We were trying to find a breakfast spot before braving the crowds at Ikea. Our first choice was The Boys House of Coffee at Kelvin Grove, but that turned out to be shut on Sunday morning. Trying to think of somewhere vaguely on the way, we ended up in West End, at Atomica Eat Drink.
Every time I walk past Atomica I always remember having breakfast there one day and a guy at the table next to me complaining that the three breakfasts they had ordered were all too big. Who complains about their breakfast being too big? If you've got too much, then just don't eat it. Better to have too much than not enough. At least that's what I think.
So I decided to give Atomica another go. The first trick at Atomica is getting a seat. Luckily a lady at one of the tables on the footpath heard me talking about the gluten free bread on the menu. She had just finished breakfast and was just waiting for her bill. She jumped up, told me the gluten free toast was fantastic and then offered her table to us. It's days like this when you just know you're going to have a good breakfast.
A very friendly waitress came out not long after to clear the table and give us a couple of menus. Atomica's breakfast menu covers most bases - bircher museli, fruit toast with ricotta, pancakes, lamb & rosemary sausages, eggs benedict and a big breakfast for customers with nasty hangovers.
At the moment I'm finding it hard to go past plain old bacon & eggs for breakfast. I know it's a bit boring, but when you come across a plate of crunchy bacon and nice runny poached eggs, it's happy days (at least in my world). So I ordered the poached free range eggs with bacon and roast tomato jam. This is usually served with sourdough, but I had some gluten free toast instead. When it comes to gluten free toast, Atomica gets two thumbs up from me. This is the first place I've been to that actually had a selection of gluten free toast - pumpkin or multi-seed. I had the pumpkin toast, and it was delicious. Although I didn't ask, I'm pretty sure it was the pumpkin bread from Sol Breads.
Boring as they might be, the bacon and eggs were terrific. The eggs were perfectly cooked and the bacon was a little bit crispy. I found the roast tomato jam a bit sweet, but it was good to have another contrasting flavour on the plate. At $10.50 this was a great breakfast.
We also ordered one of the vegetarian breakfasts, which was a plate of Swiss brown mushrooms, tomatoes, bubble & squeak, spinach and sourdough ($10.50, extra with eggs). This was another winner. The Swiss brown mushrooms were the standout though - a lovely flavour, and cooked so they still had that distinctive mushroom squeakiness on your teeth, which I love. There's nothing worse than an overcooked, soggy mushroom if you ask me.
Atomica Eat Drink only uses free range eggs (I wish more places would) and Barambah Organics milk. After making plenty of coffees at home over the last few years, I'm convinced that Barambah milk makes such a difference.
After this breakfast, I'll definitely be back to Atomica Eat Drink on a more regular basis. The food was delicious, the service very friendly, and it's great value for money.
What does all this mean? A busy West End breakfast spot, serving delicious food with an extra attention to detail and topped off with friendly, attentive service.
food bling ratings
Food - Great
Service - Great
Ambience - Casual, modern cafe feel
Value for Money - Great
Vegetarian - Good
Gluten Free - Good
Atomica Eat Drink
Shop 3, 173 Boundary Street
West End 4101
P - 07 3844 0333
I was lucky enough to have a feast of fresh prawns and Balmain bugs today for lunch, which were delicious. The best thing about really fresh prawns is that you just can't stop eating them. Luckily we only bought a kilo, so we had to stop eating eventually.
