Stovetop

To be honest, the service at Stovetop seems a little disorganised to the less-​than-​regular coffee hunter. It is not clear whether you order at the bar or just take a seat, and the line to collect take-​away food and coffee winds randomly about. Having said that, I’ve had some good tea (served in a real, ceramic tea pot — thanks!) and coffee there, and grabbed a quiche to go once that was OK for the price.

We were led here via Broadsheet reviews. We were drawn to it because of the offered free wifi and plug points but then soon discovered it was so because it was situated within a university building.
Not a place to hold a conversation as the place is extremely busy with people waiting to take your table as soon as you get up to leave it.
Decent coffee though & a great looking menu.

Definitely a 5 out of 5, the food amazing, try the egg white omelette. Watch the guy making coffee he is an artist and the coffee is amazing. Try the chai as well made with proper leaves not syrup. Quality place well done.

Spent a large amount of my time here when I was doing my postgraduate studies. It is definitely my goto coffee spot in the immediate area. Depending on where you are coming from it may be a little out of your way (during the work day) but if you like good coffee do check it out. It is not my goto for food but everyone cannot have it all. But if you are there get the black pudding on the side with your poached eggs — really good. Or if you would like something sweet try the waffles (fingers crossed they are still on the menu) :)

I have to commend Stovetop on an excellent looking café. The place looks amazing and the aesthetic is quite impressive. I am totally not surprised with its flocking of hipsters and Melbourne Uni students, those are kinda the same thing anyway.
I wasn’t overly sold with Stovetop though. It has the potential for five stars but it let itself down. First of two things was the service. The guy that served me made no effort of being welcoming and I felt like he only wanted to be there to get paid at the end of the day. Not really what you want with front of house staff. After a decent. wait, I was served my namesake coffee. Not a bad brew at all.
Thought I’d take a bag home. Did exactly that. Only when I got home I realised that the bag they sold me was almost a month old and already stale. Couldn’t really take it back as I didn’t have a receipt and they’re not exactly the only café in Melbourne to serve 5 Senses. So second disappointment.
Anyway. I feel like Stovetop could be a very nice café but it rubbed me the wrong way and it doesn’t give me any inclination to return.

I’m giving it a 5 straight up because of the delicious wagyu corned beef brioche burger I just hoovered like a Labrador with dropped bacon.
Let me start from the beginning, on my way home after an appointment at The Royal, I did the ‘what’s nearby please Unilocal?’ thing and it came up with a lovely list of possible late lunch options.
Seeing that Seven Seeds was very close with quite a few good reviews from EVERYONE IN MELBOURNE, and also not having been there before I made a beeline over there. Not gonna lie, I was a little underwhelmed. Mainly at the extreme busyness/​masses of ‘cool kids’ and the feeling I wasn’t really dressed with the right attitude, I walked out after taking a cursory glance at the menu and deciding it contained nothing I absolutely had to try, plus 7S is known for their coffee and I wanted good food and good coffee. I’ll go back, probably wearing something skinnier next time.
So, next was this place, and though I had dismissed it at first for 2 reasons: a) not many or good reviews on Unilocal and b) it’s under an educational building, which I usually put under the medical buildings category and off my list cause cafés that set themselves up under buildings like that generally don’t have to be good to be operational… am I right???
But on closer inspection (whilst standing across the road) I saw the well designed logo and the ‘modern interior’, being a designer, these two things can make a large difference as to if I’ll go into a place or not.
When I walked in I was greeted by a lovely lady wielding a styley menu and asked if I wanted something to drink whilst perusing the small but diverse list of items. The flat white was delicious, smooth and perfectly, well… I had to stop myself from ordering another, let’s put it that way.
As mentioned above, I got the wagyu corned beef brioche burger which came with a healthy blob of whole seed mustard on the side. There were quite a few vego options and a couple of GF options too which was good for future reference.
Overall, nice vibe, great service and the one thing I had off the menu blew my mind. Extreemo delicious. Would recommend.

I had not heard of Stovetop, but then so many places open in Melbourne in a single week that it’s easy to overlook something, so I was grateful when a friend suggested it.
Cute, simple & easy, I was pleasantly surprised. Service was good & unobtrusive but the thing I really liked was the stovetop coffee. Great little gimmick to make it unique.
The menu had a lot of tempting offering but my guest & I opted for the cinnamon waffles. I’m grateful we shared as the portion sizes are big — American portion sizes.
All in all it’s a yes for me.

I was really excited to try a new place near work. At the time I didn’t think it was that bad, but it kept coming back to me — in the same way a nightmare haunts you… after I left.
I simply got the poached eggs on toast with a side of house-​made baked beans. First, I’m pretty sure that the eggs were poached with vinegar, not horrible but also not ideal. Then the beans themselves were very sweet, bizarrely so. No amount of salt could rectify the situation. It wouldn’t have been so bad had the meal not been cold…
Disappointing, especially for the prices. Looks like Seven Seeds isn’t getting replaced anytime soon for these prices or offerings.