This blog is a unique insight into Melbourne’s coffee scene by two ordinary blokes who are passionate about their espresso. We live in a city that is famous for its coffee and we aim to provide simple, straightforward views on the coffee we try. These are our personal opinions but hopefully give you, the consumer, honest and informed content. As such we write purely from a consumer’s point of view. We also encourage your comments and views.
Our most sincere (and belated) apologies to our followers of this blog. We have been unable to update or add new content since late 2010 due to personal and professional reasons. Our apologies also to the cafes that we have been unable to complete reviews of. We, SimonL and SamW, are not able to commit the necessary time and energy for further reviews in the future so therefore we have ceased to continue. We do hope that our readers have enjoyed the posts and gained an insight into how Melbourne coffee is presented today.We have had a great time bringing this blog to you and hope that all dedicated coffee drinkers keep supporting the wonderful independent cafes that are providing an amazing experience with the humble little coffee bean. It is one of the things that makes Melbourne a great place to live.
SimonL and SamW
How do we rate coffee? Click here.
Current Scores
- Auction Rooms – North Melbourne. Score 18.11/20
- Monk Bodhi Dharma – Balaclava. Score 17.83/20
- Dancing Goat Cafe – CBD. Score 17.46/20
- Proud Mary – Collingwood. Score 17.46/20
- Penny Farthing Espresso – Northcote. Score 17.16/20
- Three Bags Full – Abbotsford. Score 17.00/20
- Dukes Coffee Roasters – Windsor. Score 16.84/20.*
- Brother Baba Budan – CBD. Score 16.83/20
- Dead Man Espresso – South Melbourne. Score 16.63/20
- Liar, Liar – Hawthorn. Score 16.58/20
- Switchboard Cafe – City. Score 16.55/20
- Studio Movida – Kew. Score 16.50/20
- Collective Espresso – Camberwell. Score 16.50/20
- 7 Seeds – Carlton. Score 16.38/20
- Willim Espresso – Malvern. Score 16.33/20
- Keffa Han – Port Melbourne. Score 16.04
- Di Bella Roasting Warehouse – North Melbourne. Score 16.00/20
- Outpost – South Yarra. Score 15.92/20
- Atomica – Fitzroy. Score 15.92/20
- The Duchess of Spotswood – Spotswood. Score 15.83
- Espresso 3121 – Richmond. Score 15.71/20
- Crue Coffee Lounge – South Yarra. Score 15.63/20
- Barista – Prahran. Score 15.59/20
- Seven:am – Port Melbourne. Score 15.54/20
- The Maling Room – Canterbury. Score 15.33/20
- Postal Hall – CBD. Score 15.33/20
- Pellegrini’s – City. Score 14.05/20
Getting There
Replete Providore – Hawthorn. Score 13.33/20
Mario’s – Hawthorn. Score 13.20/20
Unfinished reviews – Sorry!
Sonido!, Fitzroy. 1st review posted.
Sensory Lab, CBD. 2nd review posted.
Il Fornaio, St Kilda. 2nd review posted.
St Ali, South Melbourne. 2nd review posted
A Minor Place, Brunswick. 2nd review posted.
* Denotes a follow-up review has been completed and score has been updated. Follow-up reviews are usually undertaken after every eight months to one year and is on-going.
Backseat Baristas 
Thanks for your fair and intelligent review of my cafe.
You two describe coffee exactly as it tastes.
Thanks for the comment. Which is your cafe?
I read an article the other day and mentioned 7 grams. I think their barista won Barista of the Year award. Unless I got confused with another article from the same magazine 🙂
2009 Australasian Barista Championship results can be found here http://www.grandbarista.com/results
A barista from there has won the Trans-Tasman Barista championship and latte art competition in 2006. Not sure of the sponsor or relevance of the competition. Maybe someone can chip in some info here. 🙂
you can check out con’s achievements on our blog or at
http://www.gridlockcoffee.com.au/
Check out dutchess of spotswood, and marketlane
Hi John,
both of those venues are on our ‘hit-list’ and both have a good reputation. Do you know of any others in the Western ‘burbs that are worth a look in? We’ve also heard good things about Social Roasting Company…
I went to Social Roasting Company on Flemington Rd (I think suburb is Kensington), and was slightly disappointed in their coffee, it was unbalanced, very ordinary, and slightly stronger than your average coffee (latte). However, the food is excellent. So overall was quite happy.
