The St Kilda Dispensary

It’s not the largest place I have been too but defiantly one of the best for coffee and breakfast I had smashed avo and really enjoyed it… I got a knife that I could actually cut through my toast and that is a first for me… about to have my second short black as it was nice

This tiny, off-​the-​beaten path local st kilda café has spot-​on coffee with a somewhat obscure décor. Don’t be put off by the syringe-​injected donuts at the counter!
Living near this café, we decided to treat ourselves one morning and try our hand at an early brekkie. One downside about the small space is that the seating offers mostly communal tables which we aren’t a huge fan of.
Coffees are consistently good here (though not the best in the area) but you have to be willing to pay a bit extra. As for the menu, it could use a bit of variety, as we settled for bacon egg and veggie-​egg rolls. All-​in-​all we’d try The Dispensary again, however there’s other places on our list before we make it our go-​to café.

Cute interior with a nod to historical use. The food was fantastic — one of the best brekkie’s I had during 3 weeks in Australia. Had the dukkah eggs — yum! Coffees took a little while as it was pretty busy, otherwise would be 5 stars all around.

We’ve (my girlfriend and I) been meaning to go here for quite a while now, driving past it every weekend on our way to other café’s. We finally decided to go and were very pleased with the result.
Not packed, very local feel. Kitchen was a bit slow, but we were not in a hurry.
Coffee’s were great and very quick arrive.
Great price for the meals, we both had the corn fritters (one with bacon, one with salmon) and were seriously full, more than we could eat. a couple of coffees each and under $ 50.
2 rooms, with a couple of big long tables, I don’t know if I would want to be stuck with another group of people right next to me, but when we went on a Saturday (11am), we didn’t have any issues.
Would definitely go again for a relaxed weekend breakfast.

This place has a pretty cool history.
First opening in 1940, it was known as The St Kilda Dispensary, and the largest one of its time.
This 2-​room café completely sticks to its dispensary-​themed roots, with a fresh coat of blue and white paint; it’s pretty novelty, but awesome at the same time. Beakers act as vases and sugar bowls, old medicine cabinets act as special boards, vintage first aid kits add decoration and metal clipboards act as menus.
Although the kitchen is teeny tiny, they manage to produce an impressive and very inexpensive menu with options plentiful — Nothing over $ 15 at this café!
The staff were very friendly and helpful, but unfortunately what brought the score down for me was the time it took for our food to come out of the kitchen. A toasted sandwich, eggs and salmon and some toast took far longer than it should — and that’s being polite — especially since there were only a few tables.
They also don’t have Eftpos facilities and I find that extremely annoying in this day and age, especially when the closest ATM is a 15 minute walk there and 15 minutes back!