Café Vue: Melbourne Airport T2
On Australia Day last week, Alastair and I celebrated by jetting off to New Zealand. Yes, very patriotic indeed!
Our flight was early in the morning, so we skipped breakfast and took the opportunity to eat at the newish Café Vue at the Melbourne Airport international terminal.
This Café Vue outlet is open rather long hours (4am-1am daily) and offer breakfast, lunch, dinner, as well as pastries and take away boxes for the plane. From what I saw of the breakfast menu, prices of the food look similar (if not the same) as the other Café Vue outlets. Breakfast and lunch take away boxes were $15, and a dinner box was $30. I was kind of astounded, because one of the things I hate the most about eating at airports is the outrageously marked up prices for horrible, substandard food. And here they hadn’t marked up the prices to gouge a captive audience?? Amazement!
Alastair ordered the Spanish eggs en cocotte with tomato fondue and capsicum puree ($11.50). He received a slice of toast and two beautifully poached eggs – one egg sitting on the tomato fondue, and the other on the capsicum puree.
I had the corn fritters with avocado and watercress fennel salad ($12.50). The fritters were chock full of corn kernels, and lovely with the pureed avocado.
Service up to this point was great – we ordered quickly and the food arrived without any delay. After this though, I was annoyed to see it taper off, since time is of the essence at an airport! Our empty plates sat at the table for over 15 minutes (oh I hate sitting at a table with dirty plates), until I finally managed to wave someone down to order another coffee and a take away breakfast box for us to eat on the plane. But after waiting another 10-15 minutes when it didn’t look like the coffee was going to arrive, I realised we had to leave to catch our plane. To their credit, when a different waiter noticed that we were in a rush, he tracked down my breakfast box, and changed the coffee to a takeaway so we could leave promptly.
On the plane, I opened up the breakfast box. Inside there was a rich roll (possibly brioche?) filled with ham and a gooey egg, a plain croissant, porridge, and fruit. I got a lot of envious looks my way when I pulled it out. 😀 It was so much better than plane food – and this is coming from someone who quite likes plane food! Perhaps airlines should outsource their food to Café Vue? 😉
The ham and egg brioche had cooled down by the time I ate it, but it was still enjoyable. Alastair scoffed the croissant, and we shared the porridge and fruit. The porridge in particular was very delicious – sweet and oaty with hints of honey and coconut
Apart from the service hiccup, we had a very enjoyable breakfast and takeaway box – Café Vue is a HUGE improvement on the crap eateries that used to be at the airport. I hope it does really well!
For another blog post on Café Vue – Melbourne Airport, see Confessions of a Food Nazi.
And now for some photos from our flight! Our time in NZ was spent in Nelson to see Alastair’s mum and his step dad. We flew from Melbourne to Christchurch, and then hopped on a 50 seat bombardier dash 8 to Nelson.
I don’t really like flying much but the benefits of being on a small plane meant the most amazing scenery all the way up to Nelson.
So. Many. Mountains.
On our way home to Melbourne, we flew from Nelson up to Auckland. The flight north wasn’t quite as scenic as the one from Christchurch, but it did have one advantage: we flew past Mount Taranaki/Egmont.
Here it’s just starting to come into view. The area around the mountain is a national park – the boundary is almost circular and is sharply delineated by a change in vegetation from the dairy farms around it.
And there she is – isn’t she beautiful? It felt like we were so close! Mount Taranaki is one of the most symmetrical volcano cones in the world. In the winter, it’s covered in snow and is stunning.
And then a bit of the coast as we went further north. I think that Cafe Vue and views like these are almost worth flying to NZ for!
[googleMap name=”Cafe Vue at Melbourne Airport” width=”600″ height=”300″ directions_to=”false”]International Terminal 2, Melbourne Airport 3045, VIC, Australia[/googleMap]
Café Vue: Melbourne Airport
International Terminal 2
Located after customs and security
Melbourne Airport 3045
Phone: 9310 5091
Opening hours: 4am -1am, 7 days a week, 365 days a year
Conor @ HoldtheBeef
February 3, 2011 @ 1:58 am
Well, that looks about a hundred thousand times nicer than the breakfast Kel and I had while awaiting our flight back home on Monday. I guess we can say that our service was at least very prompt…
Beautiful photos! I must get to NZ for a holiday sooner rather than later. Come on lotto win!
