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The Brunswick Cafe Guide Your Group Chat Needs
The best Brunswick cafes serve up creativity and flavour like they’re old mates — each one a tasty snapshot of the suburb’s unmistakable vibe.
The best cafes in Brunswick and Brunswick East span serious coffee at ONA, Kōhī No Deshi and Wide Open Road, Japanese breakfasts at Ima Asa Yoru, brilliant bread from Wild Life Bakery and Iris, and neighbourhood institutions such as A1 Bakery and Green Refectory. Few Melbourne suburbs make breakfast feel this varied: warehouse roasteries, Lebanese bakeries, tiny matcha bars, retro-cool diners and sunlit courtyard cafes all live within a few tram stops.
Before we begin, Green Refectory truly deserves its own salute. The cakes are homemade, the quiches disappear quickly and the muffin cabinet has rescued more Brunswick mornings than anyone could reasonably count. Consider this your guide to the suburb’s best coffee, pastries, brunches and breakfast tables, old and new favourites included.
Brunswick Eats
Brunswick Eats has revived the old Milkwood room and dressed it in granny-chic, the flattering sort, not the plastic-covered-sofa kind. After two decades at Hardware Société, Ora and Beatrix, Zoe Pearce now has a cafe of her own, and the cake cabinet arrives with receipts. Egg-and-bacon buns and breakfast fries dusted in Bloody Mary seasoning handle the savoury side; fresh sourdough and towering layer cakes make leaving empty-handed look ridiculous. Nicholson Street has its neighbourhood local back.
120 Nicholson Street, Brunswick East
The Coffee Bar at Bar Elsie
Bar Elsie keeps two sets of hours and somehow makes both feel essential. Mornings begin around the Hickford Street roller door, with Genovese coffee, toasties and pear-and-walnut scrolls served from the old loading dock. Come evening, use the Lygon Street entrance for wine, grass fed porterhouse with matchstick fries and the soft glow of the bistro. Brett and Susie Pritchard have built a Brunswick East address that serves you beautifully, from first coffee to last glass.
396 Lygon Street, Brunswick East
AM PM Brunswick
AM PM earns its name by refusing to clock off with the coffee machine. Mornings begin with $6 bottomless batch brew, the Hot & Sweet Scramble and an unapologetic cheeseburger; later, laptops disappear beneath wine glasses, pints and the occasional lasagne night. Sydney Road has plenty of places for breakfast and plenty more for drinks. This one understands the dangerous pleasure of letting one become the other.
341 Sydney Road, Brunswick
Vandels Bakery
Former Lûmé executive chef Shaun Quade has swapped dégustations for laminated pastry at Vandels, the Sydney Road bakery he opened with writer Veronica Fil. The early obsession is a bee sting croissant soaked in honey-oat syrup, capped with almond Florentine and filled with cinnamon crema catalana. Quince danishes, brisket pies, pork and fennel sausage rolls and three-day-fermented sourdough round out a weekly changing cabinet, all served from a warm, 1970s-inspired room with a street-facing coffee window.
446 Sydney Road, Brunswick
Astrid • All Day Eatery
Astrid slips a glossy diner fantasy into Sydney Road, all burgundy, cream and butter-soft booths. The entirely halal menu plays beautifully to the room: steak and eggs, silky scramble, a cheeseburger built for both hands and a breakfast Happy Meal designed to detonate in the group chat. Coffee gets the attention it deserves, while the courtyard catches Brunswick at its sunniest. Order the Happy Meal before somebody at the next table does.
710 Sydney Road, Brunswick
Beautiful Jim Key
Named for a horse once billed as the world’s smartest, Beautiful Jim Key has brains behind the beauty. Harley & Rose duo Josh Murphy and Priyam Chovhan have built a sunlit Brunswick luncheonette around food with genuine restaurant pedigree: smoked beef sausage breakfast rolls, curried eggs with mango chutney, and hash browns buried beneath smoked trout and fresh cheese. Glass balloons by Ruth Allen drift overhead, Bloody Marys arrive before noon, and suddenly brunch feels like the only thing worth dressing for.
7 Wilson Avenue, Brunswick
Osoi
Osoi makes waiting for matcha feel like part of the ritual. The tiny Brunswick bar hand-whisks every cup, layers it with strawberry or drops it over banoffee gelato, while coffee veers into dark-cherry cola, salted yuzu cream and Korean honey citron. Former lawyer Duy Nguyen and healthcare worker Shy Akter left sensible careers for this deeply personal room of Polaroids, gaming relics and pastries from nearby bakers. Even the postcards get stamped and posted for you.
Unit 3/219 Albion Street, Brunswick
Core Roasters
Core Roasters hides a working roastery and microbakery behind a forest-green roller door in Brunswick East. Michael Allen handles the small-batch coffee; Dani Sunario’s pastry counter goes brilliantly off-script, with weekend specials ranging from mushroom-rendang hand pies and chilli-oil cheese pockets to Chinese-sausage-and-mushroom-XO pain suisse. Tiramisu cookies have become a recurring temptation, but the board changes constantly, so check Instagram before leaving home, then order faster than the person ahead of you.
