Le Miel et La Lune
330 cardigan st, carlton
ph: (03) 9043 9767
http://www.lemiel.com.au/
“The Unimelb kids get another cafe serving up some decent coffee”
I take the number 1 tram to Uni and for the past 3 years I’ve always passed this one dark, gloomy store on the corner of Cardigan and Elgin. I didn’t think much of the place and never thought of venturing inside (i THINK it used to be a bar) given its uninviting features. However, things changed when a few minds decided to put a Korean, ex-Proud Mary chef, a barista with Proud Mary beans, a few pot plants, wooden furniture, and a bear and its honey together inside this neglected black box.
The design of the cafe is dichotomous – black, dark and lifeless on the outside but bright, refreshing and peaceful on the inside. It’s an amazing little space and feels like it’s a little world in itself. There’s a communal table with a couple of tables bathing in the light at the front, a bench with stools for those who want to indulge in the cabinet display (or their own vanity – refer to picture) and a handful of tables under the walking/dancing paper bears and upside down pots at the back.
I took the first opportunity i could to ask my group out to lunch here. My trusty, food-loving, never-says-no, and regular to p-alate, friend – “C” was first to say yes. The others – R, E, S, M also decided they wanted some munchies!
The usual cappuccino. I love Proud Mary and I’m always excited when I see that a cafe sources their beans from there. The coffee here is good, but still probably not as good as THE Proud Mary or Seven Seeds. I’ve come back several times for lattes, cappuccinos and whilst it could be a little bit more consistent, it is certainly a lot better than what’s on offer around our side of Unimelb.
Onto some foodie goodness!
Here is S’ order of Potato Hash – thin sliced pork belly, three mixed mushroom (enoky and shimeji), capsicum, a poached egg with sesame dressing.With protein-packed, fat-filling ingredients, this dish certainly sounded and looked enticing. The potato hash tasted slightly burnt, the pork belly tasted very oily and the sesame dressing was quite salty. Whilst, it is expected that pork belly dishes are generally heavy, this dish seemed to be a bit over the top and I would expect to be a bit hard to finish – unless you’re a monster of some sort.
R and I both ordered the Sweet soy sauced beef burger with bacon, melted cheddar, lettuce, onion jam and thick cut tomato, herb chilli paste aioli with chips. You generally can’t go too wrong with a burger, but it would have to be amazing for someone to really take note. The burger was good, but not great (esp for the price of $16.50). LMLL uses beef slices as opposed to a paddy (which is okay) and was overcooked, meaning the sweet soy was difficult to appreciate and the burger as a whole pretty dry. On the other hand, the chips were really good. Light, crisp and very tasty with the aioli!
C and I had actually chosen the burger but he changed his option because he knew we like to share and try each others dishes. This is the LMLL special: Rolled chicken with pork belly served with rocket, parmesan cheese, fried parsnip and anchovy bagna sauce with a poached egg. We love our pork belly in our belly, can you tell? I didn’t get to try this much but anything with rocket (I prefer roquette…) usually tickles my pickle. The fried parsnip and anchovy gave quite a nice texture to the whole dish. The sauce was leaning on the heavier side but as C described, a bit ‘underwhelming’.
SWEETS! LMLL offers sweets and baked goods made fresh in the kitchen. Cheesecakes, tarts, meringue, brownies are some of whats on offer. I wish i could’ve tried everything, since it all looked so decadent but I resorted to scabbing a few bites off E.
Berry Ricotta Cheesecake and Flourless chocolate cake.
The Berry Ricotta is definitely amongst the popular choices, but really needs more berry goodness in there along with a crunchier biscuit base. The chocolate cake is pleasant with a coffee.
I got my eyes on this one, the next time I visit!
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Rating: 6.5 / 10
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Palatable
bright and inviting interior design
coffee
sweet cabinet
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Unpalatable
dishes
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Overall
almost a 7. Le Miel et La Lune is a great addition to the cafe scene around Unimelb and will definitely be attracting more and more students over to the East side (as opposed to the Southern Seven Seeds). Whilst coffee is decent, the dishes we had were kind of a let down. They weren’t bad, but they weren’t very good either. Having said that, I have high hopes for them and am still looking forward to coming back to try their other dishes such as the French toast with belgian chocolate ganache (Uh, yum???).
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