Breakfast of Champions: Part 1

Tom is on a mission to have a drink in every Wellington bar this year. He is on another stangely similar mission to drink and rate a martini in any bar that serves one.

I don’t have a mission. Or rather I didn’t. This weekend a voice spoke unto me and said: “Hey Hade, why don’t you do a review thing of big breakfasts?”

It was Amy, and she was right. During the holidays we ate a lot of brunches and at every place there was a “big breakfast”. I usually picked it (mainly because all of the other dishes were subsets of the Big Breakfast but for too much money).

So starting this week I will attempt to eat and rate (and sometimes even photograph) a “big” breakfast at one of Wellington’s many eateries. I hope you all appreciate the clogging my arteries are going to take.

Amy said that she might chime in from time to time with non-big-breakfast breakfast reviews (i.e. pancakes etc).

The criteria:

1. the dish’s title must have the words “big” and “breakfast” in to be considered
2. if there are vege and non-vege options, I will take the non-vege (only for consistency)
3. if eggs are served I will have them poached (if I am asked)

The dish will be ranked on:

1. size (because big is an adjective about size)
2. contents and contents comparison (i.e. button mushrooms versus flats)
3. taste (naturally)
4. leftovers (what remains when my heart says: “enough”)

This Weeks Breakfast: Epic

Epic is listed by Rhombus in the sleeve notes of their latest album and proclaims to have the “best breakfasts in Wellington”. This is quite the claim.

Epic is located on the corner of Will St and Ghuznee diagonally opposite the motorway exit. As such sitting out on their deck seemed more of a hazard to my health than the mammoth breakfast I was going to eat.

I ordered the “Dusties Big Breakfast”. I didn’t think to ask about the name so you can do that if you choose.

Price: It cost $16 and certainly was big (well I thought it was)

Contents: Two eggs (poached, though I wasn’t asked); two hash browns; bacon; half tomato; one mushroom (flat); three kransky sausages; two pieces of buttered ciabatta toast.

Leftovers: Half a piece of toast and half the tomato

Kranskys are the kings of the breakfast sausage and shall, in my opinion, always remain so. Getting three was awesome, if not a little worrying for my arteries. The eggs were covered in hollandaise, which I don’t think was on the menu. I would have preferred them without. The breakfast came with a side of relish (which was some of the best relish I have ever eaten) and mayonnaise!?! I steered clear of the mayo as much as I could, maybe I was supposed to dip my kranskys in it?

I don’t like cooked tomato and so me eating half of it means that it was good. I didn’t even mind the lack of mushrooms because one flat is enough. Bacon = average.

What really is the sign of a quality breakfast though is the hash brown. You know you’re in for something when it comes out and is grated potato held together with egg (and possibly some spices or herbs) and pan-fried. But when it is taken out of the packet and dropped in to the deep fryer it detracts from the rest of the meal. Such was the case at Epic.

Overall Rating: 8, Good, but the best…?