Hash Specialty Coffee & Roasters

Hash kitchen

Disclosure: We attended and had breakfast courtesy of Hash Speciality Coffee & Roasters and Zilla & Brook.

There’s nothing quite like a Melbourne brunch, and although I no longer keep up with the latest Melbourne cafe openings (who has time? money? energy?!?) it’s still nice to experience a new cafe every now and again.

A couple of months ago, Alastair and I were invited to breakfast at Hash, located in Hardware Street in the city.


Hash interior

You’ll know the cafe by the colourful mural on the black painted columns, and the # sign out the front. Inside, a central coffee bar is the first thing you see, and contrasting black paint and plywood walls gives an interesting design effect.

There’s two levels, and we headed upstairs – where we managed to have a nice view of the kitchen – and awaited our breakfast.

Coffee

So with a place that’s named Hash Specialty Coffee & Roasters, the first drink I ordered should have been a coffee. Alastair was good and ordered his regular flat white.

But as for me, I HAD to order a hot chocolate.

Because look: fairy floss.

Hot chocolate

Hash’s hot chocolate ($6) is made with Mork dark chocolate and served with fairy floss in the cup.

hash_hotchocolate

You pour the hot chocolate directly on to the fairy floss, which melts it and gives the drink some sweetness. Okay, so maybe it’s a gimmick but it’s fun. And, surprisingly, despite the seemingly large amount of fairy floss, the hot chocolate wasn’t too sweet – it was perfect.

Filter coffee

I did have a filter coffee ($4) later.

Filter coffee

The other coffee option is a drip coffee ($6).

Hash

Enough about coffee – let’s get to the food. Please note that we were served tasting portions, so the size of actual dishes at Hash differ, plus the menu has probably changed by now.

Egg and pork

First we had a tasting portion of their Leek & cheddar croquettes ($19.50) – leek and cheddar croquettes, cauliflower puree, ham hock, cavolo nero and a turmeric poached egg. Those croquettes were particularly good, and I really liked the yellow egg though I’m not sure that the turmeric imparted much apart from the colour.

Foie gras sliders

The Foie gras sliders ($27) contained duck liver foie gras with pickled red cabbage and avocado aioli on a brioche slider bun. These were super rich, as expected from foie gras, though the pickled cabbage and aioli did help a little to cut through the richness. I definitely couldn’t have eaten more than one of these.

Pannacotta

After the sliders there was Coconut yoghurt pannacotta ($15.50), which came with dehydrated banana, toasted nuts and grains, and vanilla syrup. Pannacotta is not something I would normally expect to see on a breakfast menu, but this version definitely worked for breakfast considering it wasn’t too sweet.

Rice pudding

Along with the pannacotta was a small serve of the Rice pudding brulee ($15.50), which had cardamom spiced rice pudding that had a layer of caramelised sugar on top. This also had poached pears and pistachios. It was another unexpected, but good, breakfast dish.

Hash kitchen

Judging from our breakfast, the food at Hash is creative and varied, and it seems to be a good addition to the Melbourne cafe scene. And the hot chocolate is definitely worth an order, at least once. 🙂

Hash Specialty Coffee & Roaster  
113 Hardware St
Melbourne
Phone: 03 8529 0284
Web: facebook.com/hashcoffeeroasters

Hash Specialty Coffee & Roasters Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato