Auction Rooms, North Melbourne

Big front windows, exposed brick walls, high ceiling, this place is one beautiful warehouse conversion. Needless to say, it is very Instagramable. Auction Rooms has been around for a while and in all these years it has been consistently packed on weekend brunch hour. Not just weekends, even on weekdays one expect a considerable wait for a table, so it must be a miracle or good deeds from past life that we got a table instantly on a Saturday noon. Hallelujah!

The menu is single page yet vegetarian friendly. I had quiet a few options to choose from. I went for the brioche french toast while John Doe had the brown rice salad. Our hostess informed us that the salad is warm but John Doe being the adventurous one went for it.

Our food arrived and boy it was pretty, at least my French Toast was. It had so much going on - frosted pecans, raw cacao, caramelised bananas, whipped bourbon cream & Canadian maple syrup. Couldn't wait to dig in and I wasn't disappointed at all. The portion size was generous for me and I couldn't finish it. Lucky for me, John Doe CAN EAT! (I hate wasting food so he ends up eating way more than he should). His brown rice salad looked modest but looks can be deceiving they say and whoever "they" are, are right. It was so simple yet delicious. I analysed the contents hoping I could try and dish this out at home - it had brown rice, chick peas, chilli, capsicum, mushroom, coriander, some nuts, some dressing and after many tries I can say DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME if you hate wasting food.

Let's talk about the coffee!

Auction Rooms is a coffee roastery and cafe. It was added to the St Ali empire sometime in 2016. Coffee is among Melbourne’s best; you don't win the 'Melbourne's Best Cafe' title with anything less than great coffee. The coffee here is roasted at Small Batch and their specialty is specialty coffee.