• Top Paddock (Richmond)

Tens of people sitting on the grass in the sun.  This was not a breakfast picnic.  This was the queue for Top Paddock.  But as the weather has become colder, and a lazy Sunday saw me on the search for a very late brunch, I was finally seated to a quieter Top Paddock.  As we sat in the partial sunlight at five to three, the friendly waiter took us through the menu, hurrying us to order before the three o’clock cut-off.

“The Top Paddock breakfast is good,” he tried to help.

“Well, I’m Muslim and she’s vegetarian,” said my friend as she glanced through the menu between dishes of bacon and sausages.

“Sure I am Jewish and vegetarian,” he replied knowingly.  We were discussing religion already, and I hadn’t even had a coffee yet.

At this point his watch beeped three o’clock and we were told, with humour, that time was up.  I ordered the pine mushrooms with scrambled eggs, uninspired by the description but taking his recommendation.

The menu description of “local pine mushrooms with chilli scrambled eggs & Boatshed fetta on toast” failed to do justice.  This breakfast was delicious.  The eggs were in soft, moist folds with lots of fresh red chilli (perfect for a lazy Sunday) on thin slices of sourdough.  Pine mushrooms were in slices garnishing alongside fresh herbs flavoured of mustard and lemon.  Flowers.  A woman loves flowers.  It’s the small things that count.


In the cake cabinet were peanut chocolate tarts, we were unable to resist (as if our meals were not already handsome enough).  The peanut butter seemed to have been whipped with melted white chocolate – wickedly indulgent but uncompromisingly more-ish.  Crumbled nuts and chocolate spilled over the sticky surface.


Service was personalised, efficient and note-worthy.  It is not just the hype that has seen Top Paddock soar to live up to its name.  As my friend, and former cafe owner, commented: “That was the best breakfast I have had in a while”.

Top Paddock
658 Church St 
Richmond 3121
03 9429 4332
Top Paddock on Urbanspoon