De Clieu

I came here for coffee on a cold Autumn day and was greeted very warmly by the owner (such a pleasant, lovely lady– named Billie– with whom I had a nice conversation later). I was looking for a power outlet and the owner went out of her way to actually bring me an extension cord so I could use the outlet that she found near the seat that I had picked. I said I could move to another table, but she was so sweet and insisted that she could bring me the extension cord so it’s more convenient for me.
The café is really nice, and coffee/​pastries, and the soup that I tried were all really good. I’ll definitely come back to this lovely place again:)

Great food and trendy friendly atmosphere. Relaxing Sunday morning brunch with lots of parking nearby. Coffees could be bigger but still had good flavour.

Lovely little café. Just came by for some coffee and a cookie, but had a great vibe and some of the food looked great. Will return to try other stuff.

Wow melting moment with eggs Benedict just right, salmon not overpowering bacon crunch great flavour. Great ambience and plenty of space great service not in your face style and if early plenty of parking a great find on a Saturday

Warning: brutally honest review…
Apparently this place «was» amazing. *Was* being of critical importance in that sentence. Food is expensive for quality. Quality is lacking. .e.g. Their version of Eggs Benedict is $ 19, tried it twice, eggs were not right, food tasted fridge stored for days, eggs were glow in the dark radioactive inside (seriously I don’t even want to understand what that was about), ice choc was average at best, always packed with people so never get a seat (this part puzzles me) — do Melbourne people go to places because other do regardless of what they think of it? Stop being brainless hipster trend following fools (aka douchebags)! Use your tastebuds, the food sucks here, go, don’t return, *shakes head*.
Note: Service is fine to excellent (I’ve experienced both) however I’m here to eat first and foremost, not engage in verbal diarrhoea with people I couldn’t give a toss about so let’s keep this about the food.
I tried this place TWICE with two groups of friends to be sure it was bad and not just me. But no. Both times bad. Visits were separated by five weeks. And it ruined breakfast for the second group of people. This in turn ruined an otherwise lovely day.
Only a fool would eat here after reading this review — I’m sorry. You’re better off skipping the meal. :-/​
Who should eat here… Would recommend for your inlaws or someone you’d rather not see again, perhaps the place to breakup or take that cousin no one in the family likes… perhaps they’ll get food poisoning? One can only hope. :-)
Unclear why Unilocal has high reviews for this place YET it’s average at best on Urbanspoon (with a large push toward falling flat on its arse of late by user ratings there). One can only assume that rating in Unilocal requires words and is therefore more difficult than «don’t like it». Shop around reviewing apps before following other reviews here, could largely be a case of paid reviews of people just not bothering to negatively review to not waste their own time. Who knows!!!

Best café in Fitzroy! Service is outstanding, coffee is great and the food beyond delicious. We came here twice in one weekend it was so good. Try the potato croquette Mexican eggs dish, I can’t remember the name but it was beyond amazing!

It’s a nice little setup that De Clieu has achieved here.
I’m going to have to say that the service let me down a little bit when I dropped in one surprisingly quiet Saturday afternoon. The staff member that served me was surprisingly edgy for a café that was only half full but nevertheless I was happily sitting on the communal within a couple of minutes.
I sat there for a while admiring all of the gear that was out on display all around the table set slightly off to the rest of the table. That’s why it probably took them a little while to remember I was there. As friendly as the service was, it seemed a little lax.
Anywho, they’ve got seven seeds here and that usually means you’re in for a great coffee. I ordered my long black of guest bean but unfortunately it didn’t pack that punch I was after. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with the coffee, it was just not quite as good as I was hoping for.
De Clieu has still got that buzzy vibe that a lot of north-​side cafés possess and it’s a great spot to take a couple of friends. Just make sure you catch it on a good day.

Took me all of half an hour to locate this place as my nearest decent coffee location. Grabbed a quick take away on a Monday arvo and made a vow to come back for breakfast.
Tuesday morning rolls around and I’m all geared up for my first breakfast of the trip and I need it to start off right. It’s not too busy so as a solo diner I don’t feel too bad taking a whole table by the window. They have a communal table in the back, a bench next to the door at the front and then a row of bench seating with tables and chairs along the wall so you have several places to choose from depending on what you’re doing.
Had a menu pretty quickly, coffee order was in and I was browsing the breakfast options on offer. Oh my lord they have some amazing options on here. Quite a few non breakfast style breakfast options which gets a big tick from me. I ordered the pork neck with spring onion Rosti and BBQ sauce. This dish really wowed me! The pork neck was amazingly cooked and so soft. The Rosti was actually more like a crunchy pancake crêpe hybrid thing that I can’t describe but added amazing texture to an otherwise soft dish. The BBQ sauce was smokey and sweet and with the addition of a perfect sunny side up fried egg I was spectacularly happy. Ate every bite. One downside is they had a few chunks of tomato on the plate, for some reason that escapes me and I’m of the firm opinion that if you are going to serve raw tomato you can’t serve the ones that have been sitting in your fridge for a fortnight. That would be my only complaint on the food.
The service was quick but a little scatterbrained in my humble opinion. None of the staff ever seem to know what any of the other staff are doing and there is very little communication between them. I ordered a take away coffee at the end of my meal and once it was made I saw three staff members have a debate about who it belonged to not realising I was sitting right in front of them. I had to go up, claim it and pay my bill otherwise I probably would have been sitting there all day. Lucky the breakfast was so darn tasty and the coffee so darn smooth.
I’ve had a coffee here pretty much everyday this week so even if you don’t dine in, grab a takeaway and enjoy that while strolling lovely Fitzroy.

A fantastic departure from traditional eggs and bacon brekkie, with excellent coffee.
Some of the items on the menu include braised lamb with slaw on brioche (my favorite), pork neck with fried egg on roti, and miso pea fritters. Each dish is about $ 15 – 18, and there are outdoor tables so you can keep up with your people-​watching.

