Launceston’s Best Breakfast Spots
Tassie’s northern capital takes its breakfast seriously. From tiny neighbourhood cafés with impossibly good coffee, to market mornings spent grazing between stalls, here are six of our favourite ways to start the day in the north.
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Café Mondello (image: Instagram)
LEKOH
When you could create a whole Instagram carousel based on drinks content alone - think biscoff iced latte and honeycomb matcha - you know that the food offering warrants its own investigation. George Street’s LeKoh rewards it with an Asian-fusion and fancy toasted sandwich menu that includes a Taiwanese noodle pancake, loaded house focaccia, and a slow-cooked beef cheek melt that ruins the humble cheese toastie forever. Open from 6am, LeKoh is also one of the few places in town that takes early risers - and the pilates girlie lifestyle - seriously. Go once, plan your return before you leave.
55 George Street, Launceston
LeKoh (image: Instagram)
CAFÉ MONDELLO
A long-standing institution in the Charles Street hospitality precinct, Mondello has earned its reputation quietly - and maintained it for years. Their smashed avocado with poached eggs, feta and dukkah is as close to iconic as brunch gets in Launnie, and there are few better ways to while away a mild morning than wrapped in a blanket al fresco, armed with a coffee that locals will tell you is among the best in town.
242 Charles Street, Launceston
TATLER LANE BY SWEETBREW
One of Launceston’s larger and more contemporary spaces, Tatler Lane takes the soft tones, natural materials and indoor greenery of its interiors, and raises it with similarly striking aesthetics on the plate. Though the menu is ever-evolving and responsive to season and provenance, a listing of Tatler signatures keeps the regulars happy. The Feisty Egg Butty (fried egg, panko eggplant, crispy jalapeño and smokey aioli in a housemade potato brioche bun), for example, won’t soon be relegated to the history books. And, for that, Launceston is grateful.
74–82 St John Street, Launceston
Tatler Lane by Sweetbrew (image: Instagram)
ALBERTO’S ESPRESSO/ALBIES ESPRESSO
Two names, one lineage - and between them, they cover the whole week. On George Street, Alberto’s is the weekday OG, slinging some of the city’s most serious caffeine, alongside a neat selection of sit-and-linger or grab-and-go brekkies, like chia puddings, bircher muesli, filled bagels, and a fan favourite pesto, pumpkin and haloumi toastie. While Alberto’s rests over the weekend, never fear - little sister venue Albies is a seven-day affair, with equal care factor about the most important meal of the day.
Alberto’s: 94 George Street, Launceston
Albies: 19 Abbott Street, East Launceston
TINKA COFFEE BREWERS
A small but well-loved St John street spot with the kind of all-day brunch menu that makes ordering tricky in the best possible way, Tinka’s “thing” - outside of its exceptional coffee - is sandwiches. Whether fresh or toasted, there’s a lot to like about this side of the menu, which takes classics and pimps them up just enough to confirm that chefs really do it better. Case in point: the BLAT, which layers maple espresso bacon with mesclun, avocado, and truss tomatoes between Turkish bread. Who’s doing that at home?! A great selection of non-sando dishes, sun-drenched window seats and friendly service rounds things out nicely.
147 St John Street, Launceston
Tinka Coffee Brewers (image: Instagram)
HARVEST MARKET
The north’s premier produce marketplace, Harvest Market takes over a Cimitiere Street carpark every Saturday morning, and showcases local producers, seasonal fruit, flowers, and some of the best eats in the city. Do not pass go without grabbing the Farmhouse Brekky Burger from Meat Bread Cheese - it’s packed with wood-smoked bacon, free-range egg, aged cheddar, a slathering of tomato relish, and optional (but is it ever not an option?) fried haloumi. For something less conventional, head over to Afghani Bolani for aromatic stuffed flatbreads, wash it down with a liquid refreshment from Tasmanian Juice Press, and finish the feast with a sweet treat from Delicious Little Things.
71 Cimitiere Street, Launceston
