Melbourne Cafe Reviews

Cafe 3A
3A Edward St
Brunswick 3056
03-9380 4996

Public Transport: By train, get off at Jewell Station on the Upfield line. By tram, No. 19 get off at stop 25. A short walk from either.

At most this cosy place would accommodate about thirteen inside. Five square, solid wooden tables with two seats at each. Stool seating in the front window. Artistic photos spaced along the white walls. A blackboard with small neat handwriting in white chalk lays out the menu.

Meals are exquisite. I invariably order “Eggs Olivada”: Two poached free range eggs atop two slabs of quality sour dough, sprinkled with feta, an olive paste and capers. Small fresh cakes available, today among others are orange poppy seed cakes with thick icing.

The long black, when first placed on the table, had a crema of about 25mm. Organic, fair trade coffee is used — Ethiopia Gold. FaemaStar coffee machine. Music at a good volume, cool jazz. A couple sit next to our table, about four people at the tables along the wall, and a young woman reads at a stool in the front window. People come in for a take away coffee. Wicker stools out on the front pavement (but too cold today!)

Considering just how flavoursome and high quality the meals are, they’re very cheap. $7.50 for my Eggs Olivada. Almost no cafe will give you an egg inclusive breakfast for this amount. The waiter is efficient and has a sense of humour.

Laurent Patisserie
109 Dundas Place
Albert Park
03-9690 4700

I sit at a little round table of faux granite. Bentwood chair. The easy chairs by the windows are prized. When one becomes vacant, people pounce. It all seems a long way from Sadr City, Kabul (or the cafes of Brunswick for that matter.) Here, the crowd is well-heeled, quite genteel and there’s not a soul reading Crime and Punishment or belting out words on a laptop. A big brown canvas awning hangs out protectively and welcomingly over Dundas Place.

A cluster of red and white cane chairs on the wide pavement. From inside, big windows and the glass front door offer up fine views of the passing parade. No-one seems in a hurry here. No-one appears anxious or tense. The standard Laurent fare displays itself prettily in the display cases — croissants, Danish, meringues, apple-puffs, escargots, donuts. Loaves of bread for purchase. Cakes in the window. Water in silver jugs — help yourself. More expensive tempters like a green “Mirage” or a wicked chocolate “Christine” are up the back. (Ah, first mobile-caller in an hour, but he keeps it short and muted.)

Good coffee (Monte). My long black is a centimetre too full but I don’t mind. Some of the great lb’s in this town are shorts anywhere else.

Do cafe-haunters invade foreign territory all that often? Probably not. Hard to imagine any of the crowd here, at Ray, in Victoria St. It’s mid afternoon in winter. A glorious soft sun floods the windows, illuminating floor and table surface. An “02” tram comes into view. Why are there no spare parking places? Come on guys — walk here or catch the tram. It’s the land of big white dogs.