Birdman Eating

Really chilled café with good coffee and yummy food. Had the baked eggs (meat option) which was amazing. My husband ate the Ruben sandwich which he claims is the best he’s ever had! Think it was the mustard. Worth trying if you’re in the area!

I found Birdman Eating to be totally disappointing. The food portions are miniscule. French toast came with one slice, and not a thickly cut slice. Baked eggs, one egg one slice of bread. I was still hungry afterwards. Also pretty pricy given the quality and portion size. I’d say there are a ton o’ better options in Fitzroy, but the place is always packed.

This is a great little café. The service is brilliant with genuine friendly staff. Coffee is very good and I’m liking the food. I had a mushroom and feta omelette and it’s one of the better omelettes I can remember. I’m going back just to have it again. Good times.

All over the place. That’s the only way to describe the jittery, absentminded service during brunch today. A shame, as I had arranged to meet some friends from interstate here, having had a great lunch here on a late January weekday afternoon. Like our neighbours at the next table outside, we had to ask where our food order was, after an unreasonably long wait today. Then we noticed: a sign in the window advertising for new service staff. Perhaps we picked the wrong day to visit, when the staff was either new or on their way out.
The food, when it arrived, suggested staff had changed in the kitchen since my last visit. The quality was nowhere near as good as I’d experienced previously. There are other great places to go on Gertrude St, so I will give this a miss in the future.

This is the place I always come back to when I’m in Melbourne. I cannot go past the El Grando Cerdo for breakfast with the black pudding (the cheese kransky is for amateurs).
Everything is good here; the coffee, the service, the kippers — oh, the kippers…
The baked eggs special changes daily — there’s usually a meat and veggie option but if that doesn’t do it for you, then there’s plenty to choose from on the regular menu.
Try the Black rice, coconut and mango breakfast. It’s kind of like a black rice breakfast parfait. Delicious. If you’re a piggy like me, you’ll have it as a chaser after a serve of eggs and two coffees.
It’s a little loud in there and they aint that good at the Bloody Marys — they usually have a breakky special that comes with a bloody mary — but the food is great and well priced and keeps me (and many others) coming back.

Stopped at Birdman Eating for Saturday Brunch. My Kippers were perfect and the service was very good considering how busy it was. The Bloody Mary was not the best I have ever had but easy enough to remedy. Will be back next time in Melbourne.

Definitely not as good as past visits. They were out of a lot of items at 1130. Serves were very small for most things our table ordered.

Absolutely superb food — spot on. I’ve eaten here three times: fish, lamb, vegetarian all wonderful. Not inexpensive, but reliably good!

LOVE IT, LOVE IT, LOVE IT! My favorite breakfast spot in Fitzroy. The daily baked egg specials are outstanding!

Chilled location and vibe going on, food can be a little bit over priced but the baked eggs were pretty good, so worth it!

Perfect spot for brunching and sitting outdoors on a sunny day.
While it’s a bit of a treat to eat lamb in So Cal, it’s the norm to be able to order that on the daily in Melbourne so I decided to give the cumin braised lamb with sunny side up eggs a try. It was served piping hot and tasted as good as it sounds! While I love my bread toasted, the toast was way too hard for my liking. The food took a while to be served, but I’m sure it’s just cause I’m too used to the hustle and bustle of lickin’ and splittin’ in fast-​paced LA.
Enjoy a cup of latte with any of their breakfast items and you’ll already be off to a great start of the day!

It happens to be one of the most fun parts of gorgeous Gertrude Street what with being sandwiched between two shops that love to play their music loud (Northside Records and Dr Follicles). Personally, I love the music I hear coming out of both shops, and don’t worry if you’re sitting outside, the music never seems to compete. My ears always seem to naturally tune in to one or the other.
Sitting at one of the pavement tables is definitely my recommendation, especially for people-​watching. When the weather is nice, this is a fabulous spot to spend an hour or two over coffee and food and then maybe a Bloody Mary. Needless to say, this means that when it’s busy like it can be on weekends, outside tables are hard to come by.
Everything I’ve tasted here is delicious. Try the Welsh rarebit, ricotta hotcakes and the bubble n’ squeak. Try everything!

I can’t add much new to the reviews already here but I’ll say this…
ORDER THE CHAI. Look at my photos if you need more detail. I’ve never seen chai like this.
And if you want to be sure of a table, 10am on a Sunday will do the trick.

