Egg-stra cost: Why Adelaide cafes charge more for scrambled

For those who like their eggs scrambled, some Adelaide cafes are charging up to three times what poached and fried googs will cost you. Is this fair – or cooked? Have your say.

Adelaide brunch-goers should expect to pay egg-stra for scrambled eggs, some cafe owners say, as the cost of produce continues to soar.

Some cafes have implemented a surcharge to scramble eggs, as opposed to serving eggs poached or fried, which they say is a result of the dish requiring at least one extra egg and additional ingredients such as cream, cheese and butter.

Lockwood General owner Adam Robinson said he recently implemented a $2 surcharge for scrambled eggs at the Burnside cafe, after the cost of goods went “through the roof”.

“Our scramble actually contains butter and cream to make it quite luxurious, and there’s been a 28 per cent farmgate price rise in the cost of milk which obviously flows onto other dairy products,” Mr Robinson said. “And our eggs have also increased in price three times last year.

“You actually get a larger amount of scramble – it’s very difficult to scramble two eggs, you get left with a very poor looking dish on your plate. It’s at least three, sometimes verging into four eggs in a decent scramble.

“Also it’s the manpower – softly scrambling eggs, you need a chef standing there.”

Mr Robinson said the cafe had not received any blowback, however “if someone didn’t want to pay the additional cost, we would scramble them just two plain eggs and that would be fine”.

At Plant 4 cafe My Grandma Ben, a surcharge of $1 covers the cost of the extra egg required, owner Jessie Spiby says.

“It’s three eggs – we have a ladle that measures it exactly,” Ms Spiby says. “Overall it’s a bigger meal. A quality egg is at minimum 55c for us.”

This week, a post on social news site Reddit showing a $2 surcharge for scrambled eggs at cafe Zitto, which has locations in Golden Grove, Tea Tree Plaza and Elizabeth, drew mixed responses.

Jodie Zerna presents some seriously scrumptious scrambled eggs at My Grandma Ben Cafe, Bowden. Picture: Image / Russell Millard Photography

“Why am I being charged $2 to have my eggs scrambled as opposed to other methods?” user u/IsThisDesert posted.

While some users were outraged – “It’s just really distasteful, dishonest and tacky,” wrote katamine237 – most were understanding.

“Extra ingredients and labour required,” wrote _EnFlaMEd. LoubyAnnoyed wrote: “It’s fairly common … a lot of places don’t even offer scrambled eggs because it slows down the line.”

Mt Gambier cafe, Limestone Coast Pantry, also have a $2 surcharge to cover the extra egg as well as cheese, milk and cream.

At city cafe Sibling, each egg added to sourdough toast costs $2, or $6 for a serve of scramble.