Sunday 14 October 2007

King / Bourke Quest Part 8: breakfast at Cafe Vue

Cafe Vue
430 Little Collins St, Melbourne (map)
9691 3888

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Less than two months until I get to experience the menu gourmand at Vue de Monde! Until that happy day, the closest I've been to that much-hyped Mt Everest of Melbourne fine dining has been Cafe Vue, VdM's more affordable offspring. Cafe Vue does great cafe/bistro fare during the day. Its crisp modern interior is dominated by the magnificent, monstrous, shiny fire-engine-red coffee machine which is lovingly wiped down by the barrista after each coffee is brewed.

I'm a big fan of the posh lunchboxes at Cafe Vue (particularly ones with gazpacho in espresso glasses, and salad dressing in test tubes) but will write about breakfast instead, as the lunchboxes have been extensively reviewed by food bloggers such as mellie and cherrie.

Went to Cafe Vue the other week with my colleague T for a coffee and Quizmaster/Age Superquiz session. T's coffee (above) was immaculately presented and tasted perfect.

I decided to get the fruit salad, which at Cafe Vue takes a little while to arrive because the fruit is chopped up only once you've placed your order. As a result, it's wonderfully fresh and generally delicious.

I also decided to order a hot chocolate. At Cafe Vue you can choose between a 'normal' hot chocolate for $3 or a French hot chocolate for $6. I strongly strongly urge you to swallow any initial outrage you may feel at the thought of $6 for a hot chocolate, and go ahead and order the latter option. You WON'T regret it!

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I'm afraid the above picture does no justice to the magnificence of this hot chocolate. It tastes rich and creamy and sweet but not too heavy - I'd happily forgo normal hot chocolates forever as long as I could have one of these babies occasionally. Of the hot chocolates I've written about on this blog, the Fräus hot chocolate at Little Peninsula gets the bronze medal for best hot chocolate in the CBD and the milk hot chocolate with Persian fairy floss at Beetroot gets the silver medal... but this one easily gets the gold!

3 comments:

Cherrie Pie said...

Hi Claire,
I love Cafe Vue. I haven't been there in a while coz I don't work in the city anymore. I really miss it. I still look up the menu to see what I'm missing :( Maybe I'll make a special trip into the city one day.

FoodieFi said...

I'm sold on this hot chocolate! I gleefully checked out Sugardough's European hot choc recently and once the mercury dips down to autumn temperatures again I'll be hunting out more fine examples!

Anonymous said...

I also recommend checking out Xocolatl (stores in Kew, Canterbury, and now, thankfully at the Queen Vic market).
I now inevitably compare all hot chocolate to Xocolatl's chilli hot chocolate, but none have yet compared.