All Things Equal Cafe — Restaurant in Melbourne

Café (and social enterprise) with excellent coffee and a great focused menu of elevated brunch standards with some Jewish influences.

Dishes include smashed avo, shakshuka, challah french toast, roasted mushrooms, granola with coconut yoghurt, barramundi fishcakes, smoked salmon bagel, latke benedict, spanakopita, tuna melt, plus the usual toast and eggs.

The menu is especially good catering for vegetarians: of 14 dishes on the menu (not including sides), 11 were available vegetarian, and 4 vegan. In fact the full menu is actually pescatarian, but if, like me, you happily eat everything, you won't feel like you are being restricted in any way because there are so many great looking options. I didn't even realise until after I'd ordered. 10 gluten free options too. So this is most definitely an everybody-friendly menu.

Coffee is from Mornington Peninsula specialty roasters Prodigal and mine (black) were perfectly made (with exceptional acidity/fruit notes for coffee nerds like me that get excited by that kind of thing). 5+⭐

Smashed avocado, on rye bread with pickled kohlrabi. $17.50. Great dish. Really good proper rye bread and I loved the pickle. Winner. 5⭐

Side salad. $9. Baby cos and herbs. I loved all the dill and parsley. The olive oil dressing, which comes on the side, just tasted oily and wasn't to my taste, but the salad was fresh enough to not need. 4.5⭐

Tables inside and outside along Westbury Street, acoustics noisy inside (at least...

All things Equal are a NFP business which employs both neuro-typical, and people with disabilities providing "purposeful employment ... in a ‘mainstream’ work environment." The staff contribute to their community in a meaningful way while earning an equal salary, regardless of whether or not they have a disability. The business is still fairly new but we found the environment to be hugely welcoming and all the staff seem super happy to be at work. They have a really extensive menu of all your brunch faves plus excellent coffee, smoothies, DIY brunch bowls and a kids menu. The service was friendly and upbeat, meals were yummy and beautifully presented and we thought the portions were really decent too. We just love the vibe and the ethos and will definitely be back regularly! It's great to enjoy a delicious brunch and see so many people getting an opportunity that they...

Staff - 5/5

The staff are very attentive and come round to your table to ensure customers' needs are met. We had 2 different staff members that were polite enough to come round to our table 3 times to take our order due to someone on our table taking 10 mins to make up his mind.

Food - 5/5

I thoroughly enjoyed my scrambled eggs and will definitely be back again for brekky. The presentation of the food was better than most of the cafes in Melbourne, this just goes to show the commitment and dedication of staff to deliver excellence despite their challenges.

Coffee - 3/5

Unfortunately my coffee was average but this could just be a one-off as I did order a lactose-free latte. I'm also aware that the cafe is relatively new and staff are still being trained so hopefully when I come back, the coffee will be on par with the rest...