The Ultimate Guide to the Modern Australian Breakfast Cafe Experience in 2026

Melbourne takes breakfast seriously.

From the morning flat white before work to a long weekend brunch with friends, cafés have become part of the rhythm of the city. And in Melbourne CBD, where people live, work, shop and visit from all over the world, breakfast can mean many different things.

Sometimes it’s eggs and bacon. Sometimes it’s French toast. Sometimes it’s matcha. And before you know it, breakfast has turned into lunch.

At Tomo’s Little Collins, that mix is something we’ve always enjoyed.

We’re a small Melbourne café with a Japanese influence, bringing together the familiarity of Australian café culture with some of the flavours and ingredients we love from Japan.

For us, a great breakfast café doesn’t have to be complicated. It comes down to good food, good coffee and genuine hospitality — served in a place people enjoy coming back to.

Melbourne Breakfast Has Changed — And That’s a Good Thing

Melbourne has a long relationship with café culture, but what we expect from cafés has changed considerably.

The classic bacon-and-eggs breakfast and morning coffee are still very much part of Melbourne life, but they now sit alongside dishes and drinks influenced by food cultures from around the world.

That’s particularly noticeable at brunch.

A Melbourne breakfast menu today might include avocado toast, French toast, croissants and eggs alongside matcha, miso, yuzu and Japanese-inspired dishes.

We don’t see the traditional and the new as competing with each other.

In fact, some of our favourite dishes at Tomo’s are about bringing the two together.

Our Pantry Breakfast, for example, is unmistakably a classic big breakfast — free-range eggs, streaky bacon, sausages, mushrooms, spinach, tomato, hash brown and sourdough.

But look a little closer and you’ll find the mushrooms are a combination of Swiss brown, flat and cup mushrooms, finished with butter and miso.

It’s still comfort food people recognise.

We’ve simply prepared something familiar with a little more care — and added a little of Tomo’s along the way.

Japanese Influence Doesn’t Have to Mean Reinventing Everything

Tomo’s has always been influenced by both Australian café culture and Japanese food.

But we don’t believe that means putting Japanese ingredients into every dish simply for the sake of calling something "fusion."

Sometimes the influence is subtle.

Miso can bring additional savoury depth to mushrooms. Yuzu can add brightness and acidity. Mentaiko brings its distinctive savoury character to prawns. Bonito flakes can add another layer of umami.

Other times, the Japanese influence is much more obvious — particularly as our menu moves from breakfast into our Japanese-inspired lunch bowls.

That’s the balance we enjoy.
This thoughtful approach to fusion is a growing trend in Australian dining, with venues like South Sailor also successfully blending Japanese influences with Modern Australian seafood.

Someone can come to Tomo’s for a familiar breakfast and coffee, while someone sitting at the next table might be having matcha and something they haven’t tried before.

There’s room for both.

From Breakfast to Lunch

One thing we particularly like about café culture is that there doesn’t need to be a hard line between breakfast and lunch.

Our mornings begin with toasties and coffee, with our all-day breakfast menu following from 8am.

You might come in for a Pantry Breakfast, Eggs Florentine, Eggs Royal, Signature French Toast, or one of our tartines or croissant plates.

Then from 11am, the menu expands into Japanese-inspired lunch bowls.

Depending on the day and menu, that might mean Chicken Karaage, Teriyaki Salmon, Ponzu Chicken or one of our vegetable-based bowls, served with Japanese rice and accompanying ingredients.

For us, that’s part of what makes a modern Melbourne café interesting.

You don’t necessarily have to decide whether you’re going somewhere for breakfast or lunch.

Sometimes you just go when you’re hungry.

Coffee Is Still at the Heart of a Melbourne Cafe

Menus may have changed, but one thing remains fairly constant in Melbourne: coffee matters.

At Tomo’s, our house coffee is roasted by Undercover Roasters, a Melbourne specialty coffee roaster.

It’s what goes into the flat whites, lattes, cappuccinos and other milk coffees that move across our counter throughout the morning.

For those who prefer their coffee black, we also offer single-origin coffee.

We don’t think coffee needs a complicated story every time you order it.

Some people are fascinated by origin and flavour profiles. Others simply want their usual flat white made properly before heading to work.

Both are perfectly fine with us.

And Then There’s Matcha

Coffee may be part of Melbourne’s identity, but matcha has increasingly become part of the city’s café culture too.

At Tomo’s, this is one area where our Japanese influence is particularly important to us.

We use ceremonial matcha from Uji, Kyoto, known as one of Japan’s historic matcha-producing regions.

For some guests, matcha is an alternative to their morning coffee. For others, it’s simply something they love in its own right.

And we’ve enjoyed seeing how comfortably the two cultures now sit alongside each other.

On any given morning at Tomo’s, there might be a flat white on one table and a matcha latte on the next.

That feels very Melbourne to us.

Something Sweet Alongside Breakfast

A café isn’t only about breakfast plates.

The display cabinet is often just as tempting.

At Tomo’s, we work with Puffy Bakehouse, whose cakes and pastries add another dimension to what we offer throughout the day.

That means you don’t necessarily need to come in for a full meal.

Sometimes it’s coffee and something sweet. Sometimes it’s matcha and cake. Sometimes breakfast turns into dessert.

We’re quite happy with any of those outcomes.

What Makes a Great Breakfast Cafe?

We don’t think there’s one formula.

For some people, the best breakfast café is the place that remembers their coffee order.

For someone else, it’s where they meet a friend every Saturday.

It might be somewhere with a great big breakfast, somewhere that makes a beautiful matcha, or simply somewhere convenient enough to become part of the working week.

Food quality matters. Coffee matters. Service matters.

But ultimately, we think the cafés people love most are the ones they want to come back to.

That’s what we want Tomo’s to be.

We’re a small team, and particularly during busy breakfast and weekend periods, things can move quickly. We don’t pretend to be a quiet dining room or a formal restaurant.

We’re a Melbourne CBD café.

There can be a queue. The coffee machine will be running. Plates will be moving out of the kitchen.

And amongst all of that, our aim is quite simple:

Serve food we’re proud of, make good coffee and matcha, and make people feel welcome.

Breakfast at Tomo’s Little Collins

You’ll find Tomo’s Little Collins at 382 Little Collins Street, near McKillop Street in the heart of Melbourne CBD.

Whether you’re looking for breakfast before work, meeting someone for brunch, stopping by for coffee and matcha, or staying around for a Japanese-inspired lunch bowl, our menu is designed to move with you through the day.

There are plenty of ways to do breakfast in Melbourne.

This is ours.