Code Black does Melbourne proud

I'm eating duck waffles for brunch and I'm thwacked over the scone by a thought: geez, Melbourne is good. I'm in a well-loved four-year-old Brunswick cafe and the food is so plainly at the standard of a very good restaurant that I blink a few times, take a bite break, and look around.

Code Black is a 110-seat warehouse cafe, sleek and shimmery and so seriously black that if you wear dark tones, you'll appear as a floating head. There's a dog-friendly front terrace, a glass box of a kitchen and roastery areas where green beans are turned into Melbourne fuel.

A popular place but not super hip or queue-ridden, Code Black is just one of a number of excellent Melbourne cafes that turn breakfast and lunch from perfunctory fuel into peak experiences. We are lucky.

So to those waffles. They're prepared by Ross Bennie, a Scottish chef trained in classical French cookery in Britain, including a good stint with the upmarket Conran group. It shows: his food is technically sound and presented with confident flair.

The duck leg is cured overnight in salt, sugar and garlic then cooked low and slow until the meat can be easily torn from the bone. That melty leg with its shiny, scraped-clean tibia sits on a savoury waffle that's properly crunchy and fluffy. Made with potato, buttermilk and gluten-free flour, it's flecked with spring onions for extra texture. A fried egg lolls on top, and there's a jug of smoky, spicy chilli-infused maple syrup to bring it back to brunch. There's no hiding the rock-solid skills at play.

Bennie was sous chef at Richmond's Noir until late nights started to pall, at which he decamped to daylit dining at nearby Top Paddock. Many old-school chefs lament the lifestyle aspirations of a new generation but one upside is that skilled chefs find their ways to cafes where they keep flexing their highly-trained muscles. It's a win for the brunch crowd.

At Top Paddock, Bennie learnt that every Melbourne cafe menu must star avocado, and that eggs and extras are compulsory because many people wake up with a fixed vision of breakfast.

Those staples are covered off nicely as well as chia-laced fritters, delicious cheesy, herby beans, and lovely lunch-skewed dishes like a fish burger on dramatic black brioche, a crumbed chicken cotoletta that's lightened and brightened with coriander pesto and apple matchsticks, a Mexican vegetable bowl that's built over cashew "cheese" and a grilled pineapple salad with toasted coconut and plenty of fresh herby crunch and spice.

Kids meals extend the concept – why wouldn't a Brunswick bairn want chia pudding? Vegan and vegetarian options are threaded through the menu without any sort of categoric exile.

Add great coffee, ace smoothies (cherry and beetroot!), good service and a menu laced with cheeky humour and you've got a cafe that speaks to the happy state of Melbourne dining and does it more than proud.

Rating: Four stars (out of five)