With a luxurious yet welcoming blue and white interior and boundless natural light flooding in from two walls of uninterrupted windows, Middletown Prahran is a brunch venue designed to relax, inspire and rejuvenate. And its all-day breakfast menu is an absolute banger. We live for its seasonally changing granola, avocado on toast and corn fitters, but we tend to come here for the big brekkie. It features chilli scrambled eggs, pork sausages, streaky bacon, hash browns and roasted tomatoes.

Located at the Southern Cross end of Little Bourke Street, Higher Ground is from the team behind quintessential Melbourne cafes Top Paddock and The Kettle Black — and boy is it a beauty. The huge, high-ceilinged 160-seat venue sits on the corner of Little Bourke and Spencer Streets in a former warehouse.The venue serves the superb cafe fare that its two siblings are known for, with the all-day menu including the likes of the avocado pretzel and always-popular spanner crab Benedict.

From the creators Convoy, Hi-Fi and Tinker comes this breakthrough Melbourne cafe that champions healthy breakfast and lunch dishes that are full of flavour and creativity. Standout breakfasts include the chai spiced Greek yoghurt with ruby grapefruit and walnut praline, as well as anchovy toast served with baba ghanoush, a lemon and herb sauce, crispy buckwheat and poached eggs. Its bloody mary is also one of our favourites in Melbourne.

This cafe has been a Chapel Street stalwart since its opening back in 2008 under the name of Dukes Coffee Roasters — changing its name to Journeyman in 2014 to clearly define the difference between the roastery and the cafe. Its roots are deeply set in the coffee roasting game, but the team has since gone far beyond that focus. Our favourite brekkie item on the menu? Its avocado hummus toast served with honey candied bacon and a poached egg. Heaven.

This Lebanese bakery and grocer has been a Sydney Road favourite for about two decades — but too many people stop by for a quick takeaway treat, missing out on the stellar dine-in options. Yes, we are also obsessed with the golden spinach and feta pastries, the boat-shaped shanklish pies flecked with herbs and the holy layered baklava drenched in syrup. But grab a seat inside and enjoy an even better experience, getting around some of its stellar brekkie dishes.

On a sunny Chapel Street corner, Abacus has managed to nail that all-day eatery vibe that often proves so elusive. It’s a lofty, leafy space that’s bright and charming by the light of day, and the seasonal food menu is genuinely superb. A great amount of thought has been given to the sourcing of local produce, from fresh fruit and veg or meat and seafood. The kitchen even mills its own flour and keeps its own bees. By day, that all translates to a menu of bright and innovative brunch fare.

One of the newer additions to the Melbourne bakery scene, Falco is the brainchild of the minds behind Bar Liberty and Capitano, who’ve joined forces with Christine Tran (Tivoli Road Bakery, San Francisco’s Tartine). In its main Collingwood space, it’s serving up a dreamy, innovative range of treats, both sweet and savoury. Drop by for ham and comte croissants, seasonal fruit danishes, cardamom buns and a whole array of pies.

The minds behind Northcote’s Tinker, Collingwood’s Terror Twilight and Smith Street sandwich spot Hi Fi made a foray into the inner-northwest with Convoy — a bright daytime diner overlooking Queens Park. Here, the team is plating up both familiar favourites and new creations that change regularly. You might find smashed avo on toast with pickled carrots and a black olive caramel; cinnamon scroll pancakes with cream cheese icing and orange zest; or Turkish eggs with sujuk and a lemon yoghurt.

Sitting somewhere between a local corner store and an Italian deli, this neighbourhood sandwich shop was co-founded by two former Stokehouse chefs, Dom Wilton and Jason Barratt. And it’s earned itself cult status for its unpretentious menu, starring just ten very good signature sandos. And while it’s mostly known as a lunch spot, the two breakfast buns are some of the very best in town.

Cibi cafe outgrew its small space back in 2018 when it moved down the road to take over a huge 800-square-metre warehouse. Here, the team can stretch and really flex their food and style muscles. Part cafe, part gallery space, the new home is where people come to find some of the best breakfast in Melbourne (focusing on Japanese eats) and buy artisanal homewares.

Code Black has set up shop in North Melbourne, the CBD, Southbank and South Melbourne, but its flagship cafe in Brunswick is still our fave. Here, you’ll find its roastery HQ — where the team is perpetually roasting ethically sourced beans and teaching the next generation of baristas how to extract the perfect shot. But Code Black is more than just its coffee. Head here any day of the week for an excellent selection of Melbourne brunch items.

The Midas touch. It’s a thing, and the team behind Top Paddock most definitely have it — in the hospitality scene anyway. Every cafe the team opens is welcomed with awards, seriously buzz-killing weekend lines, and some incredible coffee and food. And one of the best in the family? The Kettle Black. The food is so good that people are whispering about the possibility of a chef hat in the future (scandal, but it just could be true).

Yes, the team uses simple building blocks to create their offerings — from fresh produce grown on-site to shipping containers and recycled materials — but the end product is anything but basic and rudimentary. They have managed to make a unique Melbourne brunch spot that doubles as a community space where local Footscray folks from all backgrounds are welcome. Inventive brunch fare abounds but we are obsessed with the greasy brekkie bun that's the perfect hangover cure.

Melbourne is no stranger to a bakery come cafe that serves up daily brunch dishes, but Faraday’s Cage in Fitzroy has got to be one of the greatest. As it is a local bakery, you can delight in fresh sourdough bread and sweet and savoury pastries alongside an impressive selection of takeaway sangas. But Faraday’s takes it one step further with a pleasantly gourmet all-day breakfast menu that puts most other local cafes to shame.

Top Paddock has been home to some of the best breakfast in Melbourne since it opened in 2018 — at a time when Melbourne’s cafe scene was cementing itself as one of the best in the world. And thankfully, it hasn’t lost that original spark. Great brekkie continues to be served here every day of the week. You will, of course, find your staples of toast, granolas and eggs any way you like. But the more inventive brunch dishes are the true heroes here.

Mile End Bagels in Fitzroy takes its name from a neighbourhood in Montreal, whose bagel obsession gives New York’s a run for its money. Boiled in water and honey and baked in a woodfired oven, these rings of dough are seriously legit. The bagels come in just three varieties: sesame, poppy and everything. And spreads include peanut butter and jam, a classic cream cheese option and Vegemite (because, Australia). Biger options are available for those wanting a more filling feed, too.

The Melbourne cafe scene reeled when Carlton’s Ima Project Cafe closed at the beginning of 2023 — but this spot was not down for long. A few months later, it respawned in Brunswick under the new name Ima Asa Yoru. And the Japanese cafe only came back bigger and better. Fans of the old spot will be glad to know the signature teishoku (a Japanese set meal of rice, miso soup, pickles and your choice of either fish or eggplant) still lives on in Brunswick, alongside a whole host of new dishes.