MELBOURNE | Three One 2 One Richmond is a place that’s hard to find much about, mainly because if you type in 3121 you get the postcode of Richmond. Once you realise you need to type in the words (and one number) though, you’ll find a lot of information about a little cafe with an unassuming shopfront that’s built up quite a buzz around its burgers and alcohol spiked freakshakes. We were invited by owner Krishna (who also runs a cafe in Adelaide and works as an IT professional!) to come in and try Three One 2 One’s relaunched menu late last year and decided to see, with some trepidation, to come to this part of Richmond which is slowly coming back to life and see what it was like.
One thing you’ll notice when you’re at Three One 2 One is that there’s a lot of Rhino paraphernalia around. This is because the cafe donates a portion of its takings to Rhinoceros preservation. Perhaps Rhino Cafe would have been a more fitting (and easier to Google) name?
Why the initial trepidation you may ask? Well when we visited the website hadn’t been updated with the menu and we were wondering where all the items that people had been raving on about were amongst the rather uninspired page we were looking at. Thankfully when we entered and sat down, the new menu was presented to us and it went from being a matter of “there’s nothing that really stands out” to “there’s so much on here that we want”. As delicious as the burgers on the lunch menu looked, we decided to eschew them for a few options from the all day lunch menu – one page of breakfast menu items that reads a bit like a what’s what of Melbourne breakfasts today. No theme as such, just some tasty sounding flavour combinations with a focus on quality ingredients. We wanted to try pretty much everything on the menu, so narrowed it down to 4 items, which our waitress helped narrow down to 2. We didn’t pay on this occasion, but have included prices for your reference.
While waiting for our meals, we ordered a flat white and cappuccino ($4.00), which were smooth and inoffensive, along with a couple of tasty and refreshing cold pressed juices ($7.00 each) from local juice company Julian’s Organics.
Panko Crumbed Eggs ($15.00)
The panko crumbed eggs (hidden under the haloumi) were positively delicious. They were perfectly poached at 63 degrees with a beautiful gooey centre and the light panko coating added a simple yet unique point of distinction to them. Served with haloumi, minted yoghurt, beetroot relish, dukka and pistachions, this is a dish that works well with each part eaten individually, or with a little bit of everything in each bite.
Benedict Rosti ($18.00)
This combination of slow braised ham hocks, potato rosti, poached eggs and cherry tomato hollandaise was another brilliant dish. Nothing overwhelmed anything else – the rosti were crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, the ham hocks were full of porky flavour and the hollandaise was not as overpowering as was expected. The eggs, as with the other dish we had, were perfectly poached.
We were completely full after our meals that we couldn’t fit in anything more. These Nutella donuts were awfully tempting, but our minds got the one up on our stomachs this time around.
We were pleasantly surprised by our visit to Three One 2 One. The staff were cheerful, the space unpretentious, and the food excellent. A visit to try the famous burgers is definitely in order sometime.
Three One 2 One
424 Bridge Road
Richmond 3121
Australia
Telephone: (03) 9429 4409
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: http://threeone2one.com.au/
Open
Mon – Sun: 8:00am to 4:00pm