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