Diners waking up to gourmet breakfasts

Breakfast is the new frontier for the WA restaurant sector, with top cafe owners experiencing a big increase in morning trade on the back of bold new menus and changing attitudes by diners.

The modest cost of breakfast compared with lunch or dinner services, no daylight saving in summer and benign weather are also factors that have made us a State of early risers and hearty breakfast eaters.

But it is predominantly keen pricing that has turned breakfast into the main social catch-up meal of a new generation of young restaurant-goers.

Typika Artisan Roasters owner Stephen Kenyon says breakfast out “is huge in Perth and it is the meal, above all others, people are prepared to queue for.” Mr Kenyon’s Claremont cafe often has waits of more than an hour for a table.

“When the wait gets longer we take their phone numbers and call them when a table becomes available, ” he said.

Michael De Marte, owner of the Atomic cafes in South Perth and Claremont, says breakfast has become the meal where people catch up.

“It’s very social. Breakfast has become meeting time, either with friends or for business, ” he said. “Also people aren’t cooking breakfasts at home like they used to.”

The rising popularity of breakfast can also be attributed to more adventurous dishes.

While most chefs agree traditional muesli, fruit and egg dishes will never go out of fashion, they say breakfast food has become more fun and less traditional.

With dishes such as falafel with pepita, tahini, yoghurt and slow egg; bean braise with chorizo and baked egg and a pulled pork sandwich with coleslaw and buttermilk aioli, Mt Lawley hotspot Cantina 663 has brought breakfast out of the bacon-and-eggs wilderness and into the promised land of haute, fashionable cookery.

Cantina chef Damien Brown says people are more adventurous. “They want to eat things other than bacon-and-eggs, ” he said. “We like to keep it fun, too, which is what brekky is all about.

“Price point is also key factor in the rising popularity of breakfast. We still make our margins at a lower price point and still be generous on the plate.

“A weekend breakfast is such a major part of our lives in Australia. It’s such a good thing to do. You go out and have a wicked breakfast with your mates.”

Sayers in Leederville has long been at the cutting edge, with dishes such as coriander and cumin beans tagine with baba ganoush, and lemon custard-filled cinnamon- sugared saffron doughnuts with hot chocolate sauce.

Similarly, Typika caused a sensation two years ago when it launched its first breakfast menu with Beef Benedict, a doorstop-size piece of toasted sourdough topped with slow-braised beef brisket, poached eggs and hollandaise sauce.

Brekky in Perth 10 of the best

- Sayers, Leederville

- Voyage Kitchen, Sorrento

- Vans, Cottesloe

- Cantina 663, Mt Lawley

- Typika, Claremont

- Mrs S, Bayswater

- Chinta, Doubleview

- Merrywell, Crown Perth entertainment complex

- Canvas Cafe, Fremantle Arts Centre

- West End Deli, West Perth