Bubbles and bacon: 14 of Sydney’s best boozy brunches

FANCY a side of bubbles with your bacon? Now you can, with the rise of the boozy brunch.

FANCY a side of bubbles with your bacon? Now you can, with the rise of the boozy brunch.

While Sydneysiders aren’t strangers to that midmorning meal that straddles breakfast and lunch, the local cafe is no longer the only option.

Restaurants and bars are offering New York-style bottomless brunch menus where you can have unlimited French champagne with your confit duck, ocean trout tartare or wagyu sliders.

Hotel Centennial’s confit duck waffles.

HOTEL CENTENNIAL, Woollahra

Ex-fine dining chef, Justin North has created a restaurant-quality brunch menu which launched two weeks ago.

It included dishes you wouldn’t normally see on brunch menus, including confit duck waffles and a tuna sashimi bowl, as well as favourites such as omelets, and eggs and soldiers. The full menu runs from 10am-noon, with a limited menu from noon-3pm. Drinks include a breakfast martini with marmalade, mimosa and spiced Bloody Mary

“There’s an abundance of really good cafes that do good breakfasts, but in terms of a really nice restaurant feel, there wasn’t anything like that and we kept getting requests from locals,” he says.

“A restaurant’s infrastructure is different, we have really good chefs and great floor staff who can produce a much better experience.”

DEAD RINGER, Surry Hills
The popular bar kicks off its brunch menu tomorrow. After running the front of house for Broadsheet’s restaurant pop-up last year, director Rob Sloan spotted a gap in the market.

“We had a breakfast menu, but it wasn’t what people were after. They didn’t want just bacon and eggs,” he says.

“It’s become quite a trendy thing to offer really tight, well-conceived brunches. It’s a recovery session, something do when you don’t have plans for the rest of the day.”

The menu includes tomato and ricotta tart, blood sausage omelet, ocean trout tartare and the cocktails are just as thought out as the food.

“Drinks are a bit more bespoke, they’re made with a bit more consideration and balance,” Sloan says.

“We’re making sure the drinks are less about alcoholic strength and more about complexity. We want them working with food options rather than overpowering them. Often people don’t want to get smashed at midday, they want a bit of hair of the dog.”

Jenna Hemsworth and Christine Yanyoyan enjoy a St-Germain Spritz with brunch at The Darlo Country Club. Picture: Richard Dobson

DARLO COUNTRY CLUB, Darlinghurst

This was one of the first boozy brunch options in Sydney. The Branch Club launched last year and was so popular its back for a second run. On Saturday’s from 11.30am-2.30pm, a six course set menu with drink on arrival is $65, you can have bottomless NV Chandon for $85 and if the budget isn’t an issue, upgrade that to all-you-can-drink Möet & Chandon for $105.
Once a month, the St-Germain Brunch Club steps it up a notch with a 1920s Parisian theme, with live music in addition to food and cocktails.

Sea Urchin Crumpet at Saint Peter. Picture: Nikki To

SAINT PETER, Paddington

At this hotter-than-hot seafood restaurant, your scrambled eggs come with marron and crumpets are topped with briny sea urchin or try the Tasmanian octopus head Scotch egg. Plus, the full wine list is also available at its weekend brunches.

Filo Sausage and Egg Sanga form Acme.

ACME, Rushcutters Bay

A set brunch menu, $50, is offered on Saturdays. It changes every week, but includes the likes of filo sausage and egg sanger, fish cakes, chilli and cucumber salsa with rice and rhubarb tart with sweetened ricotta. Cold drip coffee is an option, but you really want to go the cocktails, from spritzer to a Korean Michelada.

ICEBERGS DINING ROOM & BAR, Bondi

Can’t afford dinner here? Swing by for Sunday brunch from 10am-11:30am instead and drink in that view while enjoying a three course brunch with bottomless prosecco for $75.

Brunch dishes from Efendy.

EFENDY, Balmain

A grazing breakfast banquet of more than 30 Turkish dishes is available on weekends from 9am-2pm for $32. Plus Turkish wines, beers and cocktails like the bloody ayshe, a Turkish version of a Bloody Mary with pickled red carrot shalgam and tomato juice, is available on weekends from 9am.

KENSINGTON STREET SOCIAL, Chippendale

An interactive cocktail trolley, with spirits, mixers and garnishes that change each week, lets you create your own cocktail to go with dishes such as warm poached rhubarb, berries, rosemary and spelt granola. On every weekend from 11.30am-3.30pm.

Cuckoo Callay’s tribute to the great Reuben Sandwich — house-made wagyu corned beef, Gruyere cheese, Russian dressing and sauerkraut on sourdough.

CUCKOO CALLAY, Newtown

You don’t have to wait until the weekend, this place serves up a boozy brunch seven days a week. Dishes such as bubble and squeak hash browns topped with a poached egg, pea puree, wedges of marinated avocado and smoky bacon steak are served with “Cuckootails” such as bloody Marys, mimosas or frose.

COOGEE BAY HOTEL, Coogee

Brekky by the Sea cocktails are available every day, think the French kiss with chambord, sparkling wine, sugar syrup, lemon juice to go with your baked ham and poached eggs with Brussels slaw and smoked almonds.

Brunch options from the The Provinicial in Rozelle.

THE PROVINCIAL, Rozelle

A new Friday-Sunday brunch menu, including buttermilk pancakes, peach compote, maple and butter, pairs back well with lighter spritz options, $15, including cassis and plum.

MR CAFE, Cafe & Bar, Balmain

You can go a mimosa, spiked juices or Bloody Mary, but we suggest ditching the latter for an espresso martini matched back with the breakfast doughnut dish, house made doughnuts filled with ricotta and served with a grilled peach and maple syrup.

A laragarita from El Camino Cantina.

EL CAMINO CANTINA, The Rocks

On Sunday’s, between 11am-3pm, you can choose a dish for $14 or spring $29 for an hour-long beverage package, including margaritas, beers, largaritas and more.

THE CHAMPAGNE ROOM, Surry Hills

In The Winery’s upstairs space, you can have three courses and three hours of bottomless bellini’s, in peach, raspberry or lycee, for $70. It’s on every weekend and includes porcini arancini, champagne scones and wagyu sliders.