Oli and Levi

Pick up any travel guide to Melbourne and it’s guaranteed that you will read about our Laneway Cafes. But this one takes the cake. Or rather the chocolate and hazelnut chunky brownie. Peer down the laneway from the top of Coromandel Place and you will see the glo-bright yellow awning that is the peaked cap of Oli & Levi; our newest top o’ the city coffee haunt.

Open just shy of two months, Oli & Levi has already mastered what some cafes tend to lack – really good service. Lets face it; the food can be great, the coffee can be the best but if the staff are disinterested or too BFF-y, it marres your whole experience, no? These folks know what you want before you even want it, happy to chat and then leave you to get on with your day. There’s a big communal table where you can sit with strangers, have a coffee and a bite to eat then get back to the office before the boss can say “ten copies, please!”

That bite to eat starts with a selection of wee pastry tarts filled with egg and spinach or sundried tomato, feta and basil ($1.50). There are BLT breakfast buns ($4) and some of the most perfectly tanned croissants I have ever seen. The best bit? You can get an Allroasters coffee and one of the crispy fresh tarts for $5.00! Rare.

At lunchtime they roll out the baguettes. All freshly prepared on site with bread from The Convent Bakery and drool worthy fillings: how does roast lemon chicken with mayonnaiase ($8) sound? Or the Oli & Levi signature – the hot duck roll – sliced down the middle and filled with crunchy slaw and steaming duck, drizzled with a house-made plum sauce ($9.50).

If you can sneak out of work early (again), you can grab a coffee to take home with you, Oli & Levi are open until 5pm. Head up Little Collins St and look for this gem at the bottom of the lane.

Oli & Levi
20 Coromandel Place, Melbourne
9650 0501
Monday to Friday 7.30am – 5pm