Trunk Diner

275 Exhibition St, Melbourne 3000

Visited: 19th Nov 2011

Trunk Diner was our stop for today's brekkie outing.  We'd passed Trunk several times before and it has always looked interesting sitting at the corner of Exhibition and Lt Lonsdale St, with its marquee structure and city courtyard area.  And of course, next door is Trunk Bar & Restaurant.

Trunk Diner has an interesting retro look from the outside.  Inside, it has a nice, outdoorsy feel to it with concrete floors, hanging shade lamps, wooden tables and metal chairs.  We sat in the marquee area, and it was raining, so the clear plastic sheets were pulled down - it felt almost like sitting in a big greenhouse while having breakfast. 

The service was friendly and speedy.  We were greeted at the door, and orders for our coffees were taken as we sat down, after which glasses of water were put down in front of us immediately.  We both got our lattes quite quickly, and yes, the coffee was very good.  Hot, creamy and light with just enough bitterness - perfect. 

I had the scrambled eggs with toast and added bacon and avocado.  

Eggs scrambled with toast $8
Add bacon $3 and avocado $3

The presentation was pretty standard, but what I liked most out of the dish was the grilled bacon.  Now this might come down to personal tastes, but to me it had a really nice smoky, chargrilled flavour (not bitter or burnt) which I enjoyed.  The scrambled eggs were all right, they were slightly omeletty and not as moist, light and fluffy as they should have been.

MerlinFan ordered the brioche french toast - you could either have it with bacon or berries and maple syrup - she ordered her brioche with bacon, but waitress had taken the order wrong so her french toast came with berries instead.  

Brioche French Toast with berries and maple syrup $10

Looks good, doesn't it?  LOL.  Anyway MerlinFan didn't ask them to redo the order, she just decided to eat it anyway since I had added bacon on my dish, so she could have the best of both worlds.

MerlinFan thought they could have dusted more icing sugar on top of the brioche and berries (:P quote "not a big deal but would have made the presentation more fancy-schmancy" LOL)  Otherwise she found the french toast satisfactory - it wasn't just a soggy piece of bread but had a nice omelette flavour that she enjoyed.  It was complemented nicely with raspberries and blueberries (which were perfectly done and were not a bit sour which she appreciated) drenched in sweet syrup.  

The only thing mildly annoying was the fact our table had very uneven legs and kept rocking like a seesaw as we tried to eat - it didn't help even after MerlinFan tried stuffing a serviette under one of the legs!

With quick service and friendly staff, what's there not to like?  I was tempted too, to try the Breakfast Burger or the waffles with grilled bananas, hazelnuts, ice cream and maple syrup but it was such a miserable and wet day - I didn't quite feel like having anything cold, and ice cream at 10am in the morning seemed just a bit odd to me.  

Overall, a nice place for a casual breakfast.  MerlinFan and I have already agreed to come back here to try lunch next.  Am curious about the Wagyu Beef burger, the Cuban baguette and buttermilk fried chicken wings :)

Continue to:
Second Breakfast Visit
or
Lunch at Trunk Diner