Edit 28/12/2011: Balzari has now closed.
Another weekend, another lead from The Breakfast Blog. This time it was a local eatery: Balzari. If you didn't know better, Balzari would blend it to the strip of unremarkable Italian places that litter the Carlton end of Lygon Street. We've still to figure out which are the good ones and which are the overpriced mediocrities. Luckily, Balzari was a good one. The breakfast menu was fairly substantial, loaded up with eggy options, fruit salad, cheese toasties, muesli, toast and, Cindy's favourite, breakfast donuts.Cindy's donuts came with mixture of ricotta cheese, dried apricots and milk chocolate, and were surrounded by orange blossom syrup. She realised pretty quickly that there wasn't really anything breakfasty about these breakfast donuts. They really take the idea of dessert-breakfast to a new level. Still, they were as good as they look - crisp on the outside, fluffy and sweet within. Unfortunately, I think the guilt Cindy felt at eating what was basically donuts and syrup for breakfast sapped some of her enjoyment.
I couldn't resist the vegetarian baked eggs (although the eggs florentine was a temptation). The eggs came with tomatoes, red onion, feta and red capsicum, along with a couple of slices of sourdough toast. The butter that came with the toast was particularly tasty, meaning that I was torn between dunking my toast in the eggy mush and just enjoying the toast on its own. The eggs (and there were three of them!) came out in the pan that they'd been cooked in - piping hot and seasoned with fresh herbs. The feta and the capsicum combined impressively with the eggs - just thinking about it all now is making me desperate for more. Kudos too for the coffee - I enjoyed two tremendous flat whites to kickstart my Sunday. Between Balzari and Ray (not to mention Cindy's homemade effort), we've been on a pretty fine breakfast run lately.
Address: 130 Lygon Street, Carlton
Ph: 9639 9383
Licensed
Price: $4.50 - $15.50
Website: www.balzari.com.au
Wow, yet another food blog I have to add to my favourites bookmark. I never realised there were so many Melbourne food blogs out there. Now I have to slowly go through all the links on your page, Tummy Rumbles, Totally Addicted To Taste, Tomato etc and find out which blogs are worth reading. My blog reading time is going to increase even more each day, its getting out of hand... in a good way though :-). Keep up the good work.
ReplyDeleteWelcome, Thanh7580! I am likewise spending a big chunk of my day keeping up with my favourite food blogs - thank the internet gods for RSS feeds, I say. :-)
ReplyDeleteDang Cindy...your photos are seriously drool inducing. I must have those donuts!!
ReplyDeleteDo it, Mellie!! Maybe just pack a piece of fruit for your journey, 'cause this is a naughty, naughty breakfast. :-)
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