Sunday brunch with friends was had at 39 Steps in O’Connor. The café has charm with an eclectic mix of decor and a mish-mash of high and low tables, benches and chairs. There is artwork available for purchase on the walls. On a cold rainy day, it was lovely sitting inside this cosy homely cafe.
We noticed the lunch specials blackboard on the wall but were advised that Sunday offers an all-day brunch menu only. There’s no table service so we ordered at the front counter.
I decided on the potato rosti with smoked salmon, avocado and spinach ($15) and added some poached eggs ($2). I was impressed to see two thick pieces of rosti stacked on top of each other. The texture was good and the outside was fantastically crispy but the rosti itself was plain and not flavourful. The smoked salmon was wonderful and added some saltiness to the otherwise plain dish. The poached eggs were a tad overcooked for my liking – not runny the way I like them. I enjoyed the whole heap of spinach leaves sitting underneath the rosti which made this a somewhat healthy dish.
Close up of the rosti
My soy mocha ($4) was nice and my other friends enjoyed their coffees too. These didn’t take long to come out.
Food porn of my friends’ dishes
Smoked salmon and dill scrambled eggs on sourdough toast ($16)
Zucchini and corn fritters with bacon, avocado, tomato salsa, mint yogurt ($15) plus added poached eggs ($2)
- Scrambled eggs with mushrooms, tomato, spinach on gluten-free toast
A great thing about 39 Steps is that they offer suspended coffees. I purchased one on the way out. The suspended coffee concept started in Naples, Italy, and allows you to prepay a coffee that is provided to those that cannot afford it themselves. This concept has swept places like New York and a handful of cafés in Canberra are now offering it. Good on you guys! I hope more cafés in Canberra get on the suspended coffee bandwagon.
