Melbourne Cafe Reviews

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 takeaway 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.

Timbale
167 Swan St
Richmond

A quiet cafe with a chilled-out atmosphere, Timbale delivers good food and serviceable coffee while somehow managing to avoid the rushed and busy feel of some of the larger cafes in the Richmond area.

There’s only a few tables inside, which makes it seem small and cosy, but there’s an upstairs area with seating available (which I haven’t actually checked out yet) and of course a few tables on outside, which is a boon now that the weather is warming up again. One of the walls is lined with band posters.

I try the French toast (A favourite breakfast of mine), and it’s simple but delicious, coming with both bacon and maple syrup by default (and it seems to be real maple syrup, too, not the cheap imitation). The coffee (a latte) is fine, not the best I’ve had but certainly not the worst. It’s the laid-back atmosphere, however, which is the real attraction.

Gingerlee
117 Lygon St
Brunswick East
Ph 9380 4436

Positioned on a north-eastern corner on Lygon street, this cafe was a lovely place to be this morning. A classic Melbourne mix of rain and sunshine. I was quite mesmerised watching rain rolling down the wide windows and a fan inside spinning at a lazy pace, hanging low from a high ceiling. Tables and seats run along the right-hand wall as you enter and are a great pace to sit in the morning sun. I sat a bit further back, where the glass was type you can’t see through and an intimate space opens up which is like a cosy enclosure away from the outside world. Fittingly, there’s soft booth seating here. A plain white wall has a large picture of a ship on it.

Coffee, which is all I had this morning, is first rate. The two lattes I had were smooth and creamy. Furthermore, the glass of water which was brought to my table seconds after sitting down was never allowed to fall below half-full. I noticed a macchiato at one table and it looked perfect: stark contrast of black coffee and white top, not too full in the glass.

Tre Espresso Bar
Shop 10
Hardwick Building
459–475 Sydney Rd
Brunswick

I find myself perched at a little table near the professional ‘help-yourself water station’ at a cafe I think is fairly new.

As I look around: Large table with a plant at the centre, chairs with backs, wooden Ray-like stools, small round table and small rectangle tables. Concrete floor with a matt-type lacquer finish. Five cactuses in pebbles in a long rectangular plant box which has a fluoro light over the top. Windows have clear glass panels, with an odd panel pink or blue. Wooden panelled roof. A section of retro wall paper, patterns in browns. Bricks walls worked back in some parts and not others, some remains of paint. Six over-sized tungsten light bulbs dangling from long lighting cables. A cord board is mounted on one wall with large lettering above: NOTICES. For some reason I see this as reinforcing the notion of cafes as ‘local message centres / communication points’ where people in the community catch up, chat or just hang out.

As I listen: behind the counter staff are talking and I hear the words USB and WIRELESS. Near me a parent is trying to convince her child that it needs a custard-filled donut. (The child later goes on to make a repetitive tapping noise at one of the wooden stools, and is left unchecked.)

I order a long mac and a salami/fetta pizza. The pizza comes out with some rocket on top and olive oil. It’s small, herby and very tasty. The salami is cut very thin, and as such is there for the right reason: taste only. The crust is crunchy at the edge and seems to be home-made. The long mac is served in a cup, not a glass, so you don’t get to see how it looks, but it is a well made coffee, good depth of flavour.

I like the variety of seating. It allows you to find a good spot out of a variety of options, and acts to make the layout interesting. Plastic orange seats surround gas heating pylons outside, with a large wide fold-out awning providing cover. But the wind lashes about today and no-one’s game.

Music is pleasant, set at an unobtrusive volume. A woman sits at the large table reading the Herald Sun. She is delivered a custard-filled donut and cappuccino. To my right two people sit opposite each other with their coffees and talk quietly. A girl has just arrived and places notebooks on a table and fossicks around in her hession bag for a pen. A young guy with a small leather sling-bag has propped himself up at the counter and speaks familiarly with the staff.

It’s Thursday 11.21 AM, perhaps the best time to try a cafe and avoid the rush. The atmosphere here is noticeably calm and relaxed. The break-up of people around the area set the scene right. It is much more welcoming than if a large loud group were to dominate the space. There’s a sense people have individually left their workplaces, or have stopped in on the way to somewhere else, to grab a coffee and a quiet moment to read or write. The girl with the hession bag places her cup carefully back onto the saucer so as to make no sound. An act of precision that I too, practice at times.

