The launch of a new breakfast menu at Duende, Leederville

Breakfast or brunch in Perth comes with a rather long and impressive list of places to dine at. I know whenever I'm brainstorming where to go I either consult my wishlist or fall on old favourites. When I first started indulging in brunch outings, Sayers in Leederville was my regular stomping ground, and then I started to branch out more and more (though their hollandaise often calls me back). But it was only by chance a couple of years ago that we crossed the road from Sayers to try Duende's breakfast options... and we found a new place to add to our go to dining destinations. 

Duende is so well known for their tapas menu - with particular favourites of mine being their corn and manchego croquettes, paella balls, and PX mushrooms. It's a place I've dined at more times than I could even attempt to count, and when Jeremy and I first started dating it was our regular romantic nightspot. But as a breakfast destination, not many people realise they serve something different to night.

Things are definitely changing there though, in part due to a change of owners in September last year - and after some reassessment and trials, they decided to revamp their breakfast offering. The new menu officially launched on the Easter long weekend, and I was invited down on the Saturday to try it for myself by the restaurant's manager Aaron. This was an invite I was particularly excited about since I have such a longstanding relationship with the venue. 

I arrived bright and early for our breakfast booking with my boy in tow. We were well rested and already suffering from rumbly bellies, so feasting was an absolute must. As soon as we entered, Aaron greeted us and sat us at a nice high table with plenty of natural light streaming in (perfect for my camera snapping). 

It was great to get to chat to him about the work that they've been doing on the menu, and on the journey they've undertaken in recent months. I can imagine it must be difficult for some staff to switch between an intimate, wine focussed tapas restaurant at night and a casual, relaxed cafe style venue during the day. But while we were there I thought everyone seemed to be managing well, with all staff we encountered friendly, helpful and the service consistently good. 

We started things off with a fresh cold-pressed orange juice each ($7.00). Michael Brothers are a local company run out of Caversham who create fresh, raw, unpasteurised, small-batch, cold-pressed, preservative free juice made from 100% WA produce.

I adore their juice range and whenever I see it on the menu I immediately gravitate towards it. The strawberry and lemon is a must try flavour if you're a juice person like I am! And on this occasion, the orange juices we ordered were zingy, tart and full of vibrancy - definitely hitting the spot and waking up us fully to get our tastebuds ready for feasting.

While we looked over the menu to choose our dishes to order, Aaron kindly brought out a freshly baked hot cross bun with some lavishly decadent Lescure butter. We were pretty quick to jump on this, dividing it up and spreading a (probably thicker than necessary but I'm the first to admit I love butter a little too much) decent amount of the creamy butter onto the hot toasted halves.

I have to admit, I do love a good hot cross bun and this one impressed - soft in the centre and full of plump sultanas to give little satisfying bursts of sweetness. If only you could readily get your hands on these bad boys outside of Easter.

Once we place our orders they don't take too long before they're brought out to us. Immediately I find myself fixated on my boy's pulled pork brioche bun ($16.00) which is glossy and packed full of tasty ingredients. There's pickled carrot, a salad made of cucumber, tomato, chilli and mint, fresh coriander and chipotle aioli. It's a very zesty and flavoursome combo!

The bun itself is a buttery dream - soft but maintaining it's structure despite the stack of goods inside. The pulled pork is tasty with no overpowering flavour or sauce - they've really just let the pork shine. It still had some texture to it which was good to see as sometimes pulled pork can actually end up a little stringy or even mushy.

However I think the real star in this dish were the vegetables - they all played an important part and both layered and diversified the experience from a taste perspective. Simple but well executed - something I think should be celebrated. And just because I'm a little bit fickle sometimes, can we take a minute to appreciate the gorgeous plate it arrived on!

For my dish I found myself deciding between the doughnut balls (with buttermilk custard, berry coulis, strawberry mint salsa, chocolate ganache, macadamia crumb and peanut butter & jelly ice-cream) and the eggs bene. This was a war of internal emotions as the doughnut balls, while a sweet dish and not in my normal breakfast spectrum, were made up of flavours I can only describe as right up my alley. I am an absolute pig when it comes to peanut butter and though in the end my need for savoury won out, I couldn't help but look longingly at the menu item again and again. Even as I write this I've already decided I'm going back to try them. I just have to!

My eggs bene ($14.00) however proved to be a very satisfying and delicious decision so there was not even an ounce of regret in my order choice. It was a deceptively filling dish with two sweet potato & thyme rostis stacked with poached egg, kale and apple cider & tarragon mustard seed hollandaise. You have the choice of also adding on bacon ($4.00), smoked trout ($6.00), serrano ($5.00) OR the rather luxurious iberico ($15.00). I chose serrano not wanting to be greedy since Duende were treating us to breakfast, but Aaron very quickly insisted I have the iberico instead... and who was I to argue with such a wonderful suggestion!

While it might not look the prettiest post yolk pop, you have to admit there's something a little bit sexy about that glorious pool of orange goodness. Both eggs were poached perfectly, and underneath that rosti was crunchy on the outside and moist inside. The thyme flavour is quite strong in this, but luckily I'm one of those people who definitely loves her herbs, so this appealed to me.

It was a very filling dish and when I gobbled up my last bite (naturally a bit of egg, a good fold of iberico and a dousing of hollandaise), I was completely satisfied and riding on a bit of a food high.

And while I couldn't possibly fit in anymore food, I was happy to have a sip (or three) of the surprise drink Aaron sent out - an iced lemon chamomile tea. First off, how pretty is this drink! The foam, hit of lemon and then the calming chamomile flavouring all work perfectly together to form a unique and tasty twist on your normal iced tea. And I love my iced tea so it was just the thing to create a happy ending for my boy and I as our final taste for our Duende feast. 

A big thank you to the team at Duende for hosting us and for including us in the launch of their new breakfast menu. I'm already back there in my mind for those doughnut balls! And I hope that they start to see more people drop by and try them out for their morning menu, because what we had we really enjoyed. 

Okay, so that paragraph above was meant to be the end of my blog post... but then I went back and had said doughnut balls and HAD to share them with you. Are these not the most amazing things ever?!

At $16 they're not the cheapest brekky on the menu but my goodness they are worth every single cent. The doughnuts are fluffy on the inside, crisp on the outside - and all sugared up. The peanut butter and jelly ice-cream is ridiculously good, I actually want to buy tubs of this. And everything else, well it's all delicious too. Am I raving? You bet I am. I'm SO glad I went back for this dish.