Dr Syntax breakfast, Jan 2015

I realise it won't be the breakfast venue on many people's radars, but I woke up this morning, as you do, with an overwhelming desire for plain old bacon and eggs for breakfast, and instead of me having to make it for everyone else, as has been the custom over the last forty years of my life, for someone to make it for me!

That instinct meant that my most favourite breakfast spot in Hobart, Pilgrim, was out of the question, as their breakfasts are way more fancy schmancy than that. I cast my mind around for the next most suitable venue, then remembered Dr Syntax in Sandy Bay Road did breakfasts on Saturdays and Sundays only from 8.00 - midday. I phoned to check, was reassured that, yes, they were still offering that service, and no, if I was coming soon, I wouldn't need to book.

My requirements were simple: bacon, eggs and a cup of tea. I also needed somewhere I could park directly outside, where I could enjoy a quiet low key meal in comfort and peace and whose food I could rely on to be, at the very least, reasonable.

I got all that in spades at the Syntax, with the added bonus of cheery, helpful and prompt service by the two waitstaff on duty.

Add to that a very subdued CD of assorted songs of the 70's playing discreetly in the background, and I was humming and tapping my way through brekky along with such luminaries as Pilot ("January"), Karen Carpenter ("Yesterday Once More"), Skyhooks ("Ego is not a dirty word") and INXS!

The meal was exactly what I wanted, in fact better, as it very rarely happens that either when you're eating out or at home, the meal is straight out of the pan and in front of you. Have you ever been at a café and the eggs have been so hot they burned your tongue? And ditto with the cup of tea? No, I never have. Most things are luke warm, and I am accustomed to that, so don't view it as at all worthy of comment or criticism, but in this case, the opposite was so, and that in itself is worthy of comment and praise!

So, I wholeheartedly endorse Dr Syntax as a venue of choice if you're just after a simple breakfast, away from the hustle and bustle of the city and Salamanca market on a Saturday morning.

My bill totalled $16. It was well worth it in my opinion.