Muse

Opening times are incorrect. I drove quite a distance to arrive in time to have coffee and a quick bite. I arrived at 11:03am (Google says they're open until 12:00pm) and politely asked if I was too late for food. They told me that I wasn't too late for food, I was too late for a table. There were tables everywhere and had they asked, I would have just grabbed a quick coffee to go. Update opening times?

It was satisfying experience. The souffle was creamy and soft and definitely signature menu here! But it might be too heavy for breakfast🤣 Egg benny was delicious. Coffee was good as well, nice temperature, and flavour. They use my favourite coffee bean from redbrick:) I spent my sunday morning happily here.

One of the best & most popular breakfast/brunch venues in Canberra so do take the time to book. A few of tables are outside for nicer days. Both the staff and the menu are consistently good. The place doesn't fall into the trap of bulking-up offerings, instead it pleases by variety of taste. Don't forget to checkout the books on offer..they always amaze with their relevance to current affairs and history from a Canberra perspective.

Entering into the bookshop is welcoming and warm, and the lucky table sitting there will feel either lucky or uncomfortable as they are right near the front window by themselves but surrounded by so many lovely books! A number of options to eat but dishes were hit-and-miss; my Green Bowl was nicely seasoned and exactly what I wanted, but my sister's Hawaiian Poké Bowl was bland and disappointing, with cold undercooked rice and no exciting flavours. My soy coffee was nicely done. A little on the expensive side coming from Melbourne at $18-$20 per dish but a pleasant option for those staying at the attached hotel or in the area.

(3.5 stars) Fresh from a great sleep upstairs in the East Hotel, we didn’t have to wander far to find an interesting breakfast. Muse: Food, Wine & Books is another of the hotel’s onsite restaurants. Part bookstore, part all-day diner, you can access Muse either through the hotel’s stylish lobby, or from the street if you happen to be a Canberra local. The audience is clearly a good mix, testament to the hotel giving each internal restaurant an external face and identity. Being a bookshop restaurant, obviously books are a big part of the attraction, and you can buy a book at any time the restaurant is open. It’s not a gimmicky bookshop either, there’s a decent collection of contemporary fiction, current issues, arts and culture, food and wine, plus a political shelf where you can pick up a biography of your favourite ex-Prime Minister, with quite a few to choose from over the last few years. The other printed work I should mention is the wine list. It’s interesting, wide-ranging and cleverly arranged; enough to make me regret dining here too early in the day to give it a thorough going over. After a slightly shaky start where staff show irritation after we arrive without a reservation for an 8.30am breakfast on the advice of hotel reception staff, we’re seated in the dove grey dining room. With a baby grand piano in one corner, and natural light streaming in from both sides, it’s an attractive but simply furnished space. We’re quickly delivered our locally-roasted Red Brick Espresso coffees, in a pale-hued Latte ($4) and a Strong Flat White ($4.50). It’s smooth without being remarkable, a bit hollow in the middle for my liking. The breakfast menu is interesting, with dishes like Sriracha Eggs Benedict ($20) instantly grabbing my attention. A pair of poached eggs sit with pulled ham hock on sourdough toast under an eye-catching orange sriracha Hollandaise that eats as well as it looks. I find the ham hock a bit intense for breakfast though, and in such a generous portion, it tends to dominate the other ingredients on the plate. Ordering a Full English Breakfast ($26) in regional areas is a good way to taste test local produce without much adornment. Described as “no ands, ifs or buts”, Muse’s big brekky includes fried eggs, sausage, thick cut bacon, black pudding, grilled tomato and a whole grilled field mushroom (my favourite thing on the plate). With this much food on one plate, it would be advisable for the kitchen to heat their high-end crockery to ensure the diner gets to enjoy all of their food hot.