The South Melbourne Trader

$ 10 for eggs and coffee on a Saturday morning. Excellent service, and they happily split bills.

Great burger perfectly seasoned. Excellent bun, love the fact they are making everything in house. Unfortunately the pickles and onion rings needed to be crispier over all great experience. I will be back.

Nice coffee

I’ve only been in once to date, but I like what I saw and I like what they’re doing. This review will be short, as I plan to return a few more times in the upcoming months.
They’ve got an interesting menu of what appears to be some standards, and then some constantly rotating fare. On my visit I had the wagyu burger, and it was easily the best burger that I’ve had since I arrived in Oz.
I’m looking forward to return, as I’ve yet to scratch the surface of what looks to be a clever menu, and I haven’t even set foot in the establishment, having eaten my lunch outside the first time around.

South Melbourne is a weekend eating haven. Market goers pack out every café on Coventry Street and a 45min wait for brunch is not uncommon.
The South Melbourne Trader seems relatively undiscovered. Popular with the weekday lunch crowd, it is unusually quiet on a weekend and an idea place to grab a coffee and breakfast or lunch without eyeballing other patrons for a table.
I don’t know what to comment on regarding the menu, as it seems every time I’ve stepped foot in this café the offering is completely different. On any one occasion I would give it anything from 2 — 4 stars, which is how I got to 3 as a rounded out experience.
Their burgers are excellent and have had great experiences taking my family here for lunch. Then I’ve come in for breakfast and seen that they’ve stripped everything interesting off the menu and had to wait an inordinately long time for a toastie. They seem to be experimenting with a lot of different things here, so you never really know what to expect.
The coffee menu is good and includes a Five Senses house espresso and rotating single origins pour overs and cold drip (Five Senses, Proud Mary, Market Lane and Industry Beans). The chatty baristas seem to have moved on elsewhere, but there is still one passionate guy left that is looking after the beans.
Worth checking out for something different but until they settle on what the offering is, couldn’t recommend much more than coming here for a burger on the weekends.

That was then, this is now.
A new re-​incarnation, with the emphasis on qaulity food;
simple yet well done with great fresh ingredients. There is now too,
a strong focus on coffee; with V60 dripper as a specialty and a synesso
group machine. plus the baristas are friendly and chatty and happy to share
discussions about all things coffee.
Foodwise, the corn fritters are quite good, as is the mushrooms with
feta, avocado on toasted grain bread. Excellent simplicity. The Waygu Burger
which is well known for receiving awards is balanced; taste without any element
overriding each other. It comes with very good hand-​cut chips, which are well worth
the effort of making. Still there is lots more to try here, and it should become a
regular go-​to for most people.

Went here for Breakfast this past weekend. Great brunch menu with lots of creative items. We had an order of the fried eggs (great) and the poached eggs with cured trout done in house (fantastic). The owners made more than one trip to our table to ensure everything was well, and the service staff were great. Will def go back.

What a fantastic place. I heard that the previous chef of Hardware Societe (one of my all time favourite places) had come here. So I just had to come in and cheack it out.
I ordered Jinny’s Pie. It’s a lamb pie with gravy and veggies, topped with a swede purée. The chunks of meat were nice and tender, and the flavours were hearty flavours and sweet. It also came with a chickpea salad which was a little spicy and warm on the tongue. And a cauliflower salad which had a lemony, tangy refreshing flavour. On your way out don’t forget to grab a sugar dusted brioche ball from the plate next to the register. I found this rather funny because at Hardware Societe you get a mini sugar dusted donut with your coffee.

Being open less than a week on the corner or Cecil Street, the South Melbourne Trader has already began making a name for itself. The interior is suave and contemporary chic, rich wooden floors and warm yellow lighting walking in through the glass doors you feel as your miles away from the hustle and bustle of the South Melbourne Markets and crowds.
Breakfast at The South Melbourne Trader is a must, things like smoked salmon with poached eggs on toast, confit eggs and omelets made numerous ways are just a few items you may wish to sample. They also do take away lunches like gourmet baked pies, fresh baguettes as well as a selection of baked treats for something sweet. The coffee at this restaurant is also a winner, smooth with a slightly sweet aftertaste they use a variety of their own blends of coffee beans in store.