When I said I was going to Melbourne, nearly everyone said ‘you MUST go to Hardware Societe’. And so I did – but along the way, I also discovered another wonderful cafe by serendipity (via a friend’s post on Instagram), which I feel I must blog about first.

And that cafe is Humble Rays. Located just about a 5 minute walk (maybe 10, if you stroll) from Queen Victoria Market, it’s easy to get to and makes for a great ‘kill-two-birds-with-one-stone’ sort of trip. So it wasn’t surprising that there was already a bunch of other tourists in line when we arrived – but we didn’t have to wait too long, maybe half an hour or so.

So after visiting the market, we headed down to Humble Rays to have some food. But as we already had some coffee and a light breakfast there, we didn’t try as many dishes as I might’ve liked – but, what we tried, we liked. In particular, the most mind blowing French toast I’ve ever had, but more on that later.

For savouries, we had the Crab Meat Scramble (AUD$18.50) and Egg Benny (AUD$18.50). The scrambled eggs were done nice and creamy and the Sriracha mayo, red chilli, herbs and fried shallots gave it a lovely shot of flavour.

The Egg Benny came with a succulent ginger braised pork belly and a miso potato korokke (I assumed it was a croquette, tasted like one). There was only one egg though and a lot of pork, so if you were hoping for an eggs dish, this probably isn’t really it.

I enjoyed the yuzu hollandaise and chilli bacon jam, which made the dish tasty but not too rich. The almond and cashew dukkah also added a certain Mediterranean touch.

And the dish we were all waiting for, the French Toast Forever (AUD$19). This to me was truly a wonderful piece of (art) work, with every component of the dish tasting marvelous on its own and even better together.

The toast was stuffed with sweet, creamy and absolutely decadent vanilla bean cream cheese which went perfectly with the slightly oily fried bread and the refreshing fruits. The maple syrup added an extra sweetness to it and the walnut and almond oat crumble a lovely crunch.

I LOVED this dish – my whole family did too, and even my mum who was not hungry ate some of it. We polished off every single bit of it. So damn delicious!

Service was polite, friendly and quick. The decor of the cafe was fun, bright, casual and unpretentious. If I ever visit Melbourne again, I’m coming back for this French Toast!

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Humble Rays
71 Bouverie Street
Carlton, VIC 3053
Melbourne

Tel: +61 3 8354 8459
Website: http://www.humblerays.com

Open daily from 8.00am to 4.00pm.