Two Birds One Stone, South Yarra

Housed in one of the most hip suburbs of Melbourne, South Yarra, Two Birds One Stone has garnered quite the following. Expectations were high from this place as it is brought to us by the team that started Three Bags Full, Abbotsford and Liar Liar, Hawthorn and it has delivered on those expectations consistently since it hit the cafe scene.

I loved the homey feel of Two Birds One Stone. With the completely glass frontage, muted colour scheme, suspended plants, bare light bulbs, statement light fixtures Scandinavian design influence is evident in this square shape cafe. It is divided into three sections - coffee counter, dining area which has a big beautiful wooden communal table and 2 seaters then there are those coveted three private booths. The space is intelligently designed as to keep the coffee counter a bit separate from the dining area keeping the takeaway coffee grabbers from the brunchers.

The menu is a good selection of vegetarian options with crowd pleasers like ricotta pancakes and house-made bircher. I went for my all-time favourite, smashed avo. It had lots of lightly roasted baby tomatoes, some radish a dash of chillies and dukkah on soy and linseed toast. I would like to include a special mention for their toast. A lot of times the toast is either too lightly toasted or almost burnt in some places or it is too stubborn to cut with a knife or it gets too soggy if you're a slow eater but the toast here was as close to perfect as they come. It just elevated my avocado experience by leaps and bounds.

John Doe had the twice cooked brioche french toast. When our food came our unanimous reaction was 'huh! I did not think it will look like this' but it did look heavenly so no complaints. It had banana, chocolate sauce, banana anglaise and macadamia nut praline so there's no way this thing wouldn't be the bomb. It was nothing like the brioche french toasts we have had so far. Highly recommended by both of us.

Let's talk about the coffee!

While the food is the main crowd magnet, the coffee here as well pulls in impressive number of people. It is rich in flavor and the latte art is refined. The bean of choice here is Five Senses and the menu includes espresso, filter coffee and Aeropress.

To sum things up, Two Birds One Stone deserves another visit to try other items on the menu but the coffee here is so good that I would pop-in just for coffee.