Monopole Coffee Lab, Surabaya

On a Sunday morning after church service, we wanted to have breakfast in cafes. But as you know, there are very few cafes in Surabaya that open early in the morning for breakfast (somemore it was fasting month). Thanks to my Instagram stalking skill, I found a cafe in the west with operating hours from 8am: Monopole Coffee Lab. If you scroll through my blog archive, you will find a post about Caturra Espresso. Well, Monopole is affiliated with Caturra since they are established under the same management. The cafe is located on Jl. Darmo Permai 1, close to Madame Chang. Frankly speaking, Darmo area is not somewhere I'm familiar with, neither I know how to navigate my way there. Armed with Google Maps, I managed to get there with a slight misguidance (sometimes I suck in map-reading haha).

Iced Mango Tea - IDR28,000

My cousin opted for something fruity and refreshing. This drink had the sour taste of mango with a little touch of sweetness.

Big Bratwurst Sausage, Ham and Soft Scrambled Eggs on Panini Bread - IDR43,000

It was stated in the menu that the panini bread was interchangeable with croissant or toasted bread, thus I changed it with croissant. The presentation looks very plain without any garnish. The sausage was a bit too salty for my liking. The scrambled eggs contained diced paprikas inside, resembling omelette.

Eggs Benedict - IDR43,000

Similarly, you can choose to have your eggs ben with panini, croissant or toasted bread. It was pretty filling since it was served with fries too. The egg ben used Mornay sauce instead of Hollandaise, and this Mornay sauce tasted like mayo to me. The egg yolk could be runnier - it was not Snapchat-worthy as the yolk barely oozed out when it was sliced. The fries was lightly salted and crispy, I actually enjoyed it more than the eggs ben lol.

Salted-Egg Yolk Croissant - IDR28,000

As someone who blogs mostly about food, I'm ashamed of myself for not having tried the ever-popular salted egg yolk croissant in Singapore (actually I have tried BreadTalk's $1 salted egg croissant but I think it is not counted since it is bite-sized lol). The craze in Surabaya is not as hype as in Singapore, but still, people rave about it. When I saw that Monopole had this croissant on the menu (thankfully no advanced order required like those in SG cafes haha), I ordered it without further ado. The salted egg filling was runnier than the egg yolk in the eggs benny. The taste was more to sweet rather than savory, but I think it would not be nice also if it was too salty. The croissant itself was flaky but lacked of buttery flavor.

Overall, Monopole serves tasty food at reasonable prices. The place is laid-back and spacious, but the parking lot is very limited, so you might want to avoid lunch or dinner time.

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Jl. Raya Darmo Permai I/38

Surabaya, Indonesia 60226

+6231-7314065

IG: monopolecoffeelab

Opening hours: 8am - 10pm (Mon - Thu & Sun) // 8am - 11pm (Fri - Sat)