Dukes Coffee, Windsor

I had brunch at Dukes’ a couple of weeks ago with some friends. Since it’s meant to be a specialist coffee café, I had to try the coffee. Also, I’ve recently started feeling like I function better after a morning coffee, which I suspect is a slippery slope to addiction. Anyway, I had a flat white which was quite good.

Both of my friends ordered truffle poached eggs with asparagus crudites.

I only had a small taste of the dish, but was impressed. The asparagus played two roles in this dish- in sauteed whole stalks and also raw shavings on top. Great textures and flavours on both. Not being a great fan of poached eggs (blasphemous coming from a brunch/breakfast lover, I know), I can’t really comment on those. The ciabatta croutons were sinfully buttery and went really well with the generous smear of rich mayo-esque sauce it came with. Overall a very interesting thing to have for brunch, if a little heavy.

I had the corn and zucchini fritters with avocado, a fried egg and manchego cheese.

Unlike most places which serve their fritters in patty form, Dukes’ served theirs up in the form of crispy fried balls. The fritters were perfectly cooked- great crispy exterior and fluffy on the inside. The manchego was nice and creamy but probably a bit overpowered by the stronger flavours of the slightly greasy fritters and the chutney. On a side note, I’ve never understood the logic behind pairing corn fritters with cloyingly sweet chutney. I think they need to be matched with something more cleansing, like a pico de gallo or some labna.

Based on my experience, Dukes is doing great brunch fare and good coffee, which seems to be the food blog consensus. The Coffee Guide, Miss Adriennely and Espresso Melbourne (which has luscious photos doing the sunlit café justice) also gave Dukes positive reviews.

Dukes Coffee

169 Chapel St 
Windsor, VIC 3181

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