🍵 Matcha Reviews: TORI'S MELBOURNE
Updated: Apr 9, 2022
Hidden down a laneway in Melbourne city, TORI'S offers a variety of tea-flavoured desserts and drinks. The cafe is an open space filled with an eclectic collection of vintage furniture that gives me Cafe Perk vibes from the TV series Friends. As we visited during the middle of the day, there were still a few seats available for dine in. The cafe provides a nice, bright open space perfect for a little date, a study/work session or an afternoon catchup with friends. Despite being a popular cafe with lot of patrons, the atmosphere is pleasant and the noise levels won't ever interrupt your conversations. There is also free self-service tap and sparkling water available.
10.03.22
On my first visit, I ordered an iced hojicha latte ($7) and a strawberry shortcake ($10.50) to share between myself and my matcha tasting partner. Because we had had a heavy lunch prior, we decided to opt for a lighter cake instead of the burnt basque cheesecakes they had on offer. The service at the counter was friendly and quick and they brought out our order to the table we were seated at. All the items were presented beautifully on a wooden tray.
The hojicha latte was a good size, not too big and was easy to finish. The flavour of the hojicha was very strong and slightly overpowering for me as I personally prefer a more milky hojicha latte, but I reckon those who like a very strong roasted tea leaf flavour would enjoy this drink. The hojicha latte was smooth, well-combined and had a lovely dark brown colour. However I did taste a slightly syrupy flavour in the drink.
The strawberry shortcake was beautifully baked and finished, although for $10.50 I wished the slice was slightly more generous. I think $8-9 would have been slightly more appropriate but the pricing of the cakes made sense considering the location of the cafe. The taste and texture of the cake was well-balanced and the strawberry taste came through clearly in the sponge and cream. Would definitely recommend if you wanted a lighter cake that was fresh and easy to eat or if you aren't super into the tea-flavoured cakes yet.
15.03.22
On my second visit we ordered an iced matcha latte ($7) and a black sesame burnt basque cheesecake ($10.50) to share between two. The iced matcha latte had a lovely dark green colour and was very smoothly combined. Again, like the iced hojicha latte, the matcha flavour was at forefront and tasted slightly too strong for me. There was also a slight syrupy flavour in the drink. I think if the drink was a little sweeter and balanced with more of a milky flavour it would've been perfect for me, but I still was able enjoy the drink and finished it with no problems.
The black sesame burnt basque cheesecake was definitely a heavier cake compared to the strawberry shortcake so we came prepared this time by not pigging out for lunch. The sesame flavour in the cheesecake was well-balanced with the light cream in the top half of the cake and made a wonderful combination of flavours. The light cream on top made it so that the cheesecake portion didn't feel too heavy to consume, however it did get a bit difficult towards the end of the cake as the cream thinned out. The $10.50 price point for this cake felt justified as I felt that this cake was chonkier compared to the lighter strawberry cake we had last time. The black sesame flavour is also a more rare and complex flavour to nail so I felt happy to pay $10.50. In my experience, black sesame is a tricky flavour that a lot of cafes had failed to deliver on so it's quite exciting to have found that this cake at TORI'S was made so well. I would definitely order this cake again.
If you're a tourist visiting Melbourne, definitely try TORI'S for a laneway cafe experience hidden within Melbourne city. For Melbourne locals, it's a comfortable place to hang out and it has worthy tea-flavoured desserts to enjoy.
Final verdict: WILL RETURN ✅ ⭐️
Atmosphere and venue: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Presentation: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Taste: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Value: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️