Agnes
February 7, 2011 @ 8:48 pm
Yes! Go to NZ – but via Melbourne so you can have a decent breakfast. 😉
mademoiselle délicieuse
February 3, 2011 @ 1:24 pm
I used to love plane food as a kid, either because of the novelty or it really was better back then. But that Cafe Vue breakfast box looks like a plane meal with all its components but is just so much better!
Agnes
February 7, 2011 @ 8:50 pm
Yeah I loved it as a kid too – and it was probably a mixture of it being better as well the novelty factor!
Hannah
February 3, 2011 @ 1:25 pm
Gorgeous photos! I’ve never been able to get good photos from a plane, so I’m doubly impressed 🙂 I also wanted to high-five you for the porridge, but then I got distracted by staring at Alastair’s dish for five minutes trying to decide whether they look more like eyes or boobies.
Agnes
February 7, 2011 @ 8:51 pm
Eyes? Boobies?? Oh BFF….. :p The photos turned out okay because we were flying so low – so pretty!
Hannah
February 7, 2011 @ 10:10 pm
Yes, that was one of those comments where, after posting, I wished I’d kept my thoughts to myself…
Allan
February 3, 2011 @ 3:50 pm
though u did miss out on the inland active volcanic areas on the east side of north island =P.
seems like everyone went to NZ this holidays =P.
Agnes
February 7, 2011 @ 8:54 pm
NZ isn’t that large – but still large enough not to be able to see the entire country when we flew over 😉 NZ is a great holiday destination – I’m always amazed when people tell me they’ve never been! It’s so close! And so pretty! Hope you had a great time there 🙂
Cherrie
February 3, 2011 @ 8:42 pm
I’ve never been to NZ before but I definitely want to go and see the beautiful country. And oh, that breakfast box from cafe vue looked really good.
Agnes
February 7, 2011 @ 8:56 pm
Yes, go! It’s honestly so beautiful 🙂
Akika @ Ichigo Shortcake
February 4, 2011 @ 7:21 pm
I saw it actually when I was at the airport about a week ago, didn’t know there was one there! I was running late though so didn’t get a chance to try it, next time I’ll make sure to get there early. 🙂
Agnes
February 7, 2011 @ 9:04 pm
It’s a good reason to get to the airport early! 😀 Hope you have another overseas trip soon!
foodie and the chef
February 4, 2011 @ 10:28 pm
I’m loving your aerial shots! What a scrumptious breakfast, those Spanish eggs look incredible.
Agnes
February 7, 2011 @ 9:07 pm
It didn’t feel like we were dining at the airport, that’s for sure! 😀
Annette
February 5, 2011 @ 11:53 am
No wonder you were in such good spirits when you arrived after such a good food start to your trip.
Agnes
February 7, 2011 @ 9:08 pm
No, we were in good spirits because we saw you and Terry! 🙂
Tammy
February 6, 2011 @ 2:21 pm
Wow, that egg dish and those fritters look amazing! It sounds like this was a great getaway for you.
Agnes
February 7, 2011 @ 9:09 pm
It was lovely, thanks! We had a great time away 🙂
Adrian in Food Rehab
February 7, 2011 @ 9:27 pm
Damn, only in the international terminal 🙁 I’m going to Sydney this week and got all excited! LOL OK…Subway it is then…
msihua
February 9, 2011 @ 8:48 pm
OH MY! The Boy was telling me about this when he was at the airport at 3am the other day (stupid flight times) and it was shut! But I get to have this twice soon!! SOOO EXCITED!!!!
Thanh
February 23, 2011 @ 10:32 pm
I like the idea of Cafe Vue in the airport. Finally I can get some good food instead of awful stuff that is way overpriced anyway.
Isn’t it strange how envious other people are when they see you with non-plane food? Even if it’s a short one hour flight, the moment someone brings something out on the plane, people get envious.
Maria@TheGourmetChallenge
February 27, 2011 @ 4:49 pm
hahhaaha….isnt that part of the deal?…you get to stay in australia as long as you’re out of the country every Australia day?? 😛
Hmmm….Its only a 20min drive to the airport…is it wrong to eat at the airport if you’re not going anywhere or waiting to pick anyone up? hmmmmm…something to think about.
And one more thing…most symmetrical volcano cone….does that mean its the prettiest? NZ next top model volcano!!