In Melbourne, in a little corner on the ever-hip Gertrude Street, you can eat and feel so good at Sonido, with South American tunes that will blow your mind. That is, if you can fit into one of the small baby chairs outside.

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The perfect summer beverage this year in Melbourne is Vietnamese style ice coffee (espresso plus condensed milk plus ice), brought to you by the good folks at Coffee Supreme. Served from a ‘brewcycle’ (coffee cart attached to a bike), this donation-only treat doesn’t have a fixed schedule and is weather dependent. Is there anything more Melbourne-esque?

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Picture this: a cozy café that’s so inviting you’ll want to linger over your morning cuppa well into afternoon tea. Now imagine this space is completely and utterly sustainable. Enter Slow Poke Espresso.

Everything at this recently opened café in Fitzroy — a popular suburb of Melbourne — is organic, sustainable, recycled, and reused – and we mean everything. Timber offcuts made of local furniture creates a puzzle-like 12 metre-long wooden wall that runs the length of the café. The tabletops are made from recycled floorboards, the signage is charged by a solar panel sitting atop a recycled wooden toolbox, and most of the building materials – from tiles to lamp shades – were locally sourced at neighborhood flea markets. Even the business cards are made from handcut recycled cardboard packaging. Of course, the food too, is local, organic, biodynamic, and free range. Word on the street is that it’s delicious too.

Between the gorgeous eats and welcoming space, Slow Poke Espresso will surely tempt you to slow down.

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Located on a non-descript lane, just a short walk from Melbourne’s Federation Square, you’ll find Cumulus Inc. Arguably the city’s hippest brunch spot, the restaurant attracts businessmen on their way to work, expats reading the morning paper, and families sharing a meal. The high ceilings and marble and steel hardware invoke a modern feel, while the whimsical lamps and brightly colored pillars bring warmth to the dining room.

If you’re willing to dine at the bar, you’ll be treated to a front row view of the open kitchen, where you’ll see the chefs diligently whipping up inventive dishes like the smoked salmon croque-monsieur. Pay careful attention to the eggs they pull from the water bath and how delicately the barely-set whites hold the custardy yolks in suspension. And make sure you save room for dessert. The madeleines filled with lemon curd are a favorite. They take about fifteen minutes to prepare, but it’s well worth the wait.

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We are spoiled for choice when it comes to the best cafes in Melbourne. It still amazes when I come across a spot that boasts the best coffee, the best atmosphere, and the best menu. It may often be populated by bespeckled, part-time bloggers and the like, but Proud Mary, in Collingwood has it all going on without any of its neighbourhood hipster pretention. Did I mention the one of a kind custom-made Synesso coffee machine? Try their summer bircher muesli topped with fresh mango, tangy green apple and crushed nuts. It really is THE BEST.

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Tucked away in Melbourne’s well-planned city of streets and laneways is the Hardware Societe, a quirky little gem which offers the greatest coffee I’ve ever encountered in this cultured borough. This French/Spanish inspired cafe offers an innovative Bourgeois breakfast and lunch menu containing omelettes, teas, desserts, salads, and uniquely fused fares that will tantalize your tastebuds.

I was pleasantly surprised when a cute anisette spiked miniature cinnamon donut was served with my mocha. It’s the menu, warm staff and small, but thoughtful touches like this which makes venturing here so worthwhile.

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If you were counted among the over one million Australians that obsessively tuned in to Masterchef each week, recounting the details on Twitter and biting your nails along the way, then you may indeed be experiencing the emptiness of withdrawal. Well, we’ve got a cure: supremely satisfying sweets made by award-winning Melbourne-born pastissier and Masterchef guest chef, Philippa Sibley.

These days, Sibley is heading up Il Fornaio, just outside Melbourne, where her infamous Snickers dessert, honey panacotta, meyer lemon tarts, and a whole host of other fabulously indulgent sweets are available from their newly conceived dessert bar. That’s right. A bar you can walk up to, order only desserts, and walk away — happy and full. Breakfast and lunch dishes are also on offer as is wine, but with pastries this tempting you’ll want to skip straight to sweets — you’re in withdrawal after all.

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Cibi, in Japanese meaning “a little one,” is exactly what you feel like when taking your chopsticks to your breakfast on a sunny Saturday morning in the backstreets of oh-so-cool Collingwood, Melbourne. It’s an exciting new experience tucking into a bowl of soba noodles for breaky or wandering around the Japanese trinket store connected to the café. Cibi have created a space full of sensory delights where you can dawdle and daydream, bringing out the inner cibi in all of us.

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Despite its inconspicuous location (in a parking lot alleyway) Monk Bodhi Darma is Melbourne’s newest treat to the café society’s ranks. Café connoisseurs are filling this cosy cavern of exposed brick walls and long oak tables to be served the delicious grind from Five Senses. Sustainability is at the core of the global menu, with locally sourced organic produce making specials such as Zanzibarian black eye pea stew. I’m hooked.

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