Pete and I were in Melbourne last weekend for Sarah’s memorial service.
On Sunday morning, our friends David and Maree took us to a cafe in Spotswood, which boasted a most unusual breakfast menu (click on the photo above, plus this link, for a better look). Situated in a former industrial area, this little venue was hidden in a quiet line of mostly closed shops. The place was packed.
I had an inkling of what was to come when the waitress informed us that the specials of the day were crumbed lambs’ brains with gentlemen’s relish (not made from naughty body parts, although I did ask), and home-smoked trumpeter. The breakfast menu offered black pudding, Cumberland sausage, yabbies, ox tongue, field mushrooms, pig’s jowls and more.
Pete had the Poetry (In Motion), a selection of prunes, walnuts, orange zest and yoghurt, served with homemade oat biscuits…
I couldn’t go past their signature Duchess of Pork dish. In true Miss Piggy fashion, I also ordered a side of the most amazing black pudding I’d ever tasted. The Duchess was a delectable concoction of shredded and reassembled crispy pig’s jowl served with fried eggs, truffle sauce and a thick slab of sourdough toast…
Maree ordered the Prince of Wales, a warm cured salmon fillet plated on a bed of asparagus, watercress and spinach, and served with potato bread and poached eggs…
Dave ordered the King’s Woodcock (not the Full English as I mistakenly wrote earlier – my pedantic friend has rung to correct me). It came with scrambled eggs, chutney and lamb sausages, and a side order of homemade black pudding (Dave also said that I had to point out that the black pudding was made inhouse)…
Melbourne is a long way from Sydney, but we might need to fly down again just to try out a few more dishes from this wonderful menu!
. . . . .
Duchess of Spotswood
87 Hudsons Road
Spotswood VIC 3015
Phone (03) 9391 6016
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
Absolutely my kind of food. Rather a long way from Dubai.
Sally, it’s a long way from Sydney, let alone Dubai! :)
Oh that looks like a wonderful and fun menu! I wonder what “Queen of the Dam” will look like :)
Tes, that was going to be my second option! The idea of eating yabbies at breakfast was oddly appealing! :)
Now I understand your reference to Pete’s breakfast order :) My favourite meal of the day, look at all those goodies…. Mmmmmm mmm
There really was something for everyone – some great vegetarian options, as well as pure delight for the carnivores.. ;-)
Breakfast is a great meal for vegetarians! (At least it is for me. :-)
Hugs, Maz
I wonder if this place would appeal to all vegetarians, Maz? There’s a lot of confronting meat on the menu! :)
I am so hungry right now….
Norma, me too! I wish I could have tried everything on the menu. And I’m so sorry to hear about your broken elbow.. :(
Wow, I need to get out and travel more… I have never tasted any of these dishes! They sound so… scary… but delicious!
That’s why I had to post a photo of both the food and the menu! It was really unusual – I’ve never been to a place that offered ox tongue for breakfast before! :)
I would have gone for the full english brekkie.. YUM! I have not had breakfast so i may have to break out the bacon after seeing that! c
C, I was sorely tempted, especially with all the sides on offer!
Oh, how I miss an ‘outing’ for breakfast with friends…a wonderful way to start the day! x
Yvette, it was such a fun thing to do – we haven’t had a breakfast out with friends in a long time either! Definitely something we should do more often…
Ooooh I would choose Melbourne Storm and Simple Pleasures, and one of each of the sides! :)
What a fun place, and what an awesome menu. I love places that are a little out of the ordinary.
This is indeed a dangerous post to read before breakfast!
Becca, I knew you and the Spice Girl would love this. Just so different from the usual eggs, french toast and croissant breakfast offerings…
Fantastic breakfast menu. I love going out for breakfast but am usually so disappointed with the boring, predictable menus. This place has been creative with the descriptions as well as the food itself. Double tick. Must try next time I am in Melbourne.
Yep. You have to go there, SG, you’d love it. Darling…do try and just order one main, ok? I know you’ll end up with three full plates because you can’t decide.. ;-)
Where’s the fun in that?! :) You know me too well….
My idea of restaurant heaven is a delicious breakfast menu and that one looks beautiful. Have you ever been to the original Bill’s in Surry HIlls Celia? I thoroughly recommend it if you haven’t.
