Auction Rooms

Auction Rooms

103-107 Errol St, North Melbourne

(Ph) 9326 7749

☆☆☆

Brunch time with J again! This time wanted to try Auction Rooms - another breakfast place recommended by the Cheap Eats Guide with ☆☆☆ :)

This apparently used to be, as the name suggests, auction rooms. They renovated it and brought in some lockers doors?

And some wind chimes lol!

It's very roomy with high ceilings, can choose to sit outdoors, in the courtyard, high stools at the bench or little tables - we sat at a little table =) We didn't have to wait at all - plenty of tables, but I guess it is a Thursday morning, compared to when we went to Dead Man Espresso lol..

I was running late so J had ordered a Flat White... coffee art! <3

We're both coffee n00bs but she said it was so smooth didn't even need to add any sugar in! =) Though the sugar looks a bit dodge and dirty in the old can soup tin..

Kinda gross looking aye?

We both ordered the same thing (again! like at Seven Seeds =P They actually have a "La Fin de Elvis Presley" - french toast filled with caramelised banana & rum puree & creamed peanut butter, served with crispy pancetta & vanilla cream here which is very similar to the dish we got at Seven Seeds). We got "The Shady Deal" - moroccan tomato & chorizo stew, with eggplant, olives, poached eggs, dukkah & feta, served with grilled flat bread $16.50

Mmmm looks so delicious! and tasted delicious too =D The flat bread unrolls into like a crown-like shape... how cool =)

The stew was full of flavours - delicious dipping the flat bread into it =) cherry tomatoes and eggplant and chorizo =) One of my poached eggs was a tad too cooked so the yolk wasn't as runny though =( I was asking J what the cheesy mush was, 'cause it kinda tasted like goat's cheese but kinda like feta too, and they took the menu away so we forgot what it said =P it was actually "dukkah & feta" - dukkah is apparently "a side dish consisting of a mixture of herbs, nuts & spices", so I guess it was a mix of feta and other mush stuff =P very tasty though =)

We were STUFFED after our dish - it doesn't look that big but it was soo filling!

Food~

7.5/10 - super yum and full of flavours! =) Wouldn't definitely like to try some other dishes here!

Service~

2/5 - they were very attentive to order coffees but when we wanted to order food they took forever to come take our orders!

Atmosphere~

4/5 - very nice open place with high ceilings, large variety of seating areas =)

<3 brunch!

C.

xo

Crouton Cafe

Crouton Cafe

520 Victoria St, North Melbourne

(Ph) 9329 5304

I saw this voucher on Spreets - $12 for a dozen macaroons from Crouton Cafe! I had never heard of this cafe before but $1 for a macaroon is super cheap no matter how good/bad they are =P

They pre-pack the dozen of macaroons for you so you can't choose the flavours - they have the boxes in the fridge. I didn't know macaroons need to be refrigerated - they never do at Lindt cafe or any of the other places?

The owner made sure he got us a box of unbroken macaroons =)

Mmmm looks delicious!

Flavours were - strawberry, lemon lime, honeycomb, cookies & cream, dark chocolate x2, passionfruit x2, coconut x2, pistachio and blueberry =)

They were all really tasty! Crunchy meringue cookie with delicious flavoured filling =)

Dark chocolate, passionfruit, blueberry

I really liked the passionfruit one - P didn't like it much but that's 'cause he doesn't like the seeds in passionfruit =P Blueberry was yummy too but tasted like blueberry syrup - which it probably is =P Dark chocolate was really good too but the filling was a bit too thick so felt like we were eating a praline.

Pistachio, strawberry, dark chocolate, cookies & cream

Pistachio was super tasty too as well as the cookies & cream <3 strawberry tasted like syrup again but I guess that's expected - can't put real berries in macaroons =P

honeycomb, passionfruit, coconut, lemon lime

The honeycomb and passionfruit look exactly the same! The owner actually told us they were mango but none of the yellow ones were mango =P Honeycomb was our favourite one! Tasted just like a crunchy <3 wish we had more than one of that! I really liked the lemon lime one too but P thought it was a strange combination. It's like the new mixed flavour ones at Lindt (like apple & cinnamon) which I haven't tried yet since they are so expensive now! (up to $2.90 now!)

The macaroons are $2 each normal price - definitely worth it and definitely worth the trek here! (this cafe is a bit out of nowhere and definitely would not "stumble"across it =P)

Food~
8/10 - the macaroons here are delicious, interesting flavours and definitely not overpriced like the other ones!

Service/Atmosphere~
3/5 - the owner was very polite and explained what the flavours were etc. The cafe looked really nice, wouldn't mind trying the other stuff on offer here! :)

C.
xo