Cafe Vue, Little Collins Street, Melbourne

Cafe Vue, Little Collins Street, Melbourne
Tuesday 16 January, 2007

I cannot express my disappointment enough for not being able to secure a dinner reservation at Vue de Monde over one of our three nights in Melbourne. As many of you know, Vue De Monde is my absolute favourite restaurant in Australia.

It came as little consolation that Shannon Bennett has since opened two extra dining spaces - Bistro Vue (open Monday to Friday) and Cafe Vue (open Monday to Saturday) all located in Normanby Chambers alongside Vue de Monde. But, you take what you can get so we had breakfast at Cafe Vue this morning.

Firstly, what an interesting space - if you are facing the entrance of Vue De Monde it's on the left up a small ramp. To the left of the ramp is outdoor seating - think dark grey concrete tables and bench seats covered with a thin pillow and to the right is a shoebox sized glass cafe with red leather lounge seats and timber cube tables. Secondly, there are no menus - just three large blackboards inside hung high on the walls.

The small space is commanded by two staff members - one almost permanently on the coffee machine and the other manning the orders and food delivery. There was a queue of people waiting for coffee so we grabbed the only spare table and helped ourselves to the pile of newspapers and magazines on offer.

Not long afterwards we ordered - I went with the Housemade bircher muesili with figs, raisins and orange topped with yoghurt and honey, sourdough with vegemite and a skim flat white. Wait a minute - no skim? Did I hear correctly? They have run out? No, they don't serve it....it's full fat or nothing. Wow! I've never heard of that before.

My breakfast buddy ordered the egg & bacon jaffle, fruit salad and latte. Our breakfast was fabulous - my muesili was to die for - every mouthful was a gift and they provided French burre with the sourdough so I was in heaven.

Our entire bill came to $22 - are you serious? We had them check it again - it seemed too cheap. But no, it was correct....what a bargain!

Cafe Vue - 430 Little Collins Street, Melbourne - (03) 9691 3899

http://www.vuedemonde.com.au/