Coffee Bean Cafe — Restaurant in Melbourne

Have walked by this place several times over the years and thought in 2023 we would be at a point where, if they've been around this long they must be doing something good.

Just to preface, this review is purely for coffee and not the food. That is for the sake of fairness.

After seeing it was not busy on such a beautiful day, I figured I'd grab a quick cofeee.

As the cafe is named 'coffee bean cafe' it is very underwhelming that the brewing options don't seem up to date, especially given we are in Melbourne. I accept that cold brewing, filtering, drip coffee isn't always going to be available as they are specialities but I'm not a difficult order. My follow up if there's no cold brew, is an iced long black. However, the iced long black that I've just had a few sips of, is now down the sink and in the bin.

At the point of verbally agreeing to getting an iced long black I had already known it was not going to be good but accepted my fate and continued with the order, just out of sheer curiousity.

I often am ok with paying $6.50 for something like a small/medium sized cold brew and thought ok sure, $7.50 for an iced long black isn't out of the realm of normality these days BUT to pay that amount for the liquid equivalent of cigarette ash, as someone who has never smoked in their life that was the worst coffee I have ever had. It was burnt more than pompeii and actually tasted as if the machine has not been cleaned (that's me trying to still justify things).

I have sat here for ten minutes and tried to look for merit in the cafe, and while the food may look appealing to some and many supportive reviews to go along with it. I don't think I'd willing to gamble away more money here for what was a very below average...

Absolute gem of a Cafe! Food is consistently delicious, heaps of variety and generous serves at excellent price ($24 for my eggs Benny and large hazelnut latte this morning). The staff are so friendly and it has a relaxed friendly vibe. Dog friendly with heaps of outdoor space but also plenty of comfortable dog free indoor seating. They have fresh squeezed juices to order, delicious fresh cakes and pastries (recommend the almond croissant or raspberry friande), banh mi, breakfast rolls, roast meals, pies, quiches, sandwiches to order, full breakfasts. Recommend the egg and bacon Turkish breakfast roll. Reckon they could and would do anything you want here to a high standard. And the coffee is excellent. There is a coffee servery window if you just want a quick coffee (or puppachino)to go. As you can tell, highly recommend...

My wife & I had Saturday lunch here.

Bill came to $43.55 which served up 2 Mains (Chilli Benedict & Bahn Mi) & 2 Mugs of coffee (Cappacino & F/W)

This place doesn't go short on the good stuff and there is obviously some pride in the work!

Chilli Benedict has no heat at all, (get fresh chopped chilli to spice up!) however the Chutney is delightful and pairs beautifully with perfectly weighted Hollandaise sauce.

Eggs cooked to perfection.

Bahn Mi also came with an abundance of pork cooked to perfection.

Coffees were quality and qiite strong!

Pristine marrying of flavours and overall presentation,...