There are burgers and then there are burgers. Some chains operate under the guise of trying to be the latter, but in all honesty, there are only a few real burger joints in this town.

Embassy Cafe in West Melbourne is the real deal. Open 24 hours for the express purpose of allowing cab drivers to chew the fat during that mystical ‘changeover’ period they use as an excuse for not taking you home at 3am. For the most part it’s good old blokes chaining smokes and swapping war stories. The good folk at Embassy even installed a massage chair to fix the back after a hard night on the beads.

As for the burgers, they are the best. Period. Endless options are available but you shouldn’t look past the double with the lot. Patties are perfect and succulent, bread is thin and double cooked. It means that there is nothing to get in the way of the all importnant middle bits.

Some of Melbourne’s best food is free of marketing fanfare and mostly they don’t know their delivering the best the city has to offer. The case is true for Embassy and it’s unassuming friendly staff, just doing what they do, better than anyone else.

Embassy Cafe
541 Spencer St, West Melbourne
Hours: All of them (i.e. 24/7/365)

Website: Naa, just go eat there