Cafes and restaurants are abundant in Melbourne. When travelling, it is always nice to catch up with friends and try a new place to eat. Therefore, when some friends suggested meeting in the Melbourne CBD for a late breakfast, we jumped at the chance to test out Queen Street Rescue. We met up at 11:00am, to sample their breakfast and have a look at a special little area for their customers which is mainly unknown.

Even knowing that we had the opportunity to sleep in, we were awake by 07:00am. Isn’t that always the way, you have a chance to sleep in but your body doesn’t want to cooperate. Damn you body clock! We didn’t sleep in, but at least we could take our time before checking out of our hotel.

Queen Street Rescue is located at 1/189 Queen Street, Melbourne right next door and attached to the Adina Apartment Hotel. We’ve actually stayed at this hotel a few years ago. From what I can remember the apartment rooms were large and spacious and very comfortable.

We made our way into the cafe and sat at a booth and waited for our friends. The interior of the Queen Street Rescue has a beachy feeling. In fact it reminds of the cafe in the popular Australian series “Home and Away”. There are colourful chairs and some rustic furnishings. It feel like a  welcoming room with a large bookshelf along one side of the wall next the main entrance.

In the Melbourne Central shopping centre there is has a unique library, aptly called The Little Library. Travellers and locals can exchange books for free. Here you can have a look at what novels people have left and exchange your book for another on the bookshelf. We thought this was the only place this free exchange occurred and was surprised that the Queen Street Rescue offers the same. They have a large bookcase which is filled with free books for its customers to take with them as they leave the establishment.

The Queen Street Rescue changes its menu throughout the day to cater for the different meal times. At night it also becomes a nice place to have some quiet drinks. They also allow for functions, so it is an option if you are planning a get together with friends or colleagues. This morning they had a good variety of breakfast dishes ranging from AUD$7 for basic toast up to AUD$23 for their “Big Breakfast”. Of course I ordered a Big Breakfast, whilst Josie had some toast. We also ordered a Cafe Latte and Chai Latte, to wash it all down.

The Big Breakfast was  just that, Big. It usually comes with eggs of your choice with a serving of buttered toast, wilted spinach, baked tomatoes, a continental sausage,  some crispy bacon and a cheese hash brown. Everything on the dish was excellent, the bacon was crispy. The scrambled eggs were smooth and creamy, the continental pork sausage was good and the cheesy hash brown was superb.

The toast served were large thick slices which came with a good choice of condiments from vegemite, jam or honey. The Cafe Latte and Chai Latte’s were perfect, so perfect we had some more whilst chatting away about past and upcoming travel plans.

There were a variety of other meals ordered by our friends, and they all looked just as tasty as ours.

The Queen Street Rescue is a welcoming, comfortable place to relax and chill out.  You can have something to eat or drink, you can read a book or just meet up with some friends. The  counter service is efficient and the meals are delivered to you table relatively fast. It serves alcohol, so would be a perfect place to pop in for an after work drink too.

The overall price is good for the quality of food being served. The restaurant is clean and their books on offer are mainly popular fiction. You should be able to find something to read no matter what your genre.

When you’re in Melbourne and have some time to spare, give Queen Street Rescue a shot and remember tell them Simon from Ourworldinreview sent you!

Rating: 1-10 (1=very poor, 10 = excellent)

Decor = 8
Atmosphere = 7
Service = 7
Price = 7
Food =7

Overall = 7