Sir Charles Restaurant, Espresso Bar and Roastery

Sir Charles Augustus FitzRoy was some guy. The governor of New South Wales in the 1840s and later Governor-General of all the Australian possessions went to Harrow school when he was nine, was commissioned in the Horse Guards at the age of 16, fought at the battle of Waterloo and commanded HMS Beagle. As governor, he settled some argy over land claims, although his time in New South was not without tragedy: he lost his wife in a carriage accident in 1847.

This august Englishman shares his classy surname with one of Melbourne's great neighbourhoods (no kidding) and one of its greatest football clubs (eight flags, not counting Brisbane, and six Brownlows – Bunton, Murray, Quinlan …). And now, a smart cafe.

First, the name – restaurant, espresso bar and roastery. Restaurant because the menu offers dinner from 5pm Thursday to Saturday, with Asian-inspired small, medium and large plates ranging from son-in-law eggs or pork dumplings with spring onion, a green pawpaw salad up to sticky pork ribs with apple and herb salad and green nam jim.

But it's a coffeehouse in its bones, with a Probat roaster plumbed in through burnished copper pipes, shiny downlights with spaghetti-twisty compact fluoros, white-tiled walls with pastel-mint geometric flashes and polished brass edging, and a wall of Frankie-esque succulents in bespoke concrete planters to greet you at the door.

The daytime menu has plenty of cafe staples, but they get an Asian tweak from chef-partner Tyler Preston, who has had spins at Seven Seeds, De Clieu and Chin Chin.

Eggs are scrambled with miso and served on roti with citrus sambal, while Chinese sausage and mushrooms find their way into an omelette served with fresh coriander and crusty baguette.

The Sir Charles Benedict is two eggs, poached, panko-crumbed, then deep-fried, sitting on a generous wodge of bacon, doused with a Sriracha-spiked hollandaise and a garnish of fresh coriander leaves. The yolks are an appealing mix of sticky and runny, while the bacon is cut just thick enough to have some texture without turning into a pork steak. But the genius of this Benny is the substitution of a delicious, crisp and golden roti for the usual sourdough toast. It's a tasty combination with a mix of lovely textures.

A crisp tofu salad is agedashi-style cubes tossed in a shaved cabbage and herb salad that is also an appealing mix – coconutty, peanutty, lime-spiked, with the crunch of the cabbage, the crisp of the tofu and an umami scatter of toasty garlic.

The Korean fried chicken burger is juicy chunks of meat given the KFC treatment and served on a soft brioche bun with kimchi that tends more towards savoury pickle than four-alarm spicy, served with an iceberg-leaf cup of coleslaw and cucumber pickle – two artful pieces on a Japanesque matte black plate.

With Zoe Delany and Dave Makin of Axil among the owners, you know the coffee is going to be quality: carefully sourced and roasted cleanly.

Do … try anything with the roti; it's good
Don't … miss the jalapeno and mushroom poppers with salsa verde
Dish … Sir Charles Benedict
Vibe … very Fitzroy