Mart 130

I was pleased to see on a recent visit to Melbourne they now accept credit cards! Even Amex with no surcharge so can use Apple Pay. Excellent
The food is still nice

A great spot to sit and watch some local tennis on the deck with tram stop #130 right at its door you can’t go wrong! Good menu usual brunch brekkie menu great toasties with amazing coffee with extra thick real honey and honey twirler. A must see at Albert Park get the #96 tram to the door

I went to give this café a try after I read some good reviews and I have been looking at the place from tram. I must begin with how ‘unique’ this café looks, it built in old vintage building just next to the tram stop. However, everything else is just a disappointing.
The price of this café is a little bit higher than normal café. I thought 19 dollars for ham and cheese sandwich isn’t really reasonable for it (toast costs about 5.90). But nether less I was willing to give it a shot. However, when the food comes in, it looks horrible and comes with mayonnaise on dried rocket leaves (it’s suppose to be the salad, you see). The food as expected taste… Mehhh. Nothing special, not well made and it doesn’t even taste good. The fruit toast I got was burnt and wasn’t well prepared either, which makes me to draw a conciliation that this café IS NOT YOUR REGULAR MELBOURNE CAFE. It’s overrated and not recommended unless you’re super hungry and couldn’t find anything near Middle park tram stop.

If I was cool enough to have my own café this is what I would want it to be like. After getting a tip that the best Bircher Muesli (and I LOVE my bircher muesli) was here, the sister and I began our long and confusing tram trip (s) to Mart 130 and BOY WAS IT WORTH IT.
Literally ON the team station, Mart 130 is the cutest little café with such a beautiful floral interior. We sat on the porch in the sunshine and my sister was presented with a super yummy coffee in a yellow mug and I got a green tea in a beautiful tea set. Legit couldn’t stop taking photos.
The Bircher came in two sizes — I settled for the smaller one and it was THE BEST BIRCHER MUESLI OF MY LIFE — and I’ve had A LOT of Bircher muesli in my time. I will have to go back. My sister picked from a long list of egg items and settled on a #1 — eggs Benedict with TRUFFLE Hollandaise. Truffle. We ended up splitting because it was too damn delicious.
I saw the lunch menu specials written on the black board for the day and announced that we would have to come back for lunch (and breakfast again) the next time we visited. No distance would stop us.
If you want to impress your friends with a cute little find you can’t do no better than Mart 130. The best hidden gem I’ve seen in a while.

This is an old train station converted into a café. Food and service are okay but certainly not amazing enough to warrant the 30 – 60 min wait on weekends. Particularly when there are 5 adjacent cafes across the road in Armstrong St. In addition, Mart refuses to accept credit cards and is a cash only business. Otherwise known as a blatant tax dodge in the hospitality industry.

Coffee: delicious
Food: delicious
Service: pretty good
Wait times for table: 40 minutes to an hour if you arrived after 10am
Wait times for food: as above
Crowd: Instagramming international students (lots of them), Yummy Mummies, film stars
Vibe: Good, relaxed, lovely view over Albert Park
Price: $$$
Get a table at the back bar and stay for a while :)

On a return visit to Melbourne, enjoyed an incredible lunch at Mart 130. Well, the brekkie was so good last time that I had to get the corn fritters with grilled bacon and tomato relish — YUM. My partner had the scotch fillet sandwich which he loved as well. Great little spot off the beaten path I’m happy to have returned to. Good soy chai latte to boot.

Its a Sunday morning. You’re on your way to the beach. Why not stop before you get to the rush of St. Kilda and grab breakfast in Albert Park.
While you might feel a tad guilty eating while watching people participate in sport, the food will keep your distracted. If you get off the tram, don’t be put off by the few seats on the tram side as most of the seating is enclosed in the side away from the tram line.
Be prepared for the wait but if your are dining alone or as a couple you can squeeze in to the bench rather than waiting for a table.
And beware the impulse spend of the sweet slices next to the cash register when you pay your bill.

