Cafes

Lindt Cafe Melbourne

8/03/2009 09:49:00 PM


Lindt Chocolat Cafe
271 Collins St.
Melbourne, 3000
Ph: (03) 9667 0900


I have a somewhat unhealthy obsession with Lindt milk chocolate. It is my favourite chocolate ever, and I absolutely love it in all its forms - Lindor balls, in those big gold bars, the 100g bars you get at the supermarket, and especially the hexagonal piccoli pieces (that I used to buy in the industrial-sized 2.5 kg bags). I love the super-creamy taste, the smooth texture, and the sweet hint of caramel you get when you bake pieces of it in a cookie and they get just a little bit burnt - wonderful.

So, there was a bit of crazy-excitement when I realised that the Lindt Cafe had opened in Melbourne. As I recall, I was driving to work (at some ungodly hour of the morning) when I saw a bus-shelter ad announcing its arrival. Weeeeeeeeeeeeee! Now I have no need to go up to Sydney (except when Wicked moves there later this year).

The earliest time I could arrange to visit was Sunday arvo, before we caught the matinee session of Avenue Q (the last day too!). When we arrived at 1:30, there was a huge line, which was moving verrrry slowly. There was also a big cold gusty wind blowing in through the entrance - not a fun place to wait. However, we managed to get a table after only 10 minutes (we could skip the queue because the bigger groups in front of us had to wait for a bigger table to be free, but we only needed a table for 2).


I really liked the fit-out - even though it was crowded in there, the high ceilings made it feel spacious and breezy.

Unfortunately they were out of delices (AKA macarons) and cerise (AKA Black Forest cake) so we chose from other parts of the menu. According to our waitress, the whole weekend's worth of delices sold out on Friday!

Ok... so we may have gone a little bit overboard...

Despite how busy it was, our food and drinks came out pretty quickly (but not all at once) - I was impressed.

White Chocolate Eclair - $7.00

Sandra ordered the white eclair, and I had a sneaky taste. The cream inside was really nice, as was the vanilla-flecked white chocolate topping, but the pastry itself wasn't that great - it wasn't as light and fluffy as I like choux pastry to be.

For my drink, it had to be milk hot chocolate.
Milk hot chocolate - $6.50 (eeek!)

Mmm... melted milk Lindt for my hot choccy

It's a cute idea to have the chocolate and milk separate, but just mixing melted chocolate and hot milk doesn't necessarily make the best hot chocolate, in my opinion, as the finished product is never intense enough. And anyway, I love Lindt melted milk choc so much I'd just drink it straight from the jug if there weren't anyone around to see. Hehe.

Milk Chocolate Mocha - $5.50.

Super, duper rich. A little too rich, when combined with the white chocolate eclair.

I ordered the waffle!!!!!!!
Waffles with vanilla ice-cream and dark chocolate sauce - $15.00

Yum...! The waffle was both crispy and fluffy, and the vanilla ice-cream was creamily delicious. I love the fact that it's Lindt's own ice-cream. This was definitely the highlight of the afternoon. The waffle, by itself (i.e. not ordered with alongside crazy amounts of hot chocolate and cookies), would be a perfect treat - decadent but not too rich.

After all that, I was absolutely stuffed, and couldn't finish the chocolate cookie I'd also ordered (yes, I went waaay overboard), so like an Asian mum I wrapped it up in a napkin and stashed it in my handbag.

Chocolate Sablé - chocolate shortbread studded with Lindt Excellence 70% chocolate - $4

I ate it later that night - it had a pleasant short and crumbly texture, and was still a little bit soft on the inside, with generous chunks of dark chocolate. The only problem with it was that it was quite salty. I know a touch of salt makes chocolate desserts pop, but I found the salt a bit too strong - I like it to complement the chocolate, not overpower it.

We had a lovely afternoon at the Lindt cafe, but I'm not in a rush to head back. It's still too crowded, and very expensive. All up we spent $41, including a $3.80 service charge (for Sundays). Apart from the delicious waffle, I didn't think the food was that much better than other cafes around town. Similarly, the drinks we ordered weren't as good as you'd expect them to be for that price. For now I'll keep getting my Lindt milk-fix from the good old 2.5 kilo bag.



