Good coffee in Melbourne CBD?

[Steve_Santoro]

Hi folks
Ill be supervising a school excursion in the CBD during the week while my maths students do their practical exam.

So while theyre running around being mathematical, I was hoping to get some recommendations of the best coffee spots in the CBD. I have 6 hours of supervision (coffee tasting) on the day so any cafe that you suggest will be a great help.

Thanks
Steve

[dailybean]

Re: Good coffee in Melbourne CBD?

ahh i miss school excursions...

anyway, give pronto cafe a go... 335 Flinders Lane, Melbourne.

[Ozi]

Re: Good coffee in Melbourne CBD?

my cafe is good, naturally! :P But its up at melb uni, so might be too far. In the city, Im a fan of a cafe just off flinders Lane, between swanston and elizabeth. It is down the second alley on the left as you walk down flinders lane towards elizabeth st. Cant remember the name... but has creamy-yellow coloured envelopes out on the laneway, and is right near degraves st, which is itself a cool place to visit.

[luca]

Re: Good coffee in Melbourne CBD?

Hi Steve,

About the best at the moment is Cafenatics in the bottom of the AXA building (447 Collins St). I think they also have a second cafe in the AMP building.

There are a few Octane espresso bars that arent bad. Theres on in McKillop lane that is a nice place to kick back and relax and one on the third floor of the GPO.

David Makin had a hand in setting up a cafe called "Bibita" on the second floor of Melbourne Central. They are using a Swift grinder and Veneziano Estate to produce great milk drinks. The Swift produces espresso shots that are slightly lacking in sweetness, though, but still not bad.

The European on Spring Street has a NS Aurelia for 99% of their drink and a Vittoria Arduino (a company now owned by NS) lever machine for espresso, so its worth taking a look at just for that. Unfortunately, the espresso is an import, so it will leave your mouth tasting like you licked the bottom of an ashtray five minutes later. But whilst you drink the espresso, it is quite impressive for what it is. The magic of the commercial HX lever machine!

Cheers,

Luca

[Steve_Santoro]

Re: Good coffee in Melbourne CBD?

Thanks for the recommendations folks!!!!

I had a very enjoyable day in the city, drank some fantastic coffees and ended up being very proud of my girls for faithfully collecting all of their required coffee related evidence and for having the nerve to walk into about half of the motorcycle stores on Elizabeth St asking for their best price of a Suzuki Hayabusa.

A truly great day!!!





Thanks again!!!

[speleomike]

Re: Good coffee in Melbourne CBD?

Hi all

I have just been reading the above posts as my wife and I are attending the Linux Conference all next week. We are staying at the Novotel on Collins St though conf is at Melb uni so I have made a list of some places to try. Now to spend Sat arvo on Google Maps pin pointing them :-)
Unfortunately I dont have the Melb coffee guide book.

Mike

[TC]

Re: Good coffee in Melbourne CBD?

Hi all

I have just been reading the above posts as my wife and I are attending the Linux Conference all next week. We are staying at the Novotel on Collins St though conf is at Melb uni so I have made a list of some places to try. Now to spend Sat arvo on Google Maps pin pointing them :-)
Unfortunately I dont have the Melb coffee guide book.

Mike

Hi Mike- youre welcome to borrow my copy if you like..

Chris

[speleomike]

Re: Good coffee in Melbourne CBD?

Hi Chris

Thanks for the offer. I should be right though with Google Maps for location and CS and Coffee Geek for places to visit. I see stockists of the Guide are quite near to where Ill be staying but $17 for a book tranlated to many coffees and chocolates instead.

Ill try and get to BBB, Cafenatics, Pronto cafe, Sam-I-am. These are close to me according to Google Maps - wonderful application.

PS. Ozi said "my cafe is good, naturally! But its up at melb uni".
Whats that one Ozi ?

Mike

Mike

[kohi]

Re: Good coffee in Melbourne CBD?

For what its worth I preferred the coffee at Cafenatics at the AXA building rather than the AMP building, but that was about a year ago so things could be different. Also, I think Octane in McKillop Lane closed down.

[lennier]

Re: Good coffee in Melbourne CBD?

I think Octane reopened a while back a few doors further down in McKillop, but I havent tried it as yet. It used to be reasonably good in its previous incarnation.

Dennis

[kohi]

Re: Good coffee in Melbourne CBD?

Oh good, the chocolate they use for cappuccinos is yummy!

[shawn_low]

Re: Good coffee in Melbourne CBD?

Theres an Octane in the GPO building (3rd floor. Escalator access from Lt Bourke St).

Also try Brother Babba Buddan (BBB) next to the Crumple shop on Lt Bourke St (near cnr Elizabeth st). Its St Alis sister shop.

[Ben_S]

Re: Good coffee in Melbourne CBD?


Also try Brother Babba Buddan (BBB) next to the Crumple shop on Lt Bourke St (near cnr Elizabeth st). Its St Alis sister shop.

Wouldnt brother shop be more appropriate? ;D

[shawn_low]

Re: Good coffee in Melbourne CBD?

Also try Brother Babba Buddan (BBB) next to the Crumple shop on Lt Bourke St (near cnr Elizabeth st). Its St Alis sister shop.

Wouldnt brother shop be more appropriate?  ;D

I was thinking that when I posted it. I was too lazy to change the post. : )

[speleomike]

Re: Good coffee in Melbourne CBD?

Hi all

I had a great time at the Linux Conf in Melbourne and some nice coffees and some truly horrible ones. We didnt get to many. The AXA building one wasnt open late arvo when we were there. BBB we didnt try as its not really setup for serving breakfast also. Found cafenetics when closed but didnt get time to get there when it was open.

Prontos on Finders Lane was close to us and served breakfast. We had had a few coffees by the time we tried it and when we did Jill just looked at me and said "This is fantastic coffee". She has a flat white and it was a proper flat white, not a "gone down cappa" :-). The espresso was luscious too so we had breaky there each morning.

The other place that served an excellent espresso was the Doppio Cafe on level 5 of the Atrium in the same building as the Novotel at 270 Collins St.

There was just one place where I returned the sour espresso to the counter and the barista made another. She tasted it herself and realised how sour it was and yucky so made another but still didnt know how to fix it so returned my $. Nice polite place barista but just didnt know what they were doing. It was part of a chain of coffee places starting with H.

A very nice week and thanks for the leads to the coffee places.
Mike