Outpost seemingly appears out of nowhere as you stroll down Yarra Street, an otherwise bland back street of South Yarra. At the base of a multi-storey building, wedged in next to the elevators in the most unassuming of locations is Outpost, a very welcome addition to my list of favourite cafes. 

Being here feels like you’re in a European kitchen. There are plenty of homely touches like bowls of carrots, apples and pears atop the benches, potted plants and fresh herbs and small handmade clay pots filled with salt and pepper. 

The main part of the cafe is a small yet exquisitely decorated space, which consists of an exposed kitchen and a few stools and tables around the edges. This is the heart of the cafe, but to accommodate the dozens of keen customers there is another section, which may lack atmosphere and style compared to the lavish kitchen but has plenty of room, and the food and coffee are no less delicious in the less charming surrounds. 

The high quality of coffee at Outpost isn't surprising when you learn that it comes from St Ali and that the two cafes share a common owner. Try their Single Origin special. I had a Guatemalan variety which soothed my tongue with its subtly sweet flavour and caramel tones. But the house coffee is just as worthy of your time and taste buds.

The food is fresh, sophisticated and almost all sourced locally from Victoria. Everything on the menu is just that bit better than your everyday cafe. They don't use any old bacon, they use Istra Dayelsford smoked bacon and they don't use any old salmon, they use Tasmanian oak smoked salmon. The menu varies slightly each day but you can crunch into something like the stone-ground fruit toast with labna and red gum honey or ravage the mouth-watering slow roasted leg of Otway Ranges Organic pork with caramelised sweet potato, Tuscan black cabbage and spiced zucchini. 

On my visit I tried a freshly baked gluten free frittata with caramelised onion, chorizo and zucchini. Maybe I was blinded by my raging appetite but at the time it tasted like the best thing I’d ever eaten.

And to top it all off you can feel rest assured that no funny business is going down in the kitchen since it's completely exposed. So there'll be no slippery pieces of salmon or poached eggs dropped on the floor then slyly replaced upon the sourdough toast and I don't think I've ever seen such friendly chefs. Sure, they can't exactly yell at their staff in front of everyone but the chefs at Outpost don't even look like they want to.