Support our work
Reader-supported, ad-light. Three ways to back the work.
Hawthorn does brunch along Glenferrie Road and the side streets, and this guide ranks the suburb's cafes and all-day kitchens by their Curateria Score and what reviewers keep saying on their most recent visits, with chains and far suburbs left out. A brunch list is a cafe list by design, so expect coffee and eggs front and centre, with a strong run of sandos, bagels and benedicts. These are the rooms Hawthorn locals actually name. Here is how they sit this month.
Top of the list is Sonny Ray, the cafe reviewers rate for the scramble and a sando, the chilli scrambled eggs and a chicken katsu sando beside a Reuben sandwich, a duck benedict and a chia pudding. Bawa Cafe Hawthorn follows, the room reviewers come to for the French toast and a shakshuka, the twice-cooked French toast and a shakshuka with chorizo and pita beside blueberry ricotta pancakes, eggs benedict with pork belly and chilli scrambled eggs.
Porgies Cafe Hawthorn is the cafe reviewers rate for the folded eggs and the hotcakes, the chilli folded eggs with danish feta and corn fritters beside hotcakes, a Reuben sandwich and a green bowl. Sanctuary & Co is the room reviewers come to for the chilli prawns and a sando, the chilli scrambled eggs with prawns and a chicken katsu sandwich beside a Shokupan French toast, katsu curry on rice and a rosemary rosti stack. Finders Keepers Cafe is the cafe reviewers rate for the whipped feta hash and the waffles, the whipped feta bruschetta hash and chicken and waffles beside black garlic mushroom toast, a smoked chilli scramble and a tuna melt.
Barton Milk Bar is the milk-bar cafe reviewers come to for the toasties, the Hawthorn and the BLATE beside a Barton Toastie, an omelette, an almond croissant and a seasonal salad. Whiplash Cafe is the cafe reviewers rate for the bagels, the turkey BLT, Reuben and pastrami bagels beside a BLT sando, a smoked salmon bagel and an egg and bacon bagel. Short Straw is the room reviewers come to for the benny and a toastie, the eggs benny with rosti and a grilled chicken toastie beside a salmon bagel, The Long Straw breakfast and a cold brew.
The list closes across the suburb. Axil Coffee Roasters Hawthorn is the roaster cafe reviewers rate for the coffee and a fritter, the double shot mocha and a piccolo beside smashed avocado, zucchini and corn fritters and a saganaki focaccia. Le CLEC is the cafe reviewers come to for the benedicts and a bingsu, the eggs benedict with potato rosti and prawn chilli scrambled eggs beside an almond croissant, avocado toast and Thai milk tea, matcha and taro bingsu. Hello Sailor is the cafe reviewers rate for the smashed avo and a linguine, the smashed avo with chilli relish and halloumi and a mushroom linguine beside French toast and a flat white. And Saint Helen Cafe rounds it out, the cafe reviewers come to for the sharing breakfast, the sharing board with smashed avo, eggs Benedict, Turkish sausage and house-made labneh.
If the morning plate is the thread you want to pull, follow it across the city. There is a guide to the best brunch in Melbourne for the citywide picture, and a cross-cuisine tour of the best restaurants in Hawthorn for where to eat once brunch is done.
Every room here carries a Curateria Score built from its full review history, then weighted toward its most recent hundred reviews so the order reflects the room as it runs today, not as it ran two years ago. We hold the cohort to this one suburb and a tight inner-Melbourne radius, roughly 15km of the city, and we drop the multi-location chains and national franchises that trade on a logo more than a local following, so what is left reads as the genuine local order. Because a long-running room collects more reviews than a newcomer, we shrink the raw average toward the cohort mean for places with thin review counts, so a handful of glowing reviews cannot leapfrog a room a thousand diners have judged. For a brunch page the category gate keeps the cohort to the cafes and all-day rooms Hawthorn actually goes to for breakfast and brunch, so a dinner-only restaurant that happens to do a weekend egg does not crowd out the rooms built for the morning. The corpus is Victorian and scored; no AI writer ever reads it. The ranking is arithmetic; the words are ours.
Explore more Brunch in Hawthorn across Melbourne on Discover ->
Every venue here is ranked by its Curateria Score, a recent-review-weighted quality signal that leans on what diners are saying now, not years ago. Keep browsing Melbourne, sorted by Curateria Score, on Discover.
More from the Lowdown
Our read on where Melbourne is eating, drawn from every review we track. Free, no algorithm, unsubscribe in two clicks.