24 Aug The Hardware Société, Melbourne CBD Take 3

I had a church event starting at 9am, so it was the perfect opportunity to come for the weekend menu at Hardware Societe. The last time I came the waitress suggested coming at 8:30am because it would get very busy. I got to the cafe just after 8:30am and it was already packed! Fortunately, being alone, I got a seat straight away at the communal table.

The savoury special of the day sounded quite interesting but I came here with the intention of having the croque madame. I died a little inside when I saw the price of the croque madame had increased to $20 – and also that the ‘fried duck egg’ had been changed back to ‘fried egg’, which I would assume came from a chicken. The description of the savoury special was so detailed I thought the waitress was listing a number of specials and forgot what the different components of the dish were. From what I saw from others, there were two slices of sourdough topped with a potato cake, a crab mixture, three asparagus sticks and two poached eggs. There was also a corn salad on the side. The sweet special of the day was a very thick slice of brioche topped with a generous amount of chocolate sauce, half a banana sliced lengthways and a sprinkling of whole/halved peanuts.

My breakfast came with a side of potato salad, which was thankfully not too creamy, but perhaps a bit too dry. The brioche in the croque madame was lightly toasted and there was a fair amount of smoked salmon. The fried egg still had a runny yolk such that when I cut into it, it created a yummy yolk-fall down the side of my sandwich. Though the cheese was tasty, I felt it overpowered the salmon’s subtle taste. While the croque madame was nice, for $20 I don’t think it was worth it. I’d rather have 7 plates of sushi at Sushi Hotaru or two bibimbap from Seoul Metro.

When I left at around 9:10am there was a crowd of nearly 20 people waiting outside. I was somewhat surprised people are so keen on coming for breakfast so early.

The Hardware Societe
118-120 Hardware St
Melbourne, VIC, 3000
(03) 9078 5992