Good spot, recommended.

(This cafe is run by the owner of a Carlton cafe, Tre Bicchieri)

jus Scrumptious
Main St
Chalton

Chalton is a small township on the Calder Highway, in the north-eastern Wimmera. People passing though should plan a stop at this smart establishment. On entering, one is greeted with solid square tables and long-wearing blue carpet flecked in red and yellow. The colour scheme throughout is blue and cream and on hot summer days cavernous space takes on a welcoming, ever alluring prospect.

Cakes, sandwiches and focaccias feature on the menu and a highlight for us was the light fluffy scones, jam and cream. Coffee is workmanlike and a slight impost is charged for a double shot. Breakfast lasts till 10 a.m., lunch till 3. Cakes and slices are placed in little stands on the counter. All Melbourne daily papers are available for reading, a rare treat in the country. Against the exposed brick wall, one finds a stand of gourmet — sauces, Murray salt, dukkah. Big wide windows give a view across the road to the still-operating Rex Theatre.

A few chairs and tables occupy space on the pavement. Staff are restrained, friendly, professional. There is a feeling this place is valued by the locals, and on our last visit the air was filled with a mixture of American and Australian accents. Eight farming types gathered around a table, deep in discussion. Ah, the ever-varying happenings in the Victorian cafe scene.

And dear reader, as a coda, hearken to these lines of the great incomparable Nietzsche — ‘He who has come only in part to a freedom of reason cannot feel on earth otherwise than as a wanderer — though not as a traveller towards a final goal, for this does not exist. But he does want to observe, and keep his eyes open for everything that actually occurs in the world; therefore he must not attach his heart too firmly to any individual thing; there must be something wandering within him, which takes its joy in change and transitoriness.’

El Mirage
349 Lygon St
Brunswick East
Phone (03) 9388 0966

Modern, slick design. Even a bit daring, I think — when you walk in, or in viewing the cafe from the street, the sparse look, and often being quite busy, can be off-putting. A better explanation might be possible through comparison. This cafe, in layout, is converse to one where you might peer through a window to check it out, walk in unobtrusively and have a look.

Back to design. The photo does not reveal much of this. The caf is deep. There’s a decent expanse wooden decking at the front, two bike hoops meeting the footpath (like this bike emphasis). At the top of the decking is `bar’-type seating and a large slide-up perspex window showing through to inside. It can be a bit funny when the window is drawn down and people sit facing you on the same seating arrangement from the other side.

Inside, the coffee machine, register and whole setup runs down the right-hand wall. On the left-hand wall, bar seating, khaki type green, running the entire length. Small wooden square tables and chairs fill most of the floor space, with table spacing good — not crammed (although an initial look from the door could give the perception of tables tightly packed in).

Coffee is excellent, my only criticism would be that sometimes it’s not hot enough.

I like the menu boards — a simple light wooden board with a single sheet of paper, computer printed in a very plain font with a low-detail printer. (A funny thing to comment on, perhaps; but this place has a noticeable style to it).

The menu itself offers a good selection of food. Egg breakies, muesli, BLTs 1 to 4, fritatta, pancakes and more. There’s a selection of small pastries and slices on display. I’ve found the food to be quality, a favourite being the pancakes which is simply and elegantly presented with a dollop of rhubarb and cream at its centre.

The atmosphere is interesting. Wait staff are great, very friendly, efficient. In it’s open design, the cafe loses that intimacy and cosiness we like. What it gains however, is a cool look, and in this, it’s simply interesting to be at. A place that you’ll remember and might like to be hanging out at again, in the not-to-distant future.

Kerekere
John Medley Building
The University of Melbourne
Parkville

Riding through the grounds of Melbourne Uni today, I came across this neat little coffee stop. Two wide brown umbrellas up, students laughing and ordering coffee. I had to get off my bike then and have a closer look.
 
Cafe latte in a cardboard take-away cup = $3.00. I’m given a large playing card: 4 of Diamonds in this case. You wait until your card is announced, then, you pick up your coffee and place your card in one of three holders: Environment, Charity, Owner. This will designate where 100% of the profit made on your coffee goes.

The coffee quality itself? It could’ve been hotter, but the blend was smooth and the latte well made.

I like the sense of fun in the idea, and that people were enjoying themselves as well as helping an important cause of their choosing. The location, in the grounds of Melbourne Uni, was well chosen — a sort of enclosed area, by the trees, shrubs and paving.