Berta

I’m going to put this one in the looks-​can-​be-​deceiving category. We walked by Berta on a quiet Sunday morning and noticed that it was really heaving inside. That must mean it’s good, right?
We got the last table up front and I ordered the poached eggs with bacon and hash browns. My partner ordered scrambled eggs with bacon. My eggs were poached quite nicely and the hash browns were tasty, but the bacon was so overcooked it was nearly burnt to a crisp. Meanwhile my partner’s bacon was so undercooked that it probably could have run off the plate. The coffee was pretty average.
I guess if I’m the area again I might give it another go, but considering Hobart has so many other fine restaurants to choose from, I don’t think this would be my first choice.

Great menu, average coffee, got the feeling kids are not popular here as we waited for takeouts.

berta. baby. I’ve been waiting for your breakfast menu to arrive from the moment I moved to Hobart… I just didn’t know it was on its way. That means that reading the menu just made that first time all the sweeter…
The general layout of the place, from what I can gather, remains the same as the ghost of Piccolo that was. The same beautiful black tiled counter takes pride of place toward the front of the space, and there’s a lovely window bar for people-​watching, as well as some outside seating for soaking up any hint of sunshine.
As I’ve already briefly mentioned, the breakfast menu is the clear winner here. Split in half you can choose from the more general «breakfast» list or «egg dishes» (again it feels like this menu was written just for me – some days eggs are a thing I just can’t deal with). For my first sample of breakfast, I couldn’t say no to the final dish on the list… the smoked pork cheek, golden eggs, fennel apple slaw and black pudding. I went a little overboard and added a potato apple hash brown side to the meal, which was completely unnecessary but entirely delicious. The sides menu is extensive but each item is $ 4.50, so choose wisely, and make sure your eyes have consulted with your stomach before ordering.
The food was overwhelmingly good. My breakfast chums and I had no bad words between us. The coffee didn’t overly impress me (a place in Hobart with an impeccable breakfast menu AND overwhelmingly delicious coffee seems to be my white whale) and my friends both did double-​takes (double-​tastes?) at their mochas, which they decided must have been made with dark chocolate. Still very nice, they agreed, but unexpected.
No bookings for breakfast (which must go until around 11:30 or 12 at the very latest, but isn’t stipulated on the menu) but berta. will take lunch bookings from 12pm onward. The lunch menu runs until 2:30pm with a very Mod Oz selection, though nothing that leapt out at me (whereas there are still another four or five things on the breakfast menu I MUST TRY). There’s a snacks menu that runs from noon until close (currently 6pm), and a sandwiches menu that probably runs alongside the snacks menu, as I can vouch for the pulled pork one that I ate around 4pm when I stumbled across berta. on her opening day.
The only other negative I can think to mention about this new breakfast wonderland is the price. Definitely upscale breakfast figures here – I was wholly satisfied with my smoked pork cheek et al but at $ 18 a plate, had I been anything less than satisfied, the rest of my stomach would have been full of sadness.
That being said… see you at berta., maybe next weekend. The french omelette’s calling my name. Wait, or maybe it’s the breakfast rice pudding I can hear. Or the chorizo baked eggs? No, no… it’s definitely the gingerbread hotcake.