Melbourne Cafe Reviews

Each Peach
506 Lygon St
Brunswick East
Ph (03) 9383 4529

This is a pretty cafe, located at the top end of Lygon street in Brunswick East. Each Peach is a relatively new addition to this stretch of Lygon street which has become a thriving cafe zone. Though it can get busy here, I’ve come today at the sneaky time of 2:45 PM on a Tuesday whilst most people are working! Hence I can stretch out at the long pinewood table nearest the front window, read Kierkegaard’s diary and gaze out into the street.

There is a pleasant, warm and vibrant vibe here, in part due to the homely nature of the design and décor as well as the cheerful manner of the two ladies who run it. Natural light fills the front room, thanks to the large open window frontage. The ceiling is white and metal pressed, newly painted. The walls are painted white upper and, as a hasty search of the net reveals to me, a yellow chiffon lower. As well as the shared pinewood table there are two smaller tables in the front room, and in the street are a couple of laid back wicker seats with a small table. More seating is available out the back, whence from soft light glows.

Some randomly noted items from the blackboard menu: organic fairtrade espresso $2.50; milk coffees $3; organic sausage roll $6; waffles served with mocha ice-cream or banana, maple syrup and vanilla ice-cream $8; scrambled eggs with parmesan and asparagus $9.

Today I’ve just come for a long black and strawberry freon. The coffee comes in an old fashioned pale yellow cup, is hot, and has a fair crema. The freon is light and fresh. I look forward to a breakfast here one morning as the menu options look creative and I can tell that the meals would be excellent, (something I might mention here at a later stage). A lovely place.

Juliana’s
1 Sydney Rd
Coburg
Ph (03) 9386 3680

Juliana’s is a totally unpretentious cafe on the corner of Sydney and Moreland roads. It is perhaps one of the best located cafes in Coburg. Two tables in particular are perfectly located to sit at and stare out into the busy junction of roads upon which endless stream of activity unfolds. I find this particularly pleasurable on grey, rainy days.

Having come to Juliana’s a few times now, generally in the morning for a relaxing coffee and read of the paper, it becomes hard to categorise the cafe. My first inclination was that Juliana’s is the classic workers’ cafe — hence the pleasant, unpretentious vibe; a place where you can drink a coffee, order a sandwich and read the paper and be left alone.

But I have occasionally witnessed here the kind of spontaneous activity that one would more sooner associate with an inner-city located cafe, say, one in Fitzroy. I’m thinking of when a man sat at a table near the door and quietly played away on his banjo for about half an hour, then upped and left.

I find Juliana’s an invaluable cafe in this increasingly popular part of Melbourne. As well as mornings here, I have also dropped by in afternoons to take a much needed break in study and to take a fresh look at things.

Annie’s Provedore
Shop 2, 50 Hitchcock Avenue
Barwon Heads VIC 3227
Ph (03) 5254 3233

$15.50 for a small lime tart, a commercial biscuit, an Earl Grey tea and a long black, may seem an excessive fee for a morning’s session in a coffee house. But remember folks, this is a Tourist Town, and the store has that expensive feel. Don’t complain. My l.b. lacks crema and is a tad off correct serving temperature. I feel sorry for the lone black-clad worker though; she is anxious and harassed. Her co-worker has failed to front. On a grey overcast morning it’s not a bad place to be and seems to get the vote from the mixed bag of locals, business types, mothers and retirees. Talk is muted, cutlery tinkles. There was music but now there is — thankfully — none. (I do think we’re reaching the point where cafes will advertise themselves as NO MUSIC ZONES, inspired by John Cage who taught us the music of the ever-present sounds — the turning of a page, the whirr of the machine, a whispered word.)

Décor here is reminiscent of those overdressed interiors one finds in Australian Country Collections — a ladder, skirted to the ceiling and hung with swathes of garlic and dried flowers … A wire cage hooked up to the ceiling with wooden boxes once the repositories of French wine and Aussie cordial. A few black-topped tables, a ‘rustic’ wooden communal table, and a bench out on the pavement. All manner of things are sold in the shop — cheeses, Phillipa’s bread, biscuits, salamis. Lunch offerings include moussaka, lasagna and rolls of various fillings. A large black-framed mirror advertises specials — Potato and Chicken Pot Pies, Thai Chicken Curry, Rhubarb and Apple Tart.

At the entrance, two little bay trees sit in pots worshipped by a host of devoted lemons.

Foo Go’s
258 Elgin St 
Carlton
(03) 9347 5151

Definitely a cool vibe. So close to Melbourne Uni. People coming in with Foo-Go’s re-fillable cups — the cafe is quite serious about their environmental impact, and would prefer you have coffee in, or use a re-fillable cup — but the option is yours, they do have disposable.

Large brown stylish booths and a house type beat playing. Clearly marked and specially fitted help-yourself water station.

