Eliana Lulu — Restaurant in Melbourne

Afternoon tea time or in the case of my friend - time for a Bloody Mary. We came to Eliana Lulu at 2.30pm and it was still busy from the lunch crowd plus being school holidays, quite a few younger people hanging here. They know something others don’t? Yes they do. Central Place has attracted restauranters who know how to differentiate themselves from the other cafes without necessarily poaching business from them. Today I had a hot chocolate and poppyseed muffin. Served on a warm plate, the also warm muffin was light but with the deliciously crispy top (always reminds me of Elaine in a Seinfeld sketch). We watched Adonis make the bloody mary and he did it with absolute style and finesse. Cynthia, was our waitress and was on top of everything. From her invitation to a seat, water on the table, helping me choose what sweet treat to order and then a bag to take home the second half of the muffin I couldn’t eat - she was excellent. The ambience is interesting with the high stools at a bench that open straight out to the street, plus the tables inside that offer a warm feeling during this cold day. Menu is simple and seasonal but there is something for everyone. The food coming to the tables looked very generous in portion sizes. Liked the mural on the wall (see my pic) and who doesn’t love a sunburnt orange coffee machine! Notes: come early for those busy lunch hour periods, in summer this place is very popular, suitable for vegetarians and vegans, restaurant is wheelchair friendly, kid friendly, takeaway available and close to Flinders...

Very disappointing. My husband and I stopped to have coffee and breakfast. Seated at around 10:40, order taken about 10minutes later. Our coffees arrived about 11:10. At 11:25 we were still waiting for our meals, while 2 tables that had been seated and ordered well after us (one table arrived and ordered around 11am, the other about 11:15) had both received their coffees and meals (the first table received their coffees before us and had already esten and left before we got our meals). After 2 attempts to get the waitresses attention we asked about our meals. My husbands meal came out straight away, but we were worried about how quickly it came out and we were right to be....it was cold!! Mine came out a couple of minutes later and was hot. Unfortunately we were upset and sent my husbands meal back but we were already frustrated and decided to leave. We spoke to the manager as we left, and no apology was made, just treated like we were after a free meal. I get plenty of people eat the meal then demand it free because something was "wrong", but we had already sent the meal back (which we have never done before) and I hadn't touched mine. The coffee was lovely but that was our only...

I haven't been to Melbourne in years and Finding a place to eat wasn't easy, as there are so many places to try. I heard the coffee was good in Melbourne & really wanted it to be true. My Partner and I loved the atmosphere and it's down a side lane way which I highly recommend to sit along the bench with stools to eat. The owner Denise treated us like we were family and it was such an amazing experience. I had a big breakfast and I could not fault a thing, they even swapped out something I didn't want with no hassles. My partner had the fresh home made chicken schnitzel with Mushroom sauce and they pan fry their schnitzel. It was probably our favourite thing about our trip apart from The Matildas winning. If you get a chance come here for sure. I'm really glad we didn't read the reviews first because our experience was not even close to those. If I could give this place more stars I definitely would. Thanks Denise and we will definitely see...