Little Mule Cafe, Melbourne CBD by Bureaucrat

While I've never been much of a horsey type of girl, I have to admit that it's a much more nobler and impressive creature than the dull-as-dishwater sounding mule.

We stumbled across the Little Mule Cafe when we couldn't find a seat in nearby Brother Baba Budan to whittle our time away with their indulgent hot chocolates.  While the drinks were fine (scroll down for pics), I wanted to go back there for lunch as the dull-as-dishwater mule had a cute, humble charm about itself.

Arriving just after 12pm, I wasn't able to order one of the special breakfast dishes (I looove anything in fritter form) so I got this rather healthy and tasty wild rice salad ($12).  Though it looked small it was quite filling and much more tastier than I thought it would be.  Loaded with lots of fresh rocket, juicy cherry toms and roasted caps.  A nice quality tuna, middle Eastern seasoning in the rice and a big squirt of zingy lemon made this a very refreshing my-body-is-a-temple lunch for me. 

Ever the New Yorker, Ms G went for the bagel - in this case a pulled pork bagel w apple slaw ($12), which came with searingly sour pickles and some Cheezels.  Apart from the pickles Ms G quite liked her bagel.

She also got an iced coffee.

The first time we came here we only had drinks, so a few of the guys got choc milkshakes that were served in the hipster Mason jars...

...and a couple of coffees for the rest of us.

Inside the cafe is cosy but not small and has a real time-has-stood-still vibe to the place.  It's great as it feels like all the annoyances and stresses of work are far, far away.

Verdict: we liked it a lot.

Overall

This is a keeper for me.  It's cute, quiet and well-priced (the lunch menu is all $8-$12).  The food is tasty and I feel like I've found my own cafe - while it's popular it's not crazy and crammed full of people. Service is friendly and helpful.