.

First published in The Age, October 12th, 2015.

2018-05-04T13:17:52+10:00

Leave A Comment

© Dani Valent 2024