Mart 130 gives the customers a top notch service and I feel really welcomed there. The corn fritters is soggy and the homemade relish is sour. None of these fit my taste buds.

This all-​day breakfast café feels like a quick getaway to the country side.
Hidden away from the main street, you will find this inviting café disguised at the Middle Park light rail tram stop.
Once inside, it’ll feel like you’re unwinding at a B&B, because the outdoor dining area backs onto Albert Park Lake, so it’s quite beautiful scenery to enjoy a Sunday brunch and clear your mind of worrying thoughts.
There’s always a wait for a table here, so get here early, or be prepared to wait.
Unfortunately, I do find the menu a tad overpriced and lacking in breakfast options.
Tip: There are no Eftpos or credit card facilities, so make sure you bring your wallet full of cash before ordering.

Fab service, atmosphere, friendly staff. Looove the corn fritters…

Mart is one of those tricky places to review. For a place that is all about brunch, the coffee is pretty substandard. But (and this is a big but) the food is pretty damn acceptable.
As it is, Mart is amongst the great Melbournian venues that people go to see and be seen. Indeed, during a weekend brunch rush you could easily believe that the WHOLE of Melbourne has descended on that little patch of land.
During such peak periods, the wait for a table is usually at least 30 minutes and even once you have a coveted spot getting service will take equally — if not twice — as long.
All that said, whenever I’m hosting a visitor to Melbourne this is often a place that gets a visit. Snuggled in a light rail /​tram stop, everything about this place screams Melbourne. Better yet, the weather only has to be mildly good for it to feel amazing here, sitting out on the back sun-​filled terrace.
Verdict: this is a place that deserves a visit even if only so you can decide for yourself whether you’re a Mart afficionado or not.

Upon my friend ‘T’s’ enthusiastic advice, I ventured along Canterbury Rd from St Kilda and towards this elusive café in Middle Park. He did explain to me that it was on the tram stop but I managed to walk straight past it, so it is handy to know that it is number 130 (opp Middle Park Hotel), as there isn’t much signage from the street. They seem to still do better than ok without the self promotion because as we entered from the underground walkway, onto the platform and into MART (Tram spelt backwards), we realised this is one popular destination.
We were pretty lucky in getting a seat straight away as it was only two of us and the bench was free. Groups of three or more seemed to have to wait a little. The décor is so quaint and cute. Almost country kitchen styles but not as irksome.
We were quite happy to be away from the crowd and observe. It really bustles with energy this place but the quirky staff are as cool as a cucumber.
‘T’ also instructed us to get the corn fritters which ordinarily I would never order, but I implore you… DO IT! They are soooooo good with grilled bacon, tomato relish, sour cream and coriander. We also got the lamb salad which was presented beautifully and had barley and peas and yummy parmesan, but I felt it was missing something. Perhaps a little more mint was needed? Now I’m just being finicky because the overall experience was stellar.
Most people are used to waiting for the tram to show up, so a small wait here rewards you with much more than the number 96.

Mart really is a lovely little café. Situated somewhat unassumingly at the Middle Park lightrail tram stop, it can be recognised solely by the endless crowds of people milling out the front. This place is just insanely popular.
The Sunday brunch rush hour is like nothing else, you can expect to wait patiently in line with hordes of others while an apologetic waiter attempts to find you a seat. I’m sure that some people thrill at the exclusivity of this whole process, but I’m really not a fan of having to queue for my breakfast. Honestly, after about 15 minutes I was tempted to just give up and move on to somewhere else. Good thing i didn’t. Whinging aside, when we were finally seated at Mart it was totally worth the wait.
I ordered the baked baked cannellini beans with ham hock on organic sourdough toast sprinkled with crumbled goats cheese. And it was simply AMAZING. Mart is a prime example of how good hearty breakfast should be done.