Can see people, Uni students, walking past. Conversation behind me begins, “So you’ve been overseas recently?” Can hear a girl requesting a water-melon, apple and pineapple juice.

At 3.00 p.m. on this warm summery day, a chilled beat playing, this place definitely has the ‘hang-in’ factor going. Could easily stay an hour or two. The door is wide open and a breeze comes in as well as ambient sounds in the street. A tram rattles past.

Good sign: every 5 minutes or so somebody enters. Sense of action, things happening.

Ah- yes. Ordered a large iced-coffee. Good sharp coffee taste and some whole coffee beans on top. Solid scoop of ice-cream.

Some things on the menu: Frittata, side salad, soup, English muffins, slices, cookies and cakes. Fresh juices 4.50 or 5.50 (small/large). Coffee, 2.80, 3.40, 4.00 (normal to large). Short Black, Ristretto, Short Macchiato all 2.50.

Over years of frequenting this cafe I have never received a coffee short of excellent.

Qdos
35 Allenvale Road
Lorne VIC 3232
Ph (03) 5289 1989

Two classics in a row. It happens but rarely. After my Blue Dolphin experience, I arrive in Lorne on a Queens Birthday weekend. The day is wet and cold. The lunch places along the town strip are packed. None look inviting, and several look positively nauseating.

Friends some years ago had taken me to Qdos for a coffee. I head there. Qdos is a sculpture park set amongst tall timber. It has an art gallery and cafe. It also caters for weddings and those kinds of things. Accommodation is available. The Japanese-influenced style is evident everywhere. Please take time to look and appreciate. A perky, vivacious and competent young waitress is taking orders and making coffees.

I take a glass of Austin’s 07 Sauvignon Blanc. Coffee is Genovese. I have vegetable soup. Another friend has pea and ham. She is impressed: “easily the best I’ve had — you could see the strings — these soups take days to prepare. You can do pumpkin in 20 minutes.” The soup comes with a neat Zen stack of four pieces of bread. Another friend has a “toastie” — ham, roasted pumpkin, caramelised onion and chutney, with salad. Again, wonderful bread. An antipasto for two comes in @ $22. A pizza of roast veggies, pesto, feta and olives @ $18. Beef and Guinness pie with salad, $16. Food comes in specially fired bowls and plates. The whole experience is art. Go there!

Blue Dolphin Cafe
84 Newcombe St
Portarlington
Ph (03) 5259 1600

Come here and you’ll see diamonds. Make your way past a missable entrance to a place of style and comfort. My long black (Jasper Fair Trade coffee) comes in a cup correctly filled, with good crema and depth of flavour, and served by the owner with delicacy and grace. Normally, if I’m at a place for lunch I deign to purchase sweets. But who could resist the range of home-made cakes, slices, pastries and biscuits that this place purveys?

Here there is awareness of the customer and her needs. Scarcely have I grabbed a glass than a bottle of water is set upon the table.

Two generously-filled glasses of red are brought to the window table of two ladies. The sea outside, through a screen of leaves.

I like the feel of Portarlington. There is only a single line of shops. Over the road is parkland, and beyond that, the pier and the sea. Because of this concentration there is a sense of containment and true village life. There is a sense of order and compactness.

The Turkish owner tells me he’s been going five years and he has clearly established a fine standard. Two wood-framed blackboards on the wall list the specials and the soup of the day. Today it’s pumpkin. Banquettes along one wall. Pide dreads and focaccias. Chicken, mushroom and leek pie with salad. Tasmanian Smoked Salmon Salad.

Bright paintings on the wall. Two shelves of books. Wines — Portalington Ridge, Bellarine Estate and Aspen Estate rest on a sideboard.

This place is well worth the trip out from Geelong. Or Melbourne. There are fine walks along the coast and fit people could make it to St. Leonards — and return.

Georgie’s Cafe
Main St
Stawell VIC

Grey lino floor; black tables; comfortable chairs; a pair of sofas at the front window. On this cold June day I am alone with a cope of Alistair MacCLeod’s Island.

Shelving holds items of variable interest: Mt Zero kalamata olives; jars of dukkah and olive oil; free-range eggs from Great Western; Silvertip teas; honey from the Grampians Lavender Patch.

Normal things on offer: soups; egg & bacon muffin; raisin toast; ham & cheese toastie; tomato & salami frittata. You get the picture. My lentil & vegie soup is of fair quality. Two remarkable pieces of bread accompany the soup. I do wish cafes, especially in the rural realms, would pay a little more attention to the comfort of a good whack of real bread.

Coffee is ordinary, yet it promises more. In fact the whole place promises more. It lists through the excellence of a few sweet things—my French vanilla slice @ $4.50 was of a rare quality.

