I have lived in Melbourne for a number of years and thought I knew the place fairly well. But there was one great omission in my knowledge of this great city.
I have never walked along the north side of the Yarra, that is the Flinders Street Station side. I have spent many hours at Southgate. I have strolled along from St Kilda Road to South Wharf hundreds of times enjoying the people and the activity and loving the vibe. The north bank has been unexplored by me. It is worth discovering. The area I’m talking about is known as Flinders Walk.
Flinders Walk alongside the Yarra
A summer’s day is ideal to explore. It is shaded and you can become quite intimate with the river. From Flinders Street to the pedestrian bridge you can walk through a leafy (in summer ) narrow piece of river bank that seems to be jammed between Platform 10 at Flinders Street and a sluggishly moving Yarra.
The cafe Arbory is a thin strip between the walk and platform 10.
Arbory seating facing the river
When I mentioned Arbory to a friend the reply I got was “great burgers”.
We meet for breakfast one morning and found the burgers were off. They start serving them at 11.00am and we were an hour or so too early, so I have yet to try the ‘great burgers’
Instead we chose from the breakfast menu. We had planned on the mushroom burgers so with mushrooms in mind we both chose;
Mushrooms on Cornbread, Taleggio Cheese, Fried Eggs & Kale priced at $16.00
Mushrooms on corn bread with kale
I like the flavour of kale and I recognise what a super vegetable kale is but I would rather have it pureed. This kale had had a light steaming which left it with all the stringy bits to chew on. A bit too much chewing. A couple of varieties of mushroom which were delicious and the Taleggio cheese was wonderful with the mushrooms. I’m going to try that combination at home.
The coffee was good and we sat, and watched the traffic build up on the river. The river flowed slowly in front of us with some lapping at the edges from the wake of passing craft. There was chatter behind us and the occasional announcement from a speaker at Flinders Street Station. It is amazingly tranquil to sit there with your back to the action.
I’ll report on the hamburgers once I have tried them. I will be eating there again.
If you are wanting to enjoy the river from this north side you can walk on the path along the edge and sit on one of the benches. You don’t have to eat or coffee at Arbory.
Where: Flinders walk beside Finders Station.
