Melbourne's best cafes: Good Food Guide 2017 cafe finalists
The best way to spot a trend is to find yourself in the middle of it: ask the folks who own Left Field in Carnegie, which opened in May and is setting two of Melbourne's biggest cafe trends – inner-city style cafes following their customers to the suburbs, and weekday queues for tables.
At Mammoth in Armadale the queues are for some well-worked cafe food – including a doughnut burger of baby slipper lobster in a bun-shaped thing that was actually a cinnamon and salt-and-pepper dusted donut. Delicious? Hell yeah.
This proliferation of sandwich-type things made of anything but bread continues with the Oreo doughnut slider at Left Field and a croissant-based burger at White Mojo in Balwyn.
Batch brews of black filter coffee keep pushing into the suburbs, too, (hello Glovers Station, Elsternwick and Left Field, again), but one trend we aren't crazy about is filter coffee in glasses. It tastes better in ceramic.
Melbourne has reached #PeakWellness, with matcha, turmeric and even alga lattes being poured all over town.
Cafe food with extra bling? Nobody does it better than Axil Coffee Roasters, who opened Mayday Coffee and Food in Richmond in January, with a menu featuring a s'more chocolate waffle with torched marshmallows, and avo smash seasoned with nori salt and pickled radish on pumpkin grain toast.
To see what's next, look no further than Higher Ground, brought to us by the folks behind Top Paddock and The Kettle Black.
The new, towering space at the bottom of Little Bourke Street is more like a hotel lobby than a cafe, with seating over three levels in a mix of bar, communal table, small tables and lounge-y areas. The open kitchen is staffed by chefs who've worked at Jacques Reymond, Supernormal and Pope Joan, and the menu by co-owner Nate Wilkins is all about fresh local ingredients in inventive but approachable brunch combinations.
There's share plates for Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, coffee roasted by Square One roastery, a good wine selection and house-made cordials for grown-up non-boozy drinking: a trend we'd like to see kick on.
These five finalists for The Age Good Food Guide's "Cafe of the Year" award have a direct line into the Melbourne cafe zeitgeist. The winner will be announced on Monday, September 12, at the launch of The Age Good Food Guide 2017.
Glovers Station
The locals like to linger in this spacious converted mock-Tudor car garage sipping bottomless cups of batch brew and brunching on a menu that is part healthy activated almond bircher muesli, part decadent (but organic) pulled pork and lamb shoulder.
Trend Batch brew goes mainstream.
Go-to dish Smoked salmon mousse with pickled asparagus and soft-boiled eggs.
258 Glen Eira Road, Elsternwick, 03 9532 7765, gloversstation.com.au
Higher Ground
Cafe doesn't seem the right word for this sophisticated space, which sprawls over three levels. The menu uses good ingredients to riff on the things we like for brunch, the coffee is the real Melbourne specialty deal, and you can have a little shrub if you want a non-alcoholic aperitif before breakfast. Winning.
Trend "Cafe" taken to another level.
Go-to dish Roasted and pickled seasonal mushrooms with soft polenta.
650 Little Bourke Street, Melbourne, 03 8899 6219, highergroundmelbourne.com.au
Left Field
Inner-city cafe-goers move to the suburbs and the inner-city cafes follow, bringing great coffee and a menu that is equal parts healthy (hello turmeric latte), decadent and Instagrammable (come on down, cookies-and-cream doughnut sliders), with some Middle Eastern touches touches for good measure.
Trend Suburban drift.
Go-to dish Smoked and braised beef short rib with fried egg.
358 Koornang Road, Carnegie, 03 9578 2043
Mammoth
This triangular corner spot in Armadale has a flash menu featuring luxe ingredients treated with cheffy care – eggs benedict served with twice-cooked duck breast, maybe, or a squid-ink crepe with spanner crab and lemon sorbet.
Trend The doughnut burger/slider thing.
Go-to dish North Shore – ham hock, flame-grilled pineapple, jalapeno popper.
736 Malvern Road, Armadale, 03 9824 5239, eatmammoth.com
Mayday Coffee & Food
Hawthorn's Axil Coffee Roasters has come across the Yarra to Richmond with smart food, their signature espresso and filter brews and insane chocolate waffles. Coming soon: an in-house bakery/patisserie, Penny For Pound.
Trend Blinged-up food.
Go-to dish Citrus-cured ocean trout with potato and fennel croquettes.
410 Bridge Road, Richmond 03 9421 0111
The Age Good Food Guide 2017 award night, presented by Citi and Vittoria, is on September 12. The Guide will be on sale in newsagents and bookstores from September 13, with all book purchases receiving free access to the new Good Food app.
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