14 Barkly Street, Brunswick
Kōhī No Deshi
Kōhī No Deshi is the milk-loving foil to the black-coffee purism (read: Discipline Roasters, also excellent) next door. Coffee veteran Marwin Shaw works across four blends and 11 dairy and plant milks, matching each combination to the flavour profile in the cup and serving it in ceramics he makes himself. Peach, toffee apple and sakura might appear on the board, but the counter team is the real menu. Tell them how you drink coffee and let them take it from there.
18 Black Street, Brunswick
ONA Coffee
ONA Coffee gives the morning cup a wine-list education. Saša Šestić’s Brunswick flagship occupies a 450-square-metre warehouse, its espresso bar clad in reclaimed brick and backed by rare reserve coffees reaching $30 a pour. Begin with the berry-bright Raspberry Candy, then move to an okonomiyaki waffle with apple-glazed bacon, prawn udon in bisque or pistachio hotcake with yuzu pear and matcha sorbet. Even the iced drinks have tasting-menu ambitions.
22 Ovens Street, Brunswick
Walrus
Walrus understands the pleasure of breakfast without the Melbourne cafe acrobatics. Owners Jack Shanahan and Miles Davis modelled their compact Sydney Road diner on America’s west coast, filling it with timber booths, handwritten specials and a faint Twin Peaks mood. Settle in for triple-stack pancakes with whipped butter, a knot-roll bodega sandwich or Texas French toast, followed by pecan or cherry pie from the counter. The vintage filter coffee should keep coming.
312 Sydney Road, Brunswick
Iris the Bakery
Iris feels less like a bakery borrowing from Copenhagen than one that has absorbed its habits entirely. Founders Tom Edwards and Betty Milner work traceable Victorian grain into dark rye, focaccia and hefty table loaves, while cardamom buns and morning buns send half of Wilson Avenue off-course. The cabinet changes often, but the tiramisu pastry, layered with coffee-soaked richness, is the prize worth arriving early for.
1 Wilson Avenue, Brunswick
Ima Asa Yoru
Ima Asa Yoru has outgrown its Carlton cafe beginnings without losing the breakfast ritual that made people queue. Inside Nightingale Village, washi lanterns float above the double-height room as teishoku arrive with grilled market fish, rice, miso, pickles and daily okazu. Return after dark for ponzu oysters, chicken nanban, cold beer and sake, when the room loosens into a modern izakaya soundtracked by jazz. Few Brunswick addresses handle both halves of the day so well.
1 Duckett Street, Brunswick
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Lunar by Hikari
Lunar by Hikari carries Sydney Road from Japanese coffee into sake after dark. Lunch runs to mentaiko onigiri, prawn sandos, mentai cold udon and set meals of aburi salmon, wagyu sukiyaki or unagi with tamagoyaki. The drinks deserve equal attention: Uji matcha, peach oolong and cold brew sharpened with yuzu and sparkling water. Save room for hojicha brûlée or yuzu cheesecake, then return when dinner service begins.
458 Sydney Road, Brunswick
Chooka’s
Chooka’s turns a tiny Brunswick courtyard into an Osaka memory. Beneath ivy-clad arches in the old Brunswick Market, Kogoro and Ruri Kubo serve omusubi inspired by the rice balls Kogoro’s mother packed for him as a child, filled with salmon miso, unagi, shiso or ginger pork. Order a set with miso soup and pickles, then stay for hojicha cheesecake and matcha. The Ghibli soundtrack gets the photos; the cooking earns a repeat visit.
1 Ballarat Street, Brunswick
A1 Bakery
A1 Bakery has fed Sydney Road since 1992, and the original Brunswick shop remains a glorious collision of bakery, cafe and Middle Eastern grocer. Order zaatar manoush hot from the oven, a halloumi-filled cheese pie or the A1 Brekkie with eggs, sujuk, labne, olives and fresh khobz. Before leaving, raid the shelves for sumac, rose water and pomegranate molasses. Half of Brunswick appears to have had the same idea.
643-645 Sydney Road, Brunswick
Wild Life Bakery
Wild Life Bakery turns an old mechanic’s warehouse into a front-row seat to the bakehouse, with circular windows revealing the work behind every loaf. Huw Murdoch’s sourdough ferments for 24 hours using Australian-grown heirloom wheat, while Gippsland Jersey cultured butter enriches the croissants and fruit galettes. Toasties arrive thick with house-made kimchi or walnut-basil pesto beneath molten cheddar, comté and asiago. Your next mission: secure the oat-porridge sourdough before Brunswick does.
