Lemon Espresso

Consistently great coffee and friendly staff. Popular with locals and workers in Claremont, the out of the way location discourages the shopping crowd, providing a more relaxed atmosphere. My only gripe is that they close too early.

There are many coffee shops around with a bit of a pretentious air about them, trying a little too hard to be ‘hip’ and ‘trendy’. Lemon Espresso though isn’t one of those places, it’s genuinely a really sweet coffee shop. A simple, rustic style, good coffee, good food, plenty of seating inside and outside, and friendly service. That’s all you need for the winning combination that makes up a good coffee place. It’s the go to place when you come to Claremont really, it’s a good one!

You could be forgiven for thinking you were in Melbourne in this stylish little coffee shop. The food is only supplementary to the coffees and drinks and is almost aimed at taking away and heading back to work. If you do happen to work in the area and draw the short straw for the coffee run, they take text message orders which saves you plenty of time.

The signage is so bright I could spot it a hundred metres away, but inside Lemon Espresso is all rustic and organic-​looking. Indeed the counter-​hand possessed Rastafarian matted hair which, personally, I think ought to have been in a net (what with he being around open produce and all).
Still, this makes for a rather handsome little eatery, and the patrons themselves are of a very spunky breed (on the morning I went, anyway, and at 9.30am). Being close to Claremont quarter, you’d think it would be packed with old fuddy-​duddy sorts, but on this particular day it appeared as though Uni students had taken over.
The coffee is good and fairly priced; in fact I might have had the best soy latte here in all of Claremont. Mind you, I’m still trying to work out what a Five-​Senses Blend is. Prices on the food menu are a different story; a little too ex-​y in contrast to the beverages. But the hash cakes and fresh spinach I spied on the table next to me did look good enough to come back and try for breaky.