Lindt Chocolat Café on Urbanspoon

You Might Also Like

15 comments

  1. So the whole weekend's worth of macarons ("delice's") sold out on Friday. Therefore... they're clearly not making them fresh daily.

    Lindt Cafe FAIL!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Looks like I was lucky when I walked in to a huge selection of delices recently. Have you tried the waffles at Waffle On in Degraves Place? Near the steps to the underpass. In my opinion, better than the Lindt ones! You don't get a table, but they are only $5 from memory.

    ReplyDelete
  3. OMG that looks LUSH!! The milk choc Lindt Lindor are my favourites.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Claire - Yeah I know, I was like WTF. I wanted my Lindt milk chocolate macaron, dammit. Now I guess it's back to *subtly* hinting to Duncan every 5 minutes, LOL.

    essjayeats - I *love* Waffle On! Especially the nutella waffles. It always smells so yum when you walk past there. I like their baguettes too.

    Norm - Mmm... milk Lindt Lindor balls are soooo yum!

    xox Sarah

    ReplyDelete
  5. Reposted from Twitter:

    @bookshopaddict @sarahcooks Having just finished off a block of Cadbury chocolate, I really didn't need to see your latest blog post.

    @bookshopaddict @sarahcooks btw, despite the sickly feeling in my stomach, it was, as usual, a very good read and the photography is as lovely as ever.

    ReplyDelete
  6. bookshopaddict - LOL I felt slightly ill after the whole experience too, haha. When I was writing the post, I kept thinking, "omg why did I order so much?!"

    xox Sarah

    ReplyDelete
  7. I'm seriously offended by the $15 price tag on your single waffle.

    ... and places that have "service charges" should just curl up and die. Grrr.

    Melbourne doesn't need Lindt's bullshit. We've got enough good stuff (quality and bullshit;) of our own!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Duncan... does this mean I hear milk-Lindt chocolate macarons being made at your place??? HEHEHEHE.

    P.S. not as offensive as the infamous boat comment, you know what I'm talking about.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous8:50 AM

    I had some macaroons from Lindt when i dragged my friends there. Hazelnut was wonderful; i was very disappointed with the dark chocolate one. My friend who wasn't very willing to go to Lindt ended up buying 7 blackcurrant macaroons because they were so yummy.*giggles*

    as for the shows avenue q and wicked, i loved them! watched avenue q a few years ago back in west end and laughed my heart out. wicked is pretty awesome so grab the chance to watch it!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hey Cruxiefaye,

    Well I must try them next time they are in!

    I love Wicked too, lol, just came back from my seventh (!!!) time watching it, hehehe.

    xox Sarah

    ReplyDelete
  11. Sorry Sarah that you missed out on the delice - I did not mean to eat the all!!!! This place is across the road from my work and it's a real trap!!! I remember asking them in Sydney when and where would there be one in Melbourne and she said the Paris end of the city and I KNEW it would be Collins Street I just had no idea it would be across the road AND next door to Tiffany's - BLISS!!! Vida x

    ReplyDelete
  12. The vanilla eclair is pretty good I think, i had it yesterday w mum. My fav lindt-macaron flavor is vanilla too, but look their macarons are v biscuit-like, it doesn't have that melt-in-ur-mouth sensation like true French macarons. Come to Cupcake Family in QV end of Sept early Oct to get ur hands on some really good cupcakes and real-french macarons! Happy macaron!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Michelle9:01 AM

    @ Lady Macaron: I love your blog! it's so delicious filled with lots of great macarons! did u make all of them yourself? Oh yeah I think Lindt macarons are ok, they are very diff to Laduree in Paris. Maybe that's why they call it delice instead of macaron maybe?

    ReplyDelete
  14. Robyn9:44 AM

    WOW sarah u had so much sweets! I've been there twice now, had the blackcurrant and dark choco delices, the blackcurrant is really good, sour and yet still sweet from the white choc. But yeah their shells are a tad too crispy, i've had them in Paris and they melt in ur mouth immediately, these ones were too big and biscuit-like. Btw Lady Macaron I love ur blog too!

    ReplyDelete
  15. This short article posted only at the web site is truly good.

    ReplyDelete

CONTACT ME

My email address is sarahcooks [at] hotmail [dot] com.