THE TREE OF US

71 Church St, Richmond - ph: (03) 9077 3839

The Tree of us has become one of our local favourites with their 'boutique burgers'. The place started as a cafe and then expanded the menu and operating hours to become a burger joint as well.

There are plenty of good cafes around the area and it's hard to compete on that front. But there are not many places serving burgers - or anything other than Asian food - near the Victoria St end of Church St apart from a few noisy pubs.

The Tree of Us is a cute cafe with a few indoor tables and a small back courtyard for smokers. It is a project of 3 friends as the name suggests, one of them having worked at Rockpool before and being responsible for the amazing onions rings served here.

Large onion rings with tomato sauce and aioli ($8)

Now, regular readers of this blog know that I am not a fan of greasy fried food. Onion rings in general are something I steer clear of. But these ones are amazing and worth the artery blockage I'm sure they will cause. Crispy batter, tender and sweet onions... perfect on every bite.

Now to the burgers. Hubby ordered the heart stopping 3 cheese (swiss, mozzarella and goats feta) burger. The burger was oozing melted cheese when it came to the table and smelled fantastic. I had a bite and really enjoyed the rich combination of lots of melted cheese, tasty beef patty and Dijon mustard. However, the burger was a bit too rich for me - I wouldn't be able to finish it myself (hubby on the other hand had no trouble wiping his plate clean).

Three cheese burger ($14)

Our friend tried one of their special burgers with gorgonzola cheese. The waiter did warn him that it was not for the faint hearted and had an intense gorgonzola flavour. He liked the fact it was a unusual combination that you can't really find elsewhere. And he did love his burger.

Gorgonzola burger

I decided to stick to a classic lettuce and tomato burger where the beef patty nowhere to hide and its flavour really shows. I was not disappointed - the burger was lean, well cooked and really tasty.

The Tree of Us only missed the mark on the chips. They were a bit under cooked and hard. Not the fluffy chips I've had here before and was expecting again this time.

Large chips ($8)

We had a great meal overall and enjoyed our evening. The Tree of Us has a friendly, chilled atmosphere with great service and food. Worth a try for the locals.