Dead Man Espresso, South Melbourne by Bureaucrat

On a breezy weekend, the Lawyer and I headed out to South Melbourne, which is Ms N’s stomping ground, for breakfast.  Ms N steered us into Dead Man Espresso, a cafe that just oozes hipster charm and a polished industrial vibe.

The thing that caught my eye was the fact that DME is located above street level.  As such, as you approach the cafe, you can hear the chatter of lively conversation waft down from above you and spot the cool cats having their brekkie/coffee from the wooden panelled indoor-outdoor dining area.

With the Venetian blinds, the streaming sunshine, cool breeze and chillaxed atmosphere you can almost imagine you were someone tropical.  For both male and female diners, there’s plenty of eye candy to choose from among the staff that work there.

As we had arrived in peak breakfast/brunch time (circa 10.30am), the place was already packed.  Luckily, we only had to wait about five minutes before we got a nice table around the back that views onto the street.

To kick things off, we got some coffee and chai lattes.

For food, I decided to go for a healthier option of green pancakes, spinach, green onions, green chilli pancakes, w lime butter, smoked salmon, poached egg ($18).  There’s just something about green pancakes that sounds fun and childish.  The fairly hefty pancakes were a smidge on the burnt/overly golden brown side.  They didn’t have much of a taste, nor were they particularly memorable.  What I did like were the squeaky edamame, gooey poached egg and the reasonable mound of smoked salmon.  Despite the chilli, it wasn’t spicy (thankfully) and I couldn’t really taste the lime butter.

Ms N went for the dish that I was contemplating to get - crumbed potato and herb hash,  w pancetta, green tomato salsa, fried eggs and sour cream ($18.50).  While I didn’t get to try the dish, Ms N seemed happy with it.

The Lawyer got the impressive campfire breakfast, which had bacon, pork and fennel sausage, tomato, mushrooms, beans, fried eggs with toast, which was served in a skillet ($21).  Even more impressively, he polished the whole thing off (except the crusts on the toast).  Everything looked fresh and was very nice according to the Lawyer.  Definitely one for those with big appetites.

Verdict

Food – 7

Ambiance - 8

Service – 7.5

Price – 7

Overall

I do quite like the set up they have got going at DME – with the friendly service and nice vibe.  It’s definitely popular as there were more people queuing up for a table when we left.  Foodwise, the ingredients are fresh, the serves are reasonably generous but tastewise, there was nothing exceptional about it.  That isn’t to say the food was bad – it was fine but nothing to rave about it.  In other words, I’d go back again because it’s a great place to hang out and the food is reasonable enough to nosh on while I’m there.  However, I’m not going back that because of the food, per se.

Address

Dead Man Espresso

35 Market St 

South Melbourne 3205

Telephone: 9686 2255