Spencers Store — Restaurant in Melbourne

I recently visited Spencer's Store Café and had a mixed experience. The café’s vintage and homestead decor creates a relaxing atmosphere, ideal for unwinding after a hike or walk.

The pesto pasta had a good flavor but included a sharp, spiky vegetable that felt inedible, leading me to spit it out. This issue might be related to how the dish was prepared. The portion size was also quite small for the price.

The pulled beef burger was tasty, but it didn’t come with any sides, so I had to purchase a small bowl of chips separately for $10, which felt like poor value. The chips did come with a small serving of aioli, which was a nice touch.

The cappuccino was well made, but the iced coffee was disappointing. Without coffee syrups, I tried using honey to sweeten it, but it didn’t dissolve well and left the coffee quite bitter. It seems the café leans towards healthier options, which might explain the lack of traditional coffee syrups. Offering some healthier alternatives like sugar free syrup could improve the experience for those who prefer sweeter coffee.

Service was good, our waitress was friendly and attentive, despite the lack of conversation. Although we arrived after the kitchen had officially closed, they still took our order, which was appreciated.

It’s great that dogs are allowed, though some smaller dog owners seemed a bit snobby towards larger dogs. This is more about individual attitudes than the café’s service.

The café’s opening hours until 4:00 pm are a plus, but I’d suggest keeping food options available until closing time. It’s unusual for a café to stop serving food before closing.

Overall, Spencer's Store offers a pleasant atmosphere and good service, but there are areas for improvement to enhance the...

Lovely atmosphere, friendly staff, and great food. The chai lattes are actually proper chai lattes - not the usual cinnamon sugar stuff you get from most cafes. The food is great, and they serve the best French toast I've ever had. Inside has a casual and warm atmosphere, with lots of locals frequenting for coffee and a chat. There is also a small garden where you can sit on warm days or if you've brought a dog (although the gravel part may be slightly uncomfortable for some pets, perhaps sit in the brick area if your pooch is fussy), and it is rather well protected from the wind. Just make sure you let the staff inside know if you choose to sit outside - they can't see all the seats from the kitchen, so you might find yourself waiting a while for service if they don't know you're there! Great place, I'll...

This has been a favourite place to go. BUT- yesterday - gee, meal and service really disappointing - the Beans meal was very poor: bread dry, poached eggs seriously undercooked, bacon chop very fatty and tough, badly cooked.... bean mix could have been out of a tin. Lacking in flavour or balance. Coffee for which they are renowned, no good yesterday: a flat white, bitter and cold with froth disappearing before I could drink it- suspect over extracted. Asked for a hash brown as an extra (have had that there before) to be told bluntly "we don't have hash browns." No other suggestions. Others's eating with me also not impressed with the cooking or service yesterday. Hopefully just a bad day for them, but very disappointing for a place I have previously recommended enthusiastically to others. Wary of...