Santa Monica is a big, breezy place turning out pizzas, burgers and banana splits (or sneaky cocktails) for city workers at lunch and dinner.

But, since the doors open at 7am from Monday to Friday, I wondered how this new kid on the Ann St block handled breakfast?

Mine didn’t begin well when I was told, at 9.30am, that all the empty tables near the footpath were reserved for lunch. “I’ll only be half an hour,” I pleaded, and thus managed to snag one of the prized spots.

But it was nice to stop in such a frenetic locale, opposite Central Station, and watch the world go by.

If you don’t have time to idle, though, an express caravan open from 6am for the corporate crowd will dispense your caffeine fix and snack on the run.

The breakfast menu contains all the usual suspects: smashed avocado on ciabatta, bircher muesli, eggs Benedict, bruschetta, pancakes, smoked salmon and so on. And while they may not be changing the food landscape, equally they’ll deliver the old faithful dishes that you’re expecting.

At $18, the big breakfast won’t break the bank, but it didn’t fill me with unbridled joy either. It’s a neat assembly of poached eggs with hollandaise from a bottle, a dry pork and fennel sausage, bacon, three small salty potato rostis, chopped mushrooms and roasted tomatoes, which was actually just one cherry tomato on a lettuce leaf.

While it’s clearly focused on the pizzas, burgers and drinks on the lunch and dinner menu, it seems a shame to roll out such an ambitious, airy venture and deliver a garden-variety breakfast. You could drown your sorrows in an espresso martini, available after 10am.

Santa Monica still has a lot going for it, but later in the day. And while it may not be an obvious choice for breakfast, if you can’t face the office when you get off the train, it’s not a bad pit-stop.