Bronte Road Bistro

Overview

Saturday morning at Bronte Road Bistro is what happens when a classically trained chef starts making eggs for the hungover masses. It's a classic bistro doing cafe brekkies well and without fuss, with head chef Matt Barnett matching morning classics with Bloody Marys and champagne mimosas from 9am onwards.

The bistro is an expressly bacon-and-egg-roll-free zone. Sydney's brekkie of the moment is baked eggs, and in the Bronte Road version, rich yolks spill out into a beautifully seasoned tomato mess. It's finished with a dollop of yogurt and a burst of mint and spring onions, and scooped up with a serious slab of woodfired bread.

It takes a cheffy kind of confidence to present a pile of cavolo nero, goat's cheese and pan-fried mushrooms on bruschetta with little apart from a drizzle of olive oil and smattering of thyme. Barnett pulls it off by relying on fresh produce. It's the kind of food made by people who do things simply and properly. Spicy, meaty beans with labne and dukkah and scrambled eggs with walnut toast also look tempting.

The sides go beyond the usual cafe cliches — pork belly hash sounds ridiculously good, but we opt for a vegetarian salad of crisp cabbage, sharp creamy Persian feta, sweet peas and zingy mint. Like everything else, it smacks of balance and consideration, and the bistro dining room shares a similar lack of adornment.

The drinks menu also goes above and beyond. There's a hard ginger beer and Grey Goose with fresh-pressed apple juice — a little creative menu planning goes a long way.

BRB makes a bold, strong latte, but the di Gabriela Earl Grey will satisfy tea drinkers usually chronically neglected in coffee-obsessed Sydney — there is not a soggy teabag in sight. An apple, pear and rhubarb crumble makes a lazy brunch special — which could be Bronte Road Bistro's credo. Smart service and a sunny location seals the deal. A friendly, solid Sunday morning option.

The restaurant is also open for dinner from Tuesday to Saturday, 6-10pm.