90 Albert Street, Brunswick East
Good Days Hot Bread
Good Days Hot Bread has earned its following by treating banh mi with care rather than ceremony. The baguettes arrive crisp and light, carrying crackling pork belly, bright pickles and enough chilli to wake up lunch. The turmeric cauliflower version is no consolation prize either, layered with spice, crunch and freshness. Order at the Sydney Road window and accept that eating it neatly was never part of the plan.
644 Sydney Road, Brunswick
Ovens Street Bakery
Ovens Street Bakery operates from a workshop in Brunswick’s industrial backstreets, its roller door opening onto one of the suburb’s most rewarding bread runs. The pain au levain and soy-and-linseed sourdough anchor the offering, joined by croissants, pain au chocolat, ham-and-Gruyère pastries and plump Polish pączki filled with custard or plum jam. Pre-order online, then collect while everything is still carrying the heat of the ovens.
19 Ovens Street, Brunswick
Donatelllo’s
Donatelllo’s, with three Ls and one Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle namesake, is a tiny Brunswick cafe built around sangas, soup and excellent coffee. Owner Zeky Yousuf, a former carpenter, shaped the timber-heavy space himself, while the menu keeps things beautifully focused: pastrami or smoked turkey on Publique sourdough, a molten three-cheese toastie and rotating soup. The Brunny, cold brew with house-made banana syrup and banana cream, has become its calling card.
2/2B Mitchell Street, Brunswick
Wide Open Road
Wide Open Road has kept Brunswick caffeinated since 2009, roasting beans behind glass in its roomy Barkly Street warehouse. Bathysphere remains the milk-coffee favourite, rich with caramel, chocolate and stone fruit, while Shady Lane runs darker with cherry and vanilla. The kitchen holds its own with chilli-butter çilbir, kimchi fried rice, ricotta hotcakes and a cult bacon sandwich layered with scamorza, provolone and green-apple chilli relish.
274 Barkly Street, Brunswick
Capulus & Co
Capulus & Co operates from the front room of Francesca and Christian Sullivan’s childhood home, proving Brunswick’s best cafes do not always need a dining room. Allpress espresso flows through the street-facing window alongside Mediterranean-style sandwiches, homemade sweets and pastries prepared each morning. The best seat is outside, close enough for a chat with whichever sibling is working the counter.
9 Sydney Road, Brunswick
Egglab
Egglab compresses the Melbourne breakfast into something you can eat one-handed on Sydney Road. Its glossy buns carry soft scramble with caramelised onion and chipotle, or the Potato Head: fried egg, bacon, cheese, relish and a hash brown catching every yolky drip. Bigger appetites can level up to Potato Head 2.0 or the jalapeño beef number, with potato gems and Korean pear Bae Juice on hangover duty.
Sitchu Tip: Take a window stool and watch Brunswick pass.
702 Sydney Road, Brunswick
Bagels & Co
Bagels & Co keeps Sydney Road supplied with loaded, made-to-order bagels and very little ceremony. The B & E stacks double fried egg, beef bacon, tomato relish and kewpie mayo, while the smoked salmon comes with cream cheese, tomato, Spanish onion and capers. Halloumi, hummus and feta, crumbed chicken and a classic schmear round out the menu, with gluten-free and vegan options available. Order yours with chips and pickles and take it straight to the park.
627 Sydney Road, Brunswick
Sani
Inside a former Victorian-era bank, Sani sends brunch on a lap of the globe. Exposed-brick arches and parquetry frame a winter menu ranging from XO folded eggs with prawns and fermented chilli sambal to chicken-leg congee, wagyu-pastrami Benedict and tiramisu French toast. The drinks show equal imagination: sticky-date Mont Blanc cold brew and banana-bread matcha. Handsome and rarely predictable, it’s a Brunswick cafe that rewards repeat visits.
63 Lygon Street, Brunswick East
Project 281 Coffee Roasters
Project 281 Coffee Roasters takes the industrial-cafe brief literally. A former printer’s warehouse is divided by enormous concrete drainage sumps spilling with greenery, with a mezzanine, dog-friendly courtyard and working roastery folded into the space. Champion roaster Anne Cooper oversees the beans on site, while the seasonal menu currently ranges from mushroom bruschetta and shakshuka to karaage chicken and tiramisu French toast. It is cavernous enough for the whole group, but the coffee remains the reason to return.
281 Albert Street, Brunswick
Lux Foundry
Lux Foundry has occupied Brunswick’s last surviving nineteenth-century retort house for more than 15 years, and the building still commands the morning: soaring warehouse proportions, old industrial bones and a broad dog-friendly courtyard just off Sydney Road. The current menu ranges from prawn and chorizo chilli scramble to beef-brisket eggs Benedict and blueberry-crumble French toast, backed by Square One coffee. Stay long enough and breakfast can sensibly become an espresso martini.
21 Hope Street, Brunswick
Whether you’re after a quiet coffee, a hearty brunch, or simply a cosy corner to unwind, these Brunswick cafes are ready to welcome you with open arms and exceptional flavours. Quite like these charming French restaurants and Prahran cafes.