After lunch I am directed by a friendly local to the library. Here I find bliss. A warm inviting space with comfortable reading chairs and a big work table overlooking a discrete courtyard. The peace and silence of a library in a quiet country town. Melbourne knows nothing of this. I pick up Dorothy Rowe’s blue-covered Depression from a shelf and nestle into a comfy chair. My bus is yet hours away.

Queenscliff Courtyard Cafe & Nursery
3/58 Hesse St
Queenscliff
Ph (03) 5258 2856

My companion and I dive in here, via a narrow race, to a sweet little cubbyhole of a cafe leading on to outdoor seating and a nursery. White walls, relaxed vibe; pretty lights wink from the ceiling. Reasonable coffee. Leaf Tea for sale. The Wisdom of Asia — 365 days on a shelf. Vanilla slice $5; Jelly Cakes with cream $4; Chocolate Kisses $3; Vege Lasagna with salad $13; Free range eggs $6.50; Murray River gourmet Salt Flakes; Chicken satay wrap $13; Moroccan & Chickpea soup $9.

Earlier in the afternoon I visit the library. On this particular day (Wednesday) it was closed, but at the entrance there are two small annexes. One is the Tourist Office and the other is the newspaper Reading Room. An absolute treasure! One of life’s true discoveries! two chairs and a timeworn oval table. On a rack, newspapers for the past week. This space was a gift to Everyman. (more…)

Bagdad Foods Cafe
50 Darlot St 
Horsham VIC
(Crn Darlot & Natimuk Rd. Next to Baker’s Delight)

Casting a leftwards glance through the vertical window, the lurid colours of WIMMERA BOLTS AND FASTENERS meet my gaze. A shit-heavy B-double lumbers past the roundabout and heads down Natimuk Road. But inside the cafe, at my blackpainted table, I listen to the tinkle of plates and cutlery being delivered up to the dishwasher. It’s 2 p.m. The lunch crowd have disappeared. Unlike Melbourne, this wonderful country establishment is peopled at regular times.

There is a tiled front section and a few tables on the pavement outside the building. On the wall, a mirror framed in the form of a pineapple. From the tiled area, up a step, is the small carpeted inner sanctum, set up with two larger tables, one table for four and two tables for two. On the shelves sit books of enticing titles: Frank Lloyd Wright: Prairie Houses; James Martin Desserts; Italian Country Living; Morocco by Philippe Saharoff and Francesca Torre. Copies of The Age, Herald Sun and The Wimmera Mail Times are always available.

Greg, (the owner along with his wife Judith) makes Fiery Bengal Chutney, Dukkah, Moroccan Style Dressing and other tasty bits and pieces. These products too grace the shelves and benches.

Some of the lunch offerings today include pumpkin soup and roll ($7.50); Shepherds Pie with salad ($10.50); Spinach, leek & fetta tart ($9.50); Madras Lamb Curry ($14.50); and vegetarian quiche and salad ($12.50). Pieces of hedgehog (a country staple) and totally wicked big thick choc-topped Anzacs are $3.00. All food is made on the premises or at home, and is fresh, tasty and attractively presented.

Excellent Monte coffee is served, and tea comes in elegant china cups.

And if you call in, tell ’em where you found ’em. They’ll appreciate it.

Minimo
822 Sydney Rd (Crn Donald St)
Brunswick

This neat cafe has only been open a bit over a week (as of writing this.) It occupies a corner on Sydney road, Brunswick. Already there is constant trade. Sitting here, at the large shared table (which most cafes seem to have now!) replete with a large bowl of fresh flowers, I realise that the cafe manages a quiet, peaceful vibe even though it’s right on Sydney road. The music is pleasant and set at a low volume. (A rare thing to find, it seems.)

I order a breakfast called eggs tepenade which consists of two free range poached eggs on sour dough with a mushroom and capsicum mix. The meal comes out elegantly presented and is just the right amount. Like Cafe 3A, I find the food here tastes excellent and is prepared with an ideology of quality, instead of serves too large/uninteresting.

As well on the menu are five varieties of french toast! The greatest variety of offering for this meal I’ve seen at any cafe so far.

The long black I order comes out hot and has a good depth of flavour and decent crema. A small and very fresh shortbread comes with the coffee. Perfect accompaniment.

At a table in the front window facing Sydney road two Muslim women speak quietly to one another. About every five-minutes or so someone comes in for a take-away coffee. A business woman who looks like a regular joins me at the shared table, orders breakfast and selects The Age from the available papers. The various comings and goings and few (but not too many) cafe-goers inside give the sense of a quiet vibe but also a bit of spark.

Some lights are left off inside. I liked this. They didn’t need to be on. Natural light did the job perfectly.

Seating is available outside, on Donald street: an advantage of being on a corner — seating right on Sydney road wouldn’t be so pleasant.

A speciality of the cafe is their piadina — a bread made here and filled with a variety of tasty fillings. Only $7.50. (I’m looking forward to trying one of these!)

Highly recommended.