A not so typical breakfast at Typika

They say breakfast is the meal of champions. That first dining experience of the day that sets you up to face whatever challenges lie ahead. Generally breakfast isn't too exciting for me, with fruit, yoghurt or granola being my weekday feasting items. However when it comes to my days off from work, I love going out to try breakfast at either favourite venues or somewhere new.

Back from our holiday to Kuala Lumpur, Jeremy and I spent our remaining days off relaxing and enjoying basically doing nothing (what a rare feeling!). On Thursday morning we found ourselves up early to drop my dad off to an appointment at the Lions Eye institute, and decided we'd stop by new kid on the block in Claremont, Typika.

Not that it means much to non-coffee drinking Jeremy and I, but Typika have been making all the right waves of conversation as people talk about their $80,000 specialty coffee roaster they have in house. If I only I drank coffee so I could see if it was a sound investment! But I'll assume it was since everyone around us was indulging in cup after cup.

Despite being a weekday, the venue is full - mainly of hipster types in ski patterned jumpers and yummy mummies who you would expect of this Claremont area. The outside is distinguished by a bright yellow wall, and the inside is light, airy and reminiscent of a warehouse feel.

I love how much space they have and the fact that they haven't over-allocated seating. It's very modern and funky.

We're seated immediately, and each decide to start our day with an Orange Juice ($6.50). After nearly two weeks in Malaysia, we've grown used to having freshly squeezed juice every day and are going through withdrawals since coming home.

Unfortunately at Typika, the juice didn't quite taste fresh squeezed. While it might have been, the result lacked the sour and sweet freshness that accompanies oranges, and isn't as vibrant as I'd like. For the price tag, it's a little disappointing, especially considering the glass's small size.

After Jeremy and I place our breakfast orders, our food comes out about five minutes later to our surprise! While I do love quick service and there's some parts prior prepared, it's a very quick turnaround. We were probably lucky enough to catch onto a small lag in orders maybe?

Jeremy orders the Martabak ($16.50) for his dish. It's a flaky pastry pocket filled with spiced pork and beef mince, plus egg. There's an oven-roasted tomato on the side, and tomato relish in a little jar next to a lettuce and root vegetable salad.

The presentation is gorgeous, I love how it comes out on a thick wooden board with steam pouring out from the filling inside. As he starts eating, I can see that he's not too enamoured with the flavours despite the appearance.

When I ask him about it, he says there's not enough spices with the mince meat and an abundance of egg - it reminds him of a sausage roll. The tomato relish however is lovely and sweet. It's light and well seasoned, a great accompaniment.

For my main, I choose the Spiced Beef Benedict ($18.50) which had nearly been Jeremy's choice too. It's two poached eggs sitting on top of slow cooked, spiced beef and a large slice of toasted ciabatta bread. On top there is a river of harissa hollandaise and some micro-herbs.

It's a big dish! The ciabatta slice is double what I would normally expect, the inside soft and airy. I love the tenderness of the beef, it pulls apart with ease, though the promised 'spiced' element is amiss.

The poached eggs are perfectly cooked. One pierce of my fork and the yolk spills out onto the plate, combining with the other elements like a sexy binding agent. I love the harissa hollandaise, which combines my love of chilli and butter into an unusual and innovative sauce.

If you haven't come across harissa before, it's a hot chilli sauce which features ingredients such as piri piri (a type of chilli), serrano peppers,  garlic paste, coriander seed, red chilli powder, caraway and olive oil. It's said to originate from Tunisia.

The sauce is quite rich but it does taste really nice and I enjoy eating it with the beef and eggs. The dish is huge though and I end up giving up about halfway through and letting Jeremy finish it off for me. He's all too happy to oblige since the martabak was on the smaller size.

Typika gave us some nice flavours with a couple small points which didn't match the level of the others. All up I did enjoy our breakfast and wouldn't mind coming back to try the lunch menu sometime. Or perhaps if I'm ever craving brekky on the weekend I might come back since they serve it until 3pm on Saturdays and Sundays. Outstanding :)