Gotta love Gertude St, gotta love De Clieu.
A food/​drink menu that you won’t find anywhere else… quality, quality, quality.

Simply delicious coffee served in a wonderful location. Indoor and outdoor seating, as well as giant windows with wide ledges to perch on if you want to be somewhere in between.

This place is rockin’. I have never not seen it completely chock-​a-​block with coffee lovers — even on weekday afternoons when you’d suspect most addicts should be at work, making money to fuel their addiction.
Can you tell I’m not a coffee drinker? That’s totally fine, as they have a delicious bevvy of beverages on hand to suit the rest of us. Each and every hot chocolate (yes, even the soy ones) comes with a delicious bar of Whittaker’s milk chocolate. A nod to coffee-​loving Kiwi clientele, perhaps?
The food’s delux as well, with the type of ever-​changing menu that makes each trip you take with friends a different experience. This is the type of venue you want to take you friends from out of town, and also those people who randomly end up staying at yours (on the couch, of course, of course…). It’s casual and hip without trying too hard.
Best of all, you can sit in the windowsill on nice days. Can’t say that about most cafes, now can you?

Great coffee– perfect frothing milk.
Breakfast menu and lunch is something u need to try.

Breakfast can sometimes be hard to find between Christmas and nye with so many cafes closed (this review is based on my visit during this time). Fortunately De Clieu delivers on this need. I tried the poached eggs on quinoa bread — eggs were great and it was topped with a delicious tomato salsa which added a slight sweetness.
Coffee is seven seeds and of good quality. Café is nice to chill out inside and hear the banter between the staff with the open kitchen.
Worthy of a stop if you are in the area.

One of the top cafes on the busy strip of Gertrude st. The coffee (7 seeds) is superb as you would expect, the food is top notch (try the smashed peas) and has a few interesting vegetarian options. Staff are very laid back and will do a good job serving you but never really up for a chat even when it’s not that busy.
Tip: if its a nice sunny day grab a seat on the window sills outside and people watch.

Once when a real estate agent opened in the space now occupied by De Clieu, I thought it was a café because they had installed a bar. A decade later the agency has vacated to allow the corner of George and Gertrude Street to fulfil its true purpose. A hipster café.
As far as Café’s go I suppose De Clieu is elegant. On a sunny day beams spray the tables on George Street. The window sills are wide enough to sit on if the tables are full. I went there with Stephanie and it was eleven degrees. Inside a faux wood gas heater was blasting out warmth, and the clientele were handsome and well dressed. I was wearing black socks with thin neon stripes on them that someone had given to me. I felt unfashionable.
I don’t eat the food at De Clieu because it’s too gamey. I know it’s cool to consume the tongue of various animals but it reminds me too much of eating my own tongue by accident, which I never want to do. At $ 3.80 the coffee is steep but it’s served by a cute waiter with a septum piercing and is fair trade. What a relief. Now all I have to do is sort out my superannuation.

De Clieu is a part of the Seven Seeds family, set up in the middle of the hip and happening Gertrude St. It’s cosy inside but huge props to the De Clieu staff, who manage to get everyone seated at shared tables and in windows (what a gorgeous spot for a sunny day).
The Seven Seeds coffee is delicious and the all-​day menu is interesting enough to keep you coming back-​despite being a tourist, I’ve been to De Clieu on two separate visits to Melbourne. On the latest visit I may or may not have dropped in for a second breakfast, so it was a little smaller: delicious bread, with a couple of amazing jam offerings (I couldn’t decide between the two jars, so smeared a half-​half job).
I love this little spot in a great location for some Melbourne exploring. Have to say I prefer it to its older brother Seven Seeds.

I’ve only had coffee from De Clieu so I can’t comment on their menu although, after browsing quickly through it, the Smoked Trout Baguette w/​Ricotta, the Pork Neck Roti and the Rhubarb Cheesecake w/​El Gordo Gelee & Compressed Melon sound really nice.
User of Seven Seeds beans, their Flat White is great — one of the best I’ve had so far I have to say. The place is pretty cool but then again, it is located in a pretty cool place on Gertrude Street, Fitzroy.
De Clieu’s hours are:
Monday to Saturday: 7am-​5pm & Sunday: 8am-​5 pm
They offer brekkie and lunch — heads up though: their kitchen closes at 3pm I think?

Ground zero for hipsters, and that’s what’s pretty awesome about it.
It’s hipster-​ville, sans the attitude– and that is a big win for me. The staff are all patient and friendly, and won’t even rush you out when they’re closing up shop for the day.
The menu is really interesting and different, and I’m always trying different foods and ingredients, which is really fun!
Come for the coffee, stay for the food– that’s what I say.
May be the best cappuccino in Melbourne, and the iced coffee on a hot summer’s day=bliss.

All the handsome men and beautiful women at De Clieu always distract me a little bit from the fantastic coffee. But once I have caffeine in me, I snap out of it. De Clieu is the newest café from the creators of Seven Seeds and Brother Baba Budan, which are known for their amazing coffees.
Situated on Gertrude Street, it’s definitely one of the best coffee places ($ 3.80 for a latte) in that part of Fitzroy. With a relaxed atmosphere, décor focusing on wood furnishings, and places to sit outside, De Clieu is great for a quick cup of coffee alone, with friends, or take away. You can choose from their Seven Seeds house blend, various single origin beans, and other speciality blends. For those that are craving something to eat, they offer a full breakfast and lunch menu until 3pm.
If you want to take some beans home with you, De Clieu is also a retail store where you can buy Seven Seeds coffees and coffee equipment. Maybe you won’t be able to make your coffee as good as theirs, but you can give it a go.