Have only heard whispers about this place, nothing solid so thanks for the comment. May have to do an unofficial flyby to check it out one day soon ourselves.
Hi guys,
Congratulations on a great website layout and a massive amount of effort in putting it together.
I have been flicking through your reviews and I have noticed that in many of your espresso reviews, you give high marks for characteristics such as woodiness and bitterness. Why is this? Do you genuinely prefer these tastes? Or is it just that this is what you have been exposed to, so this is what you accept?
My concern is this: these characteristics are hallmarks of old (past-crop) coffee and dark roasts, both of which mask the distinctiveness, clean cup character and sweetness that coffee producers put a tremendous amount of effort into preparing and coffee roasters put a tremendous amount of effort into sourcing. These characteristics might have a greater presence in milk, but why should roasters have to create these characteristics and hide the effort that has gone into their coffee to make it cut through milk? Why not just order a strong latte of a coffee that is sweet and clean?
I guess what I’m saying is this: I am currently sitting in El Salvador at the Cup of Excellence competition, just about to go and meet the nation’s winning farmers with an international jury of coffee roasters who will probably bid on their coffee, including one from Melbourne. Should I be telling the farmers not to bother and the roasters that they should cheap out on low quality coffee?
Cheers,
Luca
Hi Luca,
thanks for the comment. You raise some very good points and brought some things to our attention that we ourselves had not noticed.
We like to order and explore coffee from the customer’s perspective. When ordering a coffee we hope that it is presented to us as it would be presented to a customer, and we hope to discuss it in that way also. As a result we assume similar knowledge to a customer, and not on any technical aspects. Whilst we are fascinated by the process and myriad of elements that go into a regular cup of joe, we try to keep our focus on the coffee as it sits in front of us. That’s because regular customers are our readers and audience. Also, as we learn we try to pass that knowledge to our readers.
We are genuinely interested in speciality coffee, and we are exploring that through the venues that we visit. We are looking for quality venues, that is what we’re about, however we believe many of our readers are not necessarily interested in speciality coffee, but just good coffee. This can often be the same thing but subjective experience and depth of knowledge impact on a person’s appreciation of coffee. As an example SimonL works with speciality wine (in retail). He deals with different customers with different needs and levels of knowledge of wine. Despite his appreciation being in speciality wine, not all customers want that…sometimes they seek good simple, flavoursome wine at a budget price.
It seems to us that your knowledge and experience is deeply grounded in speciality coffee at the highest end of quality. We would welcome you to inform our readers (and us) to help bridge the gap of knowledge and appreciation…between where you are in the industry to where we are from the customer’s perspective.
@luca
yep, i’m getting that from the reviews too. I’m beginning to think ‘backseatcustomers’ would be a better name for the site.
@backseatbarista
did you mean ‘specialty’ wine? I think it’s a bit of a misnomer judging the ‘best cafes’ on a series of abstract principles which don’t ultimately include quality. For example, I had a shot of Square Mile Blackburn Estate Shades of September today which I’d rate ~90 points, despite it having aged past it’s best and travelled nearly 10,000km. For customers to better appreciate coffee, they need to be educated, and you guys are in the perfect position to do this.
I’m not trying to slam you – but according to the post above, you’re either ‘writing down’ to the audience or ‘exaggerating’ your levels of discernment and doing specialty coffee establishments a disservice along the way, and would like to know which one it is.
I was just thinking this afternoon about where I would go for coffee with my friend tomorrow. Bless! I found your website.
Now for the hard choice of picking one!
Where did you decide to go and how did it turn out? SL
http://www.broadsheet.com.au/melbourne/food-and-drink/article/sensory-lab-grace
there is another one on High street in Armadale somewhere too, I’ll try to get the name of it
Hi Brian,
is it called Bouchon? I noticed it today…
Yep that’s the one
Single-handedly have you guys to thank for introducing me to coffee. Originally I had never been into coffee after being put off it from fast-food places and dodgy service stations. After coming across your blog I’ve been introduced to some quality cafes and a culture i’d never through existed. 🙂
Thanks so much 🙂