Hamptons Home Living

My best friend Megsie returned from her 4 week honeymoon last week; we of course had a lot of catching up to do so we decided a Sunday breakfast was in order. Being a fellow foodie and Wednesday Girls Dinner partner, Megsie was keen to suggest the venue. Knowing it would be a great choice I didn’t hesitate agreeing with her suggestion – Hamptons Home Living in Paddington Brisbane.

To be honest I hadn’t heard of Hamptons Home Living before so I went online without delay and did a bit of snooping about. My first point of call, the menu. Breakfast – Leavain fig and nut loaf with lemon curd $9 – that was the very first line, I of course HAD to keep reading, and reading I did, until the entire menu had whet my appetite. I knew straight away I wanted to sample the breakfast menu. Next I had a look at their website’s Gallery section and quickly fell in love with their homely décor range.

9am Sunday came around and I made my way over to Paddington. I thought parking was going to be a bother, luckily this was not the case and I slotted into a carpark with ease. Making my way around to Hamptons Home Living I thought to myself, what a sensationally, beautiful morning! The air was crisp, the sky was as blue as any winter sky should be, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky and I was feeling excited. As I approached, the sun shone directly on their shop front banner as if I had been directed by the food gods (yes, I said it). I found the place my belly was to be satisfied, hopefully anyway.

Couples, families and circles of friends chatted lively on the occupied tables out front. I walked through the white skirted frame doors and ventured inside. The interior didn’t disappoint at all, as their website suggested, the front room was filled with Hampton décor – bedroom, living and dining. Soft furnishings, linen, books, lotions and clothes lay styled around the room. Megsie pointed out that a few of their items were in fact oddly out of place, the reason being that the restaurant had fully booked out. I later discovered that this day was-in-fact the hardest day the team had had in 13 months, hard because they were inundated with hungry people wanting good food.

Whilst we waited for a table, Megsie filled me in on a little Hamptons Home Living background info (yes Megsie and her husband are regular diners here). Husband and wife team Tania Bailey and Luke Stringer opened Hamptons Home Living back in April 2011. They’ve had quite the success over the last 13 months with positive reviews aplenty.

Our table was ready so we made our way out to the back deck – wow, what a view! Our skinny latte and cappuccino’s were ordered without delay. As I took in the sweeping views and gazed around at the other restaurant patrons I noticed everyone had a big smile on their face. A waitress carrying a plate of deliciousness went by at that very moment and I quickly realised why they were all smiling.

Megsie and I had a lovely chat about this and that and struggled over our breakfast choices – “I really want the Hamptons full breakfast” (double smoked bacon, eggs, parmesan rosti, portobello mushroom, Roma tomato and leavain sourdough $22) “….but I really want the Merguez sausage too” (Merguez sausage, poached eggs, slow roasted tomato, chimi churri & Turkish $17.5)“….maybe I could order the Persian feta on the side, maybe even parmesan” – a very typical moment in a foodies life is the difficulty in deciding what to order! As we took our last sip of coffee (which I might add was the best coffee I’ve enjoyed in a long time) we finally decided on our meals and ordered another round of coffees. Megsie opted for the truffled eggs and double smoked bacon on leavain sourdough ($18), an egg-cellent choice! I went for the field mushroom, olive and rosemary toast, shaved Parmesan, watercress & balsamic ($15) and ordered a Parmesan rosti ($4) on the side.

Megsie’s truffled eggs were very tasty and I was lucky enough to score a taste of the double smoked bacon, it tasted as wonderful as it sounded.

My field mushrooms were perfect. I loved everything about it. I loved how juicy and cooked the mushrooms were. I loved the olive and rosemary toast. I loved the crispiness of the watercress. I loved the sharply tasting Parmesan and the sweetness that is balsamic; everything just married wonderfully together and made my every mouthful heavenly. And Parmesan rosti, hello! There should definitely be more rosti’s like this in the world.