Café Kinetic....a nice breaky before office

As soon as you enter in this café you notice clearly one thing, they received two coffee beans from Melbourne Coffee Review, it is on all T-shirts of the guys working there. I usually put a lot of emphasis on the fact that the coffee should be always fair trade and having a goof coffee which is also fair trade is a winner, well Kinetic does have it. I will spend sometime explaining a bit more of what does fair trade mean, there is a great film around as well, but that will be a subject all together and it can't be really mixed with any café description. At the moment, let's consider fair trade just a plus, though not essential.
The second thing you notice are the chandeliers and the art deco used in the furniture, a strange choice in the middle of the CBD, but more you get in more you notice just usual tables, somehow sort of food court tables, completely uninteresting, that is a pity, because I was stoned by the interior design in the few metres, but once you really get it, well it seems the designer got tired and had a coffee, which I may understand, and forgot about the remaining part of the bar. You order at the counter and you wait at the table, quick service and nice latte indeed. Lots of people waiting for the takeaway, but no confusion at all, the café is quite big, so you have your nice relaxed time at the table with multiple choice of newspapers.
What about the breakfast, well quite an impressive choice to be in CBD. They have specials, mostly for takeaway, but you can have it at the table if you prefer, and at what a price, very cheap, not sure how can they make it, also quality is top notch, which surprised me even more. So here the deal coffee and muffin or croissant or egg&bacon or a mix of them for just 6$, up to 8$, based on the choice. These guys clearly know how to attract customers, quality at an attractive price.

Rating (5=too good to be true,1=i saw and tasted much much better)
Coffee: 4 good, well done, fair-trade
Food: 3.5 good quality, good price, maybe not too much fantasy, but hey we are in CBD
Service: 2.5 great entrance, lots of expectation, but after few meters, well ..
Place: 3 quick and CBD style

Café Kinetic
103 Flinders Lane
Melbourne CBD

Il solito posto.....the usual place, but for dinner

This is a typical Italian restaurant, I have been there once and I found it quite good though a bit expensive. I do not usually go too much at the Italian restaurants, probably because I expect Italian food, but somehow I get usually disappointed, not possibly because it is not good but most probably because it is not Italian, but more an international variation, which is ok, but not what I wanted. I ride my bike in this little lane every second day, and I saw an increasing number of people here for breakfast, I was curious to see how was it. The issue with bars and restaurant that become also café' is that they carry on the smell of the dinner, and it is not too much about food but more about beers and wine. Having a coffee with the smell of wine or beer, is like when I wake up in the morning after a big night, the only difference is that I am the source of the smell. So I tried maybe once or twice but no more. I just avoid it. So, I was well surprised that the spirit smell is not actually there when I opened the door of Il Solito Posto. You come down few steps and you have few small tables, Tuscan style, in nice wood. The tables at the corner have benches and pillows, a nice environment, somehow dark, but that's ok in the morning when you are still sleeping a little bit, usually before the office. Service was ok, where ok is used to say I have seen better. Orders got mixed up somehow but no problem to have the right one at the end. The latte good, average, nothing extraordinary. And food pretty usual, and expensive as I remembered the dinner :-D. I was more interested to the people inside, all well dressed and high class, you could smell more money than usual, but hey, we are next to Channel and Armani here, so somehow expected. A place to go again? Probably not but give a try, you may like it more than I do.

Rating (5=too good to be true,1=i saw and tasted much much better)
Coffee: 2.5 average
Food: 2.5 nothing to call back home about
Service: 2.5 ok
Place: 2.5 better than expected, but this is not a café, many alternatives around

Café Superfino.....super French

I have never really seen this little café till my good friend Neil from Scotland took me there. Neil was on vacation here in Melbourne, and probably he has got more time to explore, or most likely he did not take places for grant. This is a typical mistake we all do when we settle in a place, just going back to the usual places, forgetting about the other 95% of bars and restaurant in Melbourne, and there are hundreds of them, one every few meters in Melbourne CBD. It was my last year 2009 new year resolution to explore more. Why did I like this place, and I have been back since, probably because it has a French size (very small café), a French look, French baguette, a French touch but very good coffees and nice owners. I am Italian, and by definition we do not love France and French things, but, inside we do. How can you not like the French cheese, the French bread, the French food….we will never admit it of course. If you come here for breakfast you can expect nothing super elaborated but just well done, the same for lunch, and when I see the baguette in the front fridge, well I fall in love. They use fair trade coffee and this is another positive thing of this café, last time it was Ethiopian, the country where the coffee was born. Very good quality and the espresso was just perfect in taste and size. A nice couple is running this place, he is more after the coffee and she is after the food, a good partnership that obviously works quite good. The place is so tiny, that really remembers a typical café in Paris, I just love it, reminds me of many trips back when I was living in Europe, and this may have affected my comments above and my rating below, I know!!!

Rating (5=too good to be true,1=i saw and tasted much much better)
Coffee: 4 fair trade and well done
Food: 3.5 half point more because of the baguette :)
Service: 3 quick and nice, not superb, maybe a bit french :D
Place: 4 tiny French place, if you like big look somewhere else, there is a food court around the corner

Brother Baba Budan, cool but.....

Finally, after so many tries, I could find an available seat at this little cool café. First of all, it is very cool and very grunge, in an area of Melbourne where there is the highest concentration of ties probably in Australia, maybe after Sydney CBD. It is indeed a bit weird to see typical office "penguins" (the tie reminds me a lot of the penguins I must say) in a very young style bar. Probably the brain remains always cool, even if the office uniform demands the tie. The café is as small as the pictures actually shows it, there is a table, a couple of benches and that is all. The biggest business is the latte takeaway clearly, even at lunch time, which somehow diminish the cool environment and Buddha Bar style music. Just make the picture of yourself having the latte, seating at the table (if you can find a spot) and trying to avoid the many business people that want to have a take away latte, does it sound relaxing? So first lesson learnt here, don't come on rush hours, there are at least two alternatives nearby without compromising on coffee quality (Captain of Industries and Brood Box). If you are in a rush before the office and you want a quick take away, than it's fine. I am Italian and I cannot drink coffee in paper or plastic glasses, it can be quick though but in small cups at the bar, no problem with that, this is what I have done for 15-20 years in Italy :-). Coffee quality, above average, but not as good as the St.Ali blend you can find also at Brood Box. Said that, places like this one change blend on a weekly basis, so you can be lucky or not, it is like when you taste wine and you are happier with a Cabernet than with Shiraz, or two Shiraz from different years. You should add that I may have had an hard day and coffee was not appreciated as deserved. Of course we are not talking about comparing cheap 3$ wines…but indeed Reserve wines. We are comparing 7 Seeds to St.Ali, the best probably in Melbourne. I am sure you find better blend in Melbourne, but you need to be selective and find the right blend in the right week. What about the food, none….only coffee….but really no space for that. Service was good, there was no sort of pretentious attitude.

Rating (5=too good to be true,1=i saw and tasted much much better)
Coffee: 3.5-4 good level but I would have expected something more
Food: 0 none
Service: 3.5 quick and responsive
Place: 4 just cool, the chairs in the ceiling are a great idea

brotherbababudan.com.au
359 Little Bourke Street
Melbourne CBD