Outpost is a new-ish venture by the coffee fiends at St Ali. It’s just near South Yarra station, and I decided to *gulp* CROSS THE RIVER for a visit on a Saturday morning.
Unlike pretty much anywhere worth brunching on a Saturday morning northside, we were able to get a seat straight away. The cafe itself is tiny but they have plenty of sort-of-outdoor seating in the entrance to the building.
We ordered coffee straight away, and this arrived within five minutes. And may I say these are among the best coffees I’ve had in Melbourne.
There’s no menus on the table; instead, the menu is scrawled on a long piece of brown paper stuck inside the window. There are only about four or five breakfast options. I chose the strawberries and melon with yoghurt and oats:
The fruit was nice and fresh, but the yoghurt was very thick, almost paste-like; unsweetened, it was very intense and too sour for my liking. The oats were supposed to be toasted, but they were pretty much just like regular rolled oats as far as I could tell. I think I was expecting something a bit more granola-ish.
J. ordered the sourdough with avocado, buffalo mozzarella and Vegemite. It came out like an open grilled toastie:
Weird combo, right? It actually tasted pretty good, although I am a big fan of Vegemite with breakfast. (Try it on your toast next time you have eggs on toast. YUM.) I would have liked to see the avocado sliced rather than all mushed up.
Service was a bit hit and miss; it took ages before they took our food order, as they thought we already ordered (although how they thought this I don’t know, as there was only one waiter at the time). I ordered a second coffee after the food, and it didn’t come, until the waiter checked 10 minutes later to see if I got it and then chased it up.
Really Outpost is all about the coffee, which is, as I mentioned earlier, spectacularly good. I don’t think I’d bother going out of my way for the food, but I’d definitely cross the river again for one of their lattes.
KATE