Ask any Melbournian about Melbourne’s brunch scene and they will tell you to head on over to Fitzroy, Richmond or another one of the hip inner city suburbs.

Well times have changed and Melbourne’s brunch scene has extended beyond its humble beginnings from the city to the wild west. We use to always whine and complain about having to drive across town for brunch.

In fact, did you know that convincing Johnny to eat in the west was just as hard as getting my parents to let me get a tattoo. Near god damn impossible.

If you’ve read last weeks post about our life changing experience at No.19 then you’d know that the prick has finally given in. He is now officially a brunch fan of the west and it took ZERO effort to get him to try out Braybrook STN.

Now that we’re both on the same page, we have agreed to explore the brunch culture in our local area. No better place to start off our hunt than the local hot spot… Braybrook STN. Literally only 8 minutes drive from home, smack bang in the heart of Central West Shopping Centre.

Best thing about being located in a shopping centre is the stress free parking. For once, we didn’t have to circle around twenty times just for a spot.

As soon as we arrived at the entrance, we were in awe of the cafe ambience. It did not feel like we were in Braybrook at all, in fact I almost forgot that we were so close to home. The London inspired cafe was a mini escape from our chaotic everyday lives. Exactly what we needed!

We didn’t bother booking…Johnny was sure that it wouldn’t be packed like the bustling city cafes. We soon realised that he was wrong…as always. The place was filled up to the brim, there were no more seats indoors so we had to grab a table outside. Luckily, we were both layered up in our puffy jackets. It was nicer outside anyway, the natural lighting was way better for our photos.

The waitress sat us down, gave us some time to look through the menu. We were being so indecisive cause the menu sounded so good, we wanted to order the whole god damn thing. But life is life and our wallets weren’t as big as our appetite so we settled for 3 plates to share with a hot chocolate for myself and a berry smoothie for Johnny.

I love pork and everything with pork so our first dish had to be the crackling pork benedict. It didn’t live up to our expectations. The menu sold us a belief that the ‘slow cooked crackling pork’ would be tender and flavourful pork that would melt away in our mouths. Sadly, the pork was tough and didn’t hit the spot for us. The apple slaw was great though and the pair of poached eggs on top became the feature in our egg yolk pop Instagram story.

Johnny for some strange reason decided that he was vegetarian for the day and ordered the Magic Truffle Mushrooms. It turned out to be our favourite dish, the flavours were truly amazing. If you’re a mushroom lover like us then this is definitely a MUST HAVE.

It was a great combination of polenta hash, crispy kale, poached eggs and smoky tomato sauce. Everything was cooked to perfection, from the crisp of the kale to the beautifully stacked polenta hash.

Next up were the Southern Fried Chicken Baos served with mix coloured steamed buns, slaw and topped with a housemade xo chilli sauce. Loved the fried chicken, although it was quite small compared to the baos. The buns were more on the dry side and weren’t as tender as we hoped. Overall we enjoyed the dish but there is still plenty of room for improvement. Softer baos, more chicken and less slaw for the future would be perfect.

Braybrook STN was a lovely brunch spot close to home, filled with culture and good vibes all round. Such a beautifully designed cafe, with plenty of sunshine and fresh air. The food was good but we do hope the team, continues to improve and refine their menu. Love the work they have put in so far and are excited to see what they have in store for the future.

Another brunch spot in the west down, where to next ? If you have any suggestions for our next brunch adventure, then feel free to drop us a comment. We would love to hear from you guys.

Thank you for tuning in on this week’s brunch shenanigans and make sure you follow our Instagram and Zomato pages for all our latest food adventures.