Ninety’s Coffee | An Award Winning Cafe from Hongkong is Now In Melbourne CBD

I was scrolling through on my Instagram‘s explore feed when I came across one of Ninety’s Coffee post. I clicked on their page, and one of the first thing that they put on their profile’s bio is ‘Masterchef Recommendation Restaurant in Asia 2019 – 2021’. It immediately got my attention, and I put them on the list of cafes that I need to visit in Melbourne.

NINETY's COFFEE

From what I read, Ninety’s Coffee is originally from Hongkong. They opened their first store in 2018 and they managed to open five more locations across the region, including their own coffee roastery. Over the years that they’ve been operating, they’ve won several awards for their excellence in the cafe design, roasting score, as well as in food quality & hospitality service. Finally at the end of 2021, they opened their first store in Melbourne CBD.

Ninety’s Coffee is located in a prominent location of Lt Collins St, Melbourne CBD, where it’s surrounded by the office buildings and eatery places. I came to visit around lunch time on a weekday and the joint was fairly easy to find.

When I arrived, the cafe had a little bit of a traffic. There were several people dining in, and there were a couple of people were lining up to get a takeaway coffee. The barista was alone at the bar, simultaneously taking order and doing coffees at the same time. He caught me at the corner of his eyes, I signed him that I needed a table for one and he told me I could sit anywhere I like.

I then picked a table outside. And at the very end of the row, I noticed that there’s another staff eating her lunch, she was on her break. Now it made sense why the barista was all by himself at the front, and that also explained why the service was rather slow at the time.

Regardless, I still received a good service. After waiting for a few minutes, the barista came out and gave me a menu, a water bottle and a cup. Their menu is rather interesting, they don’t have a lot to choose from, but each one of them seems quite compelling to try. After pondering their menu for awhile, I finally decided to go with their signature menu, the Piggy Piggy.

The food came after 30 minutes of waiting, it’s definitely on the slower side of the spectrum. A couple who sat next to me got both of their food first, and they ordered probably 15 minutes after I did. I was a little bit concerned that they forgot my order, but before I got the guts to ask, my food finally arrived.

The Piggy Piggy was delicious! It was a pork belly in a brioche bun with BBQ sauce, honey mustard dressing, served with sliced of green apple, artichoke & kale. The pork belly was tender, the sauce was nicely portioned & I love the choice of greens that they put in it. It was quite a satisfying lunch for me, considering that it was priced at $25 per serving, they executed the dish pretty well.

After finishing my lunch, I was planning to do a little bit of work on my iPad. The weather was slightly getting colder outside, so I decided to move inside and grab myself a cup of coffee to get me through the afternoon. They were pretty quiet during this time of the day, so lucky me, I could pick the best seat available. Which is next to the window where I can watch people walking by.

I ordered myself an oat magic, and as I was taking some photos of the indoor space, I had a few conversations with the manager / barista, Darcy. And from there, I did learn that due to Covid, and transporting issue, they couldn’t get the coffee beans that they roasted themselves in Hongkong, instead, for Melbourne branch at the moment, they’re using Zest coffee.

Nonetheless, my coffee tasted beautiful. He served the coffee with a few pieces of dried blueberries on the side of the cup. I assumed that they both go well hand in hand, in which they do. I stayed there for a good while, after answering a few emails and writing the outline for this blog post, my time in here finally came to an end.

Overall, it was a lovely time spent at Ninety’s Coffee. I might come back to try their other menu, and hopefully things are looking better by then. Let me know if you want me to visit other cafes or restaurants in the comment section below, and I’ll see you on my next one. xoxo

SUMMARY

• Business Hours :
• Mon – Fr : 08:00 AM – 04:00 PM
• Sat – Sun : 09:00 AM – 04:00 PM
• Coffee : Yes
• Brunch : Yes
• Dessert : Pastries
• Indoor Capacity : 12
• Outdoor Capacity : 14
• RSVP / Walk- In : Both
• Waiting Time :5-10 minutes for coffee | 30 minutes for food
• Toilet : Yes
• Wifi : No
• Vegan / Vegetarian : Yes