Picnicc — Restaurant in Melbourne

An urban picnic in Fitzroy North, situation inside a gorgeous venue displaying an abundance of greenery, a place where you just bring yourself as the café will serve your lunch. That is Picnicc. The café itself is very inviting, lush greenery against the wall and hanging from the ceiling, decent amount of seating inside for diners, and importantly, warm and friendly staff. We were served by Kevin and Jacob, and both were attentive and on the ball. For lunch we’re a sucker for toasties, so we went straight for it.

First drinks, a coffee (a must), as well as a few specials: strawberry macha, crème di caffe with choc chip cookies, and their special (maple syrup infused cream with a nutmeg and cinnamon served on top of an iced black). So what’s our take on the coffee? Piccolo latte’s were done right, no issues! Charlene enjoyed the macha, an interesting take on a traditional with the strawberry. The crème di caffe with cookies? I want to be smothered in that and to let Charlene scoop it up with the cookies, it’s bloody brilliant, and we had some bites between sandwiches as a palate cleanser!!! The long black provides such a great flavour combo for winter, nutmeg, cinnamon, maple and coffee, tasted like a drinkable gingerbread coffee, yum. Overall drinks were great, and our top picks were the crème di caffe and maple infused cream on the long black), as well as the piccolo latte’s (obviously). The only thing is the long black needed to be stronger to offset the sweetness of the cream, it needed a little more balance.

Now if the toasties weren’t good the above wouldn’t mean a thing, so we had three varieties, a good spread to give a decent review. First the chicken and bacon jam – um, we could have made room for two more if we fasted the day prior, it was so damn good, the chicken was juicy, the bacon jam was decadent, and the lettuce and onion gave the sandwich balance and the entire sandwich was seasoned very well. We’ve had some great (and not so great) chicken toasties in our days and we have to say this one is up there with some of the best we have had (Torquay Larder comes to mind with their chicken toastie).

I love a Rueben, but Charlene avoids them as she finds them too rich for her palate, and it becomes a bit too much. In saying all this she found the Rueben here not too overpowering and actually enjoyed it, which is huge, whereas I smashed it, it didn’t stand a chance, the flavours were impeccable and very tasty. Very happy with this one and has Charlene’s approval. I have had many versions of a Rueben, some that are insanely rich and stacked, to some that are mode gentle, but overall, the combination and ratios of this one gives it a high rating in our books.

Funnily enough, we avoid meatless sandwiches because we love our meat, however the mushroom and parmesan toastie was tremendous, and we enjoyed it thoroughly. There was something about the ratio of mushroom and cheese, and that bread, not sure what was in it (nuts, seeds, contraband, who knows) but it just worked so well together and elevated the sandwich.

The take home message is they serve up some refined toasties for a variety of palates, as well some sweet treats. Rating our food, in context, serving size for the $, they deserve full marks. We have given many café’s top marks for toasties in context, location, and price, so at times you cannot compare one café’s toasties to another unless the playing field is even.

Now finally, ambiance something we believe many cafes need to improve on. There are some that are very clinical where you’re afraid to talk as everyone seems to be whispering (it’s not a library). Not saying Picnicc like this, however like with many cafés, they need a little more warmth, chattiness, think ‘Happy Days”, think of a holistic experience. Part of the experience in eating out obviously nice food, but also how the venue makes you feel while eating and that includes the diners, but that ‘culture’ needs to be set by the café. Picnicc has a nice overall but there is room for improvement.

Overall a great...

ORDERED: 🍄 Mushroom melt (v): lemon thyme mixed mushrooms, spinach, toasted almonds, 4 cheese blend ($16.50) 🐔 Chicken with bacon jam (gf): roast chicken, chives & dill mayo, house-made bacon jam, rocket, pickled onion ($16.90)

🫖 Iced London fog: Chilled earl grey tea topped with sweet and salty cream ($6.90)

It was $23.90pp for two people!

REVIEW: 🗣️ Crowd favourite seems to be the mushroom melt and I can see why! It's earthy and has a heftiness to it. Even though it's technically a vegetarian sandwich, it's got depth. The 4 cheese bleed also gives it an intense flavour. ❤️ However, my favourite was the chicken with bacon jam. I prefer lighter tastes so this was more up my alley. The roast chicken wasn't dry for me, while the mayo worked seamlessly within each bite. It was a cohesive sandwich. My friend and I split our sandwiches so we could try more! 🤝

Service seemed like a tough gig. 1 woman band and she seemed to be in charge of taking orders, delivering to tables and making coffees. ➖ I assume the sandwiches were all premade and were the ones displayed in the counter which required re-heating. ✖️ No napkins provided with the sandwich, but she'll happily provide on request. ➖ Water is also self serve near the counter. Taking all things into consideration, average service.

🪴 Interior was gorgeous and filled to the brim with greens. It's a relaxing place to catch up with friends in a casual environment. Very quiet at 10am but jam-packed by the time we...

A cute little cafe in Fitzroy north that you should definitely add to your list! The interior of the cafe is so cute with lots of stunning art work, their drinks are delicious and the sandwiches made in house are great! Really enjoyed our experience here, the service is amazing and the owner is so lovely

What we ordered: Iced strawberry matcha ($7.50). Not your typical matcha, imagine a sparkling matcha drink with sweet strawberries. Refreshing and well balanced! 🌟 Iced Vienna latte ($7.50). I don’t usually like coffee as much anymore but I loved this!! The salty cream on top was delicious, reminded me of tiramisu 🌟 Iced London fog ($6.90). I lovee earl grey anything, the sweet salty cream on top really elevated the drink Peppermint hot chocolate ($6.90). I like mint chocolate so I enjoyed this Mushroom melt ($16.50). One of their most popular items and I can see why, it’s very cheesy with lots of flavour. However this was a little too heavy for my liking 🌟 Reuben ($16.50). I usually don’t order Reuben sandwiches cos I personally don’t like the thick layers of meat, feels unbalanced to me but this was my favourite sandwich as the filling ratio was very balanced 🌟 Chicken with bacon jam ($16.90). The filling ration for this was also very balanced, the sandwich was packed full of flavour and refreshing at the same time Lemon supreme croissant. If you love lemon...