For weeks now, maybe even months, the Third Wave Cafe has been appearing in my news feed on Facebook. They have been doing some pretty impressive meals that have been getting a lot of attention. I also had a friend on Facebook post recently about going there, which fuelled my urge to go here even further.
About the Third Wave Cafe in Melbourne
Third Wave Cafe is one of Melbourne’s best-known American BBQ restaurants, developing a name for itself as both a wonderful dine-in experience and through deliveries. Opening in 2011, Third Wave Cafe is located at 181 Victoria Ave, Albert Park VIC 3206. It describes itself as a “casual, colourful cafe during the day, then offering American BBQ for dinner.”
You can dine in or order it online from Uber Eats, Door Dash and Menulog.
Third Wave Cafe on Social Media
If you find the content in this article, you should definitely follow Third Wave on social media. There’s always news about new limited menu items, eating challenges and other specials such as bottomless brunches.
Follow them here:
Facebook
Third Wave Cafe Limited Menu Items
Below are some of the amazingly over-the-top limited menu items that have come and gone in recent months. These colossal meals are the perfect challenge for a group of friends to tackle and the fact that they’re always changing means there’s always going to be something new to tempt you to return.
The Porkanara (November 2022)
If you LOVE carbonara and you LOVE slow-smoked pork.. we’ve combined the two to present to you the PORKANARA! ๐๐ฅ
The leg takes 2 days to make! First, we brine it for 24 hours then dry rub it in our spice blend to be slow-smoked for 10 hours.
You shred the meat into the pasta, mix and enjoy! It’s the porkiest carbonara you’ll ever have!
Meat Coma Platter (November 2022)
The MEAT COMA PLATTER is now AVAILABLE.
The breakdown:
๐ 900g Slow Smoked Beef Ribs
๐ท 800g Smoked Pork Ribs
๐ฅฉ 600g Slow Smoked Brisket
๐ Whole Slow-smoked Chicken
๐ 12 Wings
๐ฅ 6 Oink Balls
๐ญ 2 Cheesy Kranskys (all meat as cooked weight – over 4.5kg)
Plus 6 pieces of Cornbread and Bacon Mac & Cheese. Oh, and some pickles here and there & 3 sauces.
Enough for an extremely hungry group of 6 or 8-10 regular people
Dino Parma (December 2023)
A HUGE PARMA made from a crumbed smoked rack of beef ribs, with pulled pork, sauce and cheeeeeeeeese!
Rib Heaven (December 2023)
The biggest HSP in town stacked with a gigantic beef rib, lamb ribs, pork ribs and shredded pulled smoked brisket.
BBQ Banh Mi (January 2023)
You vs the guy she told you not to worry about…
๐๐๐ค ๐๐๐ก๐ ๐ ๐ ๐๐ฅ๐๐๐๐๐ข๐ช๐ก:
2 Ft Long
Butter
Bacon Jam
Pickled Carrots
Cucumber
Chilli
Corriander
Slow-smoked Chicken
Slow-smoked Pork Belly
Slow-smoked deboned Beef Rib
Pork Crackling
Soy Glaze
Brisket Overloaded Oh Daddy Burger (January 2023)
The ๐๐ฟ๐ถ๐๐ธ๐ฒ๐ ๐ข๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐น๐ผ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ฑ ๐ข๐ต ๐๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ฑ๐ ๐๐๐ฟ๐ด๐ฒ๐ฟ is CHOCK FULL of slow-smoked brisket. Over 650g of brisket, with Caramelised Pork Belly Burnt Ends on the chips.
Feeds two humans or one HUNGRY beast.
Ribovlaki (January 2023)
Feast your eyes on the ultimate BBQ Souvlaki, the RIBOVLAKI ๐ฅฉ๐ฏ Our most monstrously oversized souvlaki stuffed with our slow-smoked BBQ meats, and a mini HSP on the side.
The RIBOVLAKI BREAKDOWