Melbourne Cafe Reviews

Ray Cafe
332 Victoria St, Brunswick
(03) 9380-8593

Public Transport: Tram: No 19, Stop No. 28. Train: Upfield line, get off Brunswick Station. Bus: 508 goes down Victoria St.

Cafe Ray is a very cool cafe. Just about everything seems right. Architecturally the space is good size. I like the way the bricks have been worked — kind of roughly sanded or something; paint remains here and there. The lighting is good: as well as electric lights, there’s these two very mechanical looking sky lights at the rear providing natural light. A great big slide up window is in the front wall, and a large table behind it. There’s no better place to sit and collect the morning sun. In the middle of the table is a pot plant. I remember being back in the country some time ago (two, three years?) and the Age had reviewed this cafe in the Epicure section. They had a photo of this big table, with the pot plant in the middle. Sometimes I feel a bit out of it in the country, a bit isolated. When I returned to Melbourne I went to this cafe and sat at the same table: I felt as though I’d entered a set, previously only able to view remotely on TV.

Speaking of TV, one of the things that intrigued me a good deal when I first came here was this little screen they have mounted on the wall. Somewhere — and I had to figure out where – a camera was mounted and providing the image.

They have a menu based around the Turkish bread — pide. But there’s also muesli, toast and other stuff. I really like the pides though. I love the Tomato Bocconcini one — it’s those two ingredients and a pesto with a lovely parmesan taste too — and fresh basil. There’s also cakes: fresh lemon tarts, Ray Cakes — a chocolate cup cake with Ray in pink icing on top and a variety of slices.

So far I’ve never had a coffee in the whole of Melbourne, better than at Ray. Ray is my coffee benchmark. But I have had equally as good — so I’m not stating there’s no comparison. Nor do I expect every place to do their coffee this way.

Ordering a long black (my favourite test for flavour and punch) gets you a double shot coffee, only about half full in the cup with a thick crema. Just great. The cafe lattes they do often come out with the head still forming – you can it watch slowly become whiter at the top 10-15 mm. Needless to say it has a lovely smooth texture, and blends in with the rest of the drink (ever had a latte or cappuccino where after the froth is gone it’s just a flat, unexciting drink? Not at Ray.) There’s only one fault I’d pick: I have before had a coffee which hasn’t been hot enough, but it doesn’t happen often.

At Ray there’s plenty of reading material — multiple copies of the Age and Herald Sun. I always like this, because it invites you to hang around and read. Water is readily available from the counter, they keep full bottles and glasses there — help yourself.

An iconic Ray sign is the wooden stools out on the footpath. Almost any time of day you can go past and see people sitting at these.

People who come to Ray are generally the late 20 and 30s, but you can get a very mixed crowd from young to elderly, a good sign. Most of the people look interesting types. I’ve heard people talking about film, reading and writing. Often I’ve seen a person scribbling away in a notebook.

Ray is very popular and most of the time there’s a quite a few people here. On your own you’ll normally find a seat, but with two or more there are peak times when you won’t: like Sunday and Saturday mid morning through to the arvo. Pick you time carefully and you can spend an hour here in relative quiet.

REVIEW UPDATES (1)

Sept 28, 2007

It’s about time to provide a brief update since this initial review (ages ago!).
Essentially, Ray remains a great Cafe. This is due to a consistent adherence to the original elements which made this cafe great: great coffee, great food including simple winners like the tomato bocconcini pide, grooving music at right volume, good crowd.

However, it must be said, that even Ray has its minor slips which don’t fail to cause annoyance. Two chief annoyances with Ray are forgotten/very very late coffee orders and, surprisingly, unkempt/unclean table tops. This second point in particular might seem petty. Maybe it is, but why it’s significant is because it reveals a “slackness” in service in general, which most of the time is very good, but at times stretched, perhaps by the still-thriving popularity of the cafe. And it is annoying to sit at a table and notice a stickiness about it.

In sum, Ray remains tops, but it’s not a cafe you always want to be at. As suggested in the original review, there are times when Ray is too busy and best avoided.