Rose, thank you for the tip, I haven’t tried Bill’s for breakfast (although I have been there for dinner). Will have to give it a go!
What a great menu, the best breakfast menu I think I have seen. It would be difficult to decide on which dish to try first. You would need to visit more than once. Great prices for such thought and care, and humour!
Christine, I was tempted by everything on the menu, it was hard to decide in the end. I love it when that happens.. :)
I think that menu might be a little too adventurous for me but it sounds like a great concept.
Claire, given all the exciting food you were eating in Fiji, this would be easy! :)
What a brilliant find, Celia! I’ll have to pay a visit on our next Melbourne trip to indulge in the Duchess of Pork dish – it looks splendid.
A, it was beautiful, but make sure you get a side order of black pudding. It was to die for!
Hey Celia, it was great to see you and Pete again. Pity we can’t do it more often. As your pedantic friend, I think I should make a couple of clarifications. Firstly, you ordered the Duchess of Pork sans black pudding. It was only after eating half of mine, that you placed a supplementary side order which you subsequently made pretty short work of. Am I correct in understanding that you were able to survive on lettuce and water for the rest of the day??
It was so nice to catch up, Dave! To be fair, my dear pedant, I didn’t exactly eat half of your black pudding, but you did eat half of mine.. :)
And yes, lunch was a salad sandwich.. :)
There are so many tasty breakfast places in Melbourne, this included! And tee hee Duchess of Pork-I so would have ordered that. I really love Hardware Societe too :)
Will look out for it if we’re ever in Melbourne again, Lorraine! :)
Hi Celia,
Thankyou for a wonderful description. Melbourne does cafes very very well. Nice memories….
Thankyou, Craig
Craig, we were astounded by how good all the food in Melbourne was – we didn’t have a bad dish the whole time we were there!
Celia, black pudding is amazing. As a child, we often ate it at weddings (would you believe!). That’s Hungarians for you. Melbourne is a mecca for good food! But then, many other places in Australia have fantastic food too.
Lizzy, I’m not at all surprised, I’m sure it’s quite a delicacy in parts of Europe! I didn’t realise you were Hungarian – a couple of years ago my neighbour June was teaching me to make her Hungarian kifli and cheese slice:
https://figjamandlimecordial.com/2009/03/14/cooking-class-with-june/
https://figjamandlimecordial.com/2009/03/11/junes-vanilla-kifli/
What a fantastic and imaginative breakfast menu! And the black pudding looks amazing, I adore it, but find it hard to get REALLY good ones around here.
I’m glad you enjoyed reading it! The black pudding was truly divine…
poetry (in motion), yes please. Now that is just the kind of way I like to start my day! I love an inventive breakfast menu.
Those poached eggs look perfect :)
OMG this does look good. What a lovely trip. Cant wait to visit here
Oh, my goodness! I’m so behind in my blog reading. You were in Melbourne? If this ever happens again under different circumstance, DO let me know and we can meet up! It looks likes the offerings were wonderful, to say the least! x
Waw, All of the food looks so tasty & well flavoured, I think!
I would totaly savour the Prince of Wales dish & of course, not the Prince of Wales himself because he isn’t pretty & way to old for me! ;)
I love poached eggs a lot! :)
Well there’s somewhere to remember next time I’m in Melbourne. Last time I stuffed myself with gelato and Italian treats at a small cafe in Reservoir. It is almost worth moving there to have that in your neighbourhood! As a person horribly allergic to pork (except well-cured) I recently found out an interesting thing. I had tapas at Verandah in Pokolbin (Hunter Valley) and there was a house-made spanish blood sausage which my dear husband ordered. Very tasty, but scary and even more scary when I found out it was pig’s blood. However, it had no effect whatsoever! Perhaps it was countered by the accompanying wine.
Nic, Tania, thank you, it was a fantastic meal!
Chris, it was a flying visit, but next time I’ll give you notice! :)
Sophie, the eggs here were just beautiful, all free range and perfectly cooked!
Vix, being allergic to pork would put a serious crimp on our diet! Glad the blood pudding didn’t do you any harm though!