Café Vue

430 Little Collins Street, 
Melbourne VIC 3000
03 9691 3888

For quite some time now I have wanted to dine at Melbourne's legendary Vue de Monde, but first there was pregnancy, then there was maternity leave and then there was learning how to cope a feisty baby I've had to chase around the house. Now that things have started to settle down a little I felt that it was the perfect time to venture into the world of 'Vue'. As a warm up, Dani and I decided to check out breakfast at Café Vue, the little unpretentious sister of the ever so fancy pants Vue de Monde. Café Vue is tucked right into the corner of Little Collins Street and New Chancery Lane. It is small but airy and offers some outside seating. Luckily they have pretty decent heating out there so even during these Arctic Melbourne days you have some where warm to sit. I happily order my skinny cafe latte as I look at the menu, only to be told they only full serve full fat milk. Oh dandy, a chubby cafe latte it is then. Back to the menu, the very limited menu.

Apart from the continental breakfast there is only 10 other things on the menu and 3 of those are just fancy toasted sandwiches, but then again it is better to have a small perfected menu than a large one filled with rubbish. French toast and Croque-monsieur (fancy toasted sandwich) it is.

Our coffees arrived and they were lovely, a perfect caffeine hit. There website states that they use a brand called 5 senses, I will definitely be tracking them down again in the future. 

30 minutes and coffee number 2 and still no food. Even though this is the tight arse version of the 'vue' vision it's still disappointing considering that this small cafe was only half full at the time. Finally after a few minutes and a couple of eager glances over to the bar staff our meals arrived, only to be taken back in because they had forgotten the sauces.

 

photo by  www.dannirodriguez.com

French toast with maple syrup &  créme anglaise  $9

                                                       photo by  www.dannirodriguez.com
Croque-monsieur with Kurobuta ham hock  $8.50

The food was OK. The french toast was moist on the inside with a nice amount of crunch on the outside, but when they remembered the créme anglaise they were a bit stingy with it. The ham hock in the croque was really nice but as you can see by the photo in made have been left in the sandwich maker a bit too long. The service was a bit ordinary and I did feel a bit forgotten, there was no 'how are your meals? or 'can I get you anything else?' The place is incredibly affordable however, so I will probably stop in again for a coffee fix.
I don't know if I was expecting too much from Café Vue because it is part of the Shannon Bennett empire, but It was a bit of a let down. It almost felt like when you buy a lipstick at Chanel just so you can have the carry bag, when what you really wanted was the Iridescent Calfskin Classic handbag with the leather and chain shoulder strap and CC clasp! The ladies know what I'm talking about.

Ratings out of 10
Food 5/10
Service 4/10

Atmosphere 6/10

Value 8/10

Cafe Vue 5.8/10

Would I return? Not for the food, but I will stop by for a take away coffee.