Ela Carte reviews Magic Mountain Saloon, 62 Little Collins Street Melbourne
Magic Mountain Saloon ? 62 Little Collins Street, City ? www.magicmountainsaloon.com.au
I’ve been to a few cafes around town that offer ‘Asian’ breakfasts, but on the whole they’ve been pretty token efforts.
Smashed avocado with some chilli and coriander, maybe, or a crab omelette, but I’ve not seen something of the scale that Magic Mountain Saloon is offering.
A three story behemoth at the top end of town, Magic Mountain and its staff are funky, but not to the point of being too cool. Mornings are a great time, things are relaxed, the tunes are laid back and the menu is exciting.
It’s one of the biggest menus I’ve seen, and certainly the largest offering of Asian items for this time of morning outside of that continent to the north.
From the savoury options, the Chicken and Kaffir Lime Scotched egg was hard to resist.
A take on Thai son in law eggs, these are wrapped in minced chicken and kaffir lime and deep fried.
Not quite bacon and eggs, but these do come with some soured pork ribs in a tamarind sauce with friend shallots, fresh chilli and coriander. Be warned, this dish is spicy!
A baked egg sits upon a dish of ginger and chilli spiked passata, with slow braise pork belly.
On this day my egg was less cooked than I’m comfortable with. The accompanying brioche is some of the best I’ve tasted.
There are savoury and sweet rotis on offer ? the latter truly is sweeeeeeet. Soft flat bread folded around almond butter, grilled sliced banana, and condensed milk. It’s super rich, but that’s to be expected.
These were huge servings, none of them were finished ? so priced between $14.5 and $18.50 that’s not bad value.
I’d return to try things like Ocean Trout and ginger scrambled egg; black sticky rice with strawberries, banana, coconut cream and dried mango granola; or sticky pork and shrimp rice with green apple, omelette, coriander, ginger and chilli.
Head chef Karen Batson says their Thai take on the congee is worth a look ? with coddled egg and chicken balls, it’s her personal favourite.
The inspired offerings aren’t limited to food, there are some seriously interesting boozy and non-alcoholic drinks on offer ? think Breakfast Marm-tini (gin, Curacao, marmalade with lemon & egg white) or Cola Chai (chai syrup, cinnamon syrup and cola!).
Melbourne does boast a strong breakfast/caf? culture but these guys nevertheless took a risk with more creative and authentic assortment of dishes, I reckon it’s paid off.