Swan Street's Best Coffee: The Top 5

Nine cafes on Swan Street are genuinely in the coffee business. These five are the best of them, with the reasons why and, where it’s public knowledge, who’s actually roasting the beans.

1. Cheeky Monkey

89A Swan St, Richmond

Cheeky Monkey wins the top spot the unglamorous way: it’s just good, every time. It sits on a 4.3 out of 5 from more than 500 Google reviews, a hard score to hold at that volume, and regulars treat it as their default order even when it means a ten-minute drive rather than a walk down the street.

The menu leans into hearty, no-nonsense brunch. The Big Monkey breakfast is the one people build their order around, alongside a peking pork pancake and a hot smoked trout and fennel salad if you want to go off-script. There’s indoor seating and a courtyard out back with greenery, so it works as well for a solo flat white as it does for a group breakfast.

One catch: Cheeky Monkey doesn’t publicly name its roaster anywhere we could find, on its site or its socials. If you know who’s behind the beans, let us know and we’ll add it.

2. My Oh My

232 Swan St, Richmond

My Oh My has been running since 2018 and opens at 5am on weekdays, which makes it the first proper coffee most of Richmond gets its hands on, tradies and commuters included. The beans are Code Black Coffee, and the reviews back it up specifically: one self-described coffee snob visited three times in a single Melbourne trip just for the coffee, twice without even ordering food.

Owner Adam Zeineddine put close to a million dollars into a revamp that added booths, more outdoor seating right on Swan Street, and a function room that holds up to 150 people. It’s dog-friendly and doesn’t fall over at peak hour, which given the 5am start and the volume it does by 9am, is no small thing.

3. Almost French Patisserie

138 Swan St, Richmond

French in name, Vietnamese in practice. Almost French Patisserie is run in the French patisserie tradition that took hold in Vietnam under colonisation, and it shows in the vanilla slice and the lemon brulee tart. The coffee is Toby’s Estate, and more than one reviewer has called it out as the best coffee on the street outright, with the cappuccino getting particular praise.

Seating is limited to a handful of street-side tables, so most people are in and out with a takeaway. Regulars walk past the newer, shinier cafe across the road to keep coming here, which tells you where the loyalty sits.

4. Friends of Mine

506 Swan St, Richmond

Friends of Mine sits on the corner of Swan and Stawell, done out in owner Jason Jones’s jazz-club decor, chandeliers over linen-draped tables and local art on the brick walls. Reviewers consistently single out the coffee ahead of the food, which is saying something given the food’s good too, all-day breakfast through to a proper lunch menu.

Older reviews name Allpress as the roaster, though we couldn’t find a current, on-the-record confirmation, so take that as likely rather than certain. Either way, it’s freshly roasted coffee you can smell from the door, and the ‘Hung Over’ bacon and eggs is the dish to pair it with if you need the full recovery.

5. Pg. 2

207 Swan St, Richmond

Pg. 2 pours Campos and has doubled as a working art gallery since 2014, hanging a new local artist every month, so you’re drinking your coffee under whatever’s currently on the walls. The reviews land on the same two words over and over: great coffee, with the food and service consistently rated just behind it.

It opens at 6:30am on weekdays, early enough to get the coffee and a look at the art before the room fills up. The menu runs from a proper big breakfast through to quinoa porridge and a veggie stack, with milkshakes and a kids menu that make it one of the easier family stops on the street.

The Rest

That’s the five. The other four cafes with a genuine coffee case, Hugo’s Deli, T&L Bakery & Cafe, Commodity Café and Common Cafe & Bar, are worth a look too if five isn’t enough. See the full list of cafes on Swan Street for the rest of the strip.