Best cafe's in Melbourne

su22

What's the fun of riding if there's no coffee after? Here's a couple of great brekky places that I can recommend. Feel free to add your faves:

1) Brown Cow Cafe: Hampton St, near Hampton train station. turn off Beach Road as you're coming towards the city at the exit across the road from Sandy footy ground.

Beautiful sunny deck outside, nicely fitted out inside with brown furniture. $8 berry pancakes are awesome for a carbo load-- not oily, stack of about 5?, wicked summer berries and sauce.
$12.50 eggs benedict/florentine-- poached eggs, thick toast, creamy hollandaise sauce and the best grilled tomatoes ive come across.
$3 pretty milkshakes
$15.50 duck risotto-- best in winter for lunch/dinner. Chunky bits of duck, mushrooms. A winner.

2) Cafe racer: where else can you get such wholesome food and fab service? oh not to mention the hottie who works there Turkey/avo/roquette panini is yummy, and the smoked chicken/cucumber/mayo/wholegrain sanga is bigger than you expect. Great place to check out what everyone else is riding. the little gingerbread Racer dudes are a pricey sweet treat, but so worth it. ive heard the custard donuts on Sundays rock too.

3) The Avenue, Victoria Ave, Port Melb.
A friend of mine swears that they make the best bircher muesli. i'd have to agree. Muesli soaked in OJ, yoghurt, with coconut and fruit. Their juices and salads look good, the sun comes out after about 11am (so you have to time your ride for this). They believe that "tippers make good lovers".

4) Belle Zain, 1 Beach St Port Melb. Mediterranean influence, full brekky comes with grilled vegies which makes for a colourful plate. Awesome view of the beach, great atmosphere indoors and outside, has the potential to be be over-run by yuppies but thank god it's far from that, just don't order muesli cuz it'll come out as shredded coconut with muesli that's pretty hard to chew your way through.

5) Cafe brewhaha, Blessington st, St Kilda. Cute, mini, tucked away from busy Acland St. Berry parfait with muesli and yoghurt looks great; won't fill you up, but it's worth the sight. Big plate of eggs, bacon toast and tomato; nice if you get a table outside in the sun; there's a bike rack just outside. If a skinny old man comes up to you asking for a cigarette, be a smart arse and say "look at us, we're cyclists. we don't smoke" cuz he'll crack it and lecture you with a quote from Oliver Wendell Holmes.

su22

... and i forgot to mention coffee:

1) Brighton Baths cafe/bar. They use full cream milk. that's why it tastes so bloody good. don't worry, you'll burn it off. Overlooking the brighton sea baths. you can analyse the swimmers' stroke and technique if that's your thing. Triathlete's entertainment.

2) Torch, Swan St Richmond. The best damn coffee i've come across! a normal strength coffee from this place tastes like a double-hit! has a nice courtyard at the back.

every other cafe i mentioned has about average coffee-- they're all good. the only place that isn't realy up to scratch is the Boathouse in Kew Blvd.

Kez Deale

I dont live in Melbourne, but DAMN, now I do wanna :P

Nice write up

russlee29

Hi SU22 - Just wondering if your the Su i met while training for Around the Bay ride back in August or September (i cant rember which)? I was with 3 other guys and riding a mtb (the others had road bikes), you were on an Avanti i think. We were doing a ride to Mordialloc, and you went on ahead to make a comfort stop, meanwhile we peddalled like crazy and you still caught us up before we reached Mordialloc

I've since bought myself a roadie and often ride from Keilor to Black Rock and stop at Kennedy's cycle fit for a coffee before riding home. Im no coffee coniseur, but the coffee sure taste's great at Kennedy's - Mabey its just the cycling atmosphere and the beach and all the bikes or something that makes it taste so good

su22

Yes you've guessed right. hope Around the Bay was still ok despite the torrential rain. ive heard that that shop does good coffee.

enjoy your new road bike. you looked speedy on your MTB so you'd be flying now!

rhino

Wild Oscars on Swan St Richmond.

They have a $10 breakfast on sat/sun.

Two eggs, bacon, toast, tomato and a choice of coffee.

The coffe is fantastic and goes down well with the food.