A great way to spend the morning is to catch the sun rays out the front of Birdman Eating and sip on a delicious coffee. After the coffee had woken me up I was ready for the food menu, although ready I wasn’t. Luckily I had my iphone with me to decipher the menu. Obviously I’m not up to date with all the cool menu items that this Fitzroy eatery has to offer. I pleaded ignorance and enquired with the waitress what kaiserfleisch was.
Thumbs up all around for this well established eatery. The french toast and kaiserfleisch was delicious, the coffee was rich and smooth and the never ending water glass from the jovial waitress made the experience a pleasure. Birdman extend their out front dining over three shops to cater for the crowds that attend on a daily basis. If all tables are full, go for a walk and then come back, it’s worth the wait.

I really liked the atmosphere here. It had a comfy, casually vibe about it. And the people were so polite and attentive it made me want to come back again, and I hadn’t even tried the food yet. Luckily though, the food was great. I ordered the brioche french toast with glazed kaiserfleisch, orange pekoe tea ice cream and maple syrup. The kaiserfleisch can only be described as a sophisticated man’s bacon. And the tea ice cream was a sweet, earthy touch of genius. Birdman Eating’s Brunch menu consists of many interesting items, such as the house-​made crumpets with leatherwood honey or the grilled kippers with fried potato and horseradish butter. But many people don’t know that they’re also open for dinner. However, keep in mind that their meals tend to be more like small sharing plates rather than one big pub-​sized meal. There’s even a good range of beers, wines and spirits on offer.

Okay, so I may be a bit of a breakfast snob. Eggs are cheap, hollandaise curdles too quickly, I make a better Bloody Mary than most people. Birdman Eating has broken my winging habits!
I never had baked eggs until I went to Birdman, and now it’s my all-​time favorite brekkie dish, and I’ll have it with ABSOLUTELY anything they put in them. They are that good. I’ve had a gumbo-​style baked eggs, baked eggs with potatoes and sausage, baked eggs with tomatoes, spinach and feta. The list goes on and on. The point is, try them! It’s Fitzroy’s *gasp* BEST *gasp* brekkie!
If you don’t want eggs, fine. Get their fresh-​made (read: limited time availability) soup of the day. Or have the gnocchi. It’s not some boring, potato gnocchi. NO WAY. This gnocchi is made of ricotta cheese. So it’s pasta, made of cheese, topped with cheese (and mushrooms). Maybe not the best for the lactose-​intolerant crowd, but still the best.
But wait, there’s more! More, you say? Yes, Bloody Marys that will clear your sinuses, open your eyes, and scare away that hangover.
DISCLAIMER: get there early on a sunny day, otherwise you’ll wait forever for those coveted sidewalk tables. During which time, you’ll be having a Bloody Mary, and you just may forget about the eggs.

Birdman Eating may always be busy but I still can’t figure out why. Sure, it’s licensed, yeah, the menu’s kind of interesting if a little overpriced but in my experience the coffee is only so-​so.
I went to Birdman for a coffee meeting not long ago and found the ogre green sixties interiors and definitively Melbourne menu — all baked eggs and avant garde rice pudding — a little apathy inducing and, worse still, not a little appetite stimulating. The Birdman may be eating but I, unusually, did not.
Nice if not amazing, Birdman is a good spot on a sunny afternoon owing to its outdoor seating. That said, there are better cafes in Fitzroy without the teeming needless hoopla. Next!

Birdman Eating? What’s he eating? Apparently, lots of delicious breakfast dishes on Gertrude Street.
If you’re lucky enough to not have work during the day Monday to Friday, then you can avoid the queue at Birdman Eating. If you’re coming here for a Saturday or Sunday brunch, be prepared to queue. Luckily, the queue is worth the wait.
I eat a lot of brunch, a lot of interesting brunch, but my initial reaction to Birdman Eating’s menu was: Black Pudding? I’m alright! Whilst I stayed away from the black pudding, their feta and zucchini fritters with labne was amazing. The classic smoked salmon and arugula salad wasn’t the most innovative dish on the menu, but it was delicious. My favourite, the red quinoa porridge with apple, honey, and cinnamon ($ 11.50), definitely jumped on the quinoa train trend that is currently happening in Melbourne.
Their food is innovative and they take brunch to a new level. With a friendly staff and great coffee and tea, it’s definitely a place worth visiting if you’re on Gertrude Street. I haven’t tried their dinner menu, but it’s on my list of things to do.