Cafe Brown Sugar

Ver pricey for what you get but my kids adore their pasta, pizza (Italian style) & burgers (would feed a horse). There are quite a few vegan options & the avocado with chilli (served in a jar) with sour dough toast from the all day breakfast menu or the hummus with toasted flat bread are two favourites. Staff turnover appears high but they are always chatty, smiling and friendly. Main reason dropping a star is the cost, a lunch with a kid shouldn’t cost $ 70!!!

Small place hidden inside block arcade. Had a Healthy Start breakfast of fried egg on Rye with avo and tomato, beautiful. The coffee is good, I had a Virgin Mary mocktail but they also do breakfast cocktails. The service was fast and friendly.

Brown Sugar Café is a little gem in Melbourne’s Block Arcade. I wanted somewhere quiet and warm to enjoy a late lunch on a recent Saturday afternoon. I wasn’t interested in the tourist traps and Degrave Street was too full on for my mood at the time. Brown Sugar, whilst busy, had a nice little table at the back that welcomed me in with the warm hand of an old friend.
Service was friendly and inviting. I felt like a glass of red, they recommended the Crowded House Pinot Noir (2010), a cracking little New Zealand pinot. The menu was probably a little too broad — at least from the perspective of it being hard to choose something, it all looked so good. I went the beans on cornbread. The beans were creamy and perfectly seasoned. The cornbread an interesting base — a little doughy, but balanced perfectly with the beans and some good bacon on the side.
I enjoyed the Crowded House so much I went a second glass, so unfortunately didn’t get to try the coffee. But I am sure it would have been good.
⁴⁄₅

I had a porterhouse steak with potatoes and mushrooms. It was amazing. Well, there’s the shortest review ever.
The place is nice, located in a crowded alley, and the service is great as well.

The breakfast: pretty blah. I heard that lunch is a bit better
— So the pros: the coffee is good and strong. The location is great, where you can sit on the side of Block Place laneway and people watch.
— Disappointing eggs benedict — the flat, overcooked poached egg which ruins the dish. The yolk should remain round, then ooze and run as you slice through the entire muffin-​egg tower. Then interestingly, the Hollandaise sauce was too runny.
— Chorizo-​scrambled eggs on turkish bread — definitely stingy on the bread.