When Did Breakfast Become a Luxury? A Surry Hills Café Owner’s Take

By Daniel Ng, owner of Dad and the Frog Café

Order breakfast, add a coffee, and suddenly a casual morning out becomes a purchase you think twice about.

As a café owner, I understand why people question the bill. Eating out comes from the same household budget as groceries, rent and everything else. A customer doesn’t need to understand hospitality accounting to decide that breakfast feels expensive.

But from the other side of the counter, there is a lot happening between buying an egg and putting breakfast on your table.

Running a café in Surry Hills means trying to make those two realities meet: a price that keeps the business healthy and an experience people feel good about paying for.

My view is that owners should be able to charge enough to run a sustainable business. We also have to earn that price.

What are you actually paying for?

The easiest way to judge a breakfast dish is to look at the ingredients and estimate what they would cost at the supermarket.

It’s an understandable comparison. You can usually make breakfast more cheaply at home.

What that comparison leaves out is the work around the meal. Someone orders the ingredients, receives them, stores them, prepares the components and cooks your breakfast. Someone makes your coffee, brings your food, clears your table and washes everything afterwards.

There is work before the first customer arrives and after the last customer leaves.

At Dad and the Frog, our Chilli Scrambled Eggs include homemade chilli sambal. Our Biscoff French Toast includes homemade berry jam. Those components have their own preparation time before an order reaches the kitchen. You can see them on our breakfast and brunch menu.

Making something in-house can give us more control over flavour and character. It also means allowing for the time, equipment and ingredients involved. That effort needs to make a difference you can taste.

The money left after ingredients still has a job to do

Here is an illustrative example, rather than a breakdown of our own accounts: imagine a dish whose ingredients use roughly a third of its selling price.

The remaining two-thirds still need to cover labour, premises, utilities, cleaning, maintenance and the other costs of running the business, as well as any applicable tax. Whatever remains after all those costs is the profit.

That distinction matters because a plate can look generously priced compared with its ingredients while contributing far less to the business than a customer might imagine.

Another detail is how much you sell. A kitchen needs preparation and cleaning whether it serves a quiet morning or a busy one. On a quieter day, fewer orders carry those costs.

For other café owners, this is why costing ingredients alone is incomplete. We need to understand preparation time, waste and how efficiently a dish moves through service. A popular dish can still be a poor business decision if it creates too much work for what it returns.

Customers shouldn’t have to pay for every inefficiency

This is where I think the industry needs to be honest with itself.

Explaining our costs is useful. Expecting customers to absorb every operational problem is a different matter.

If a menu is too large, preparation is wasteful or service is poorly organised, a higher price won’t fix the underlying issue. Those are management decisions we have to examine.

And “everything costs more” is a weak response to a customer who has just received cold food or been ignored at their table.

When someone chooses us for breakfast in Surry Hills, they are trusting us with their money and part of their day. Good hospitality means taking both seriously.

Expensive and poor value aren’t always the same thing

A simple breakfast cooked properly and served with care can be excellent value. A more elaborate dish can also be worth its price if the ingredients, skill and experience justify it.

On our menu at the time of writing, Eggs on the Run is $16, Chilli Scrambled Eggs is $23 and Biscoff French Toast is $26, before drinks or extras. Those are different breakfasts for different appetites and occasions.

I think having a straightforward option matters. Going out shouldn’t always require choosing the most elaborate plate on the menu.

But every price point needs care. Someone ordering eggs on toast deserves the same welcome and attention as someone ordering a bigger meal.

Whether you’re settling in for brunch in Surry Hills or stepping out for a quick weekday lunch, the questions are similar: did you enjoy the food, were you looked after, and would you happily spend that money again?

So, has breakfast become a luxury?

For someone who now has to save a café visit for a special occasion, it may feel that way. Owners need to acknowledge that without becoming defensive.

I want neighbourhood cafés to remain places people can return to regularly. Making that work takes discipline from the business and a clear reason for customers to choose it.

My responsibility is to keep questioning our costs, our menu and our standards. If I ask you to pay a certain price, I should be comfortable explaining the thinking behind it and listening when the experience falls short.

You should be able to finish breakfast feeling that the visit was worth it.

What makes a café breakfast worth the price to you: the food, the portion, the service, the setting, or a combination?

Come and see us at Dad and the Frog Café, 96 Fitzroy Street. You can explore our breakfast, brunch and lunch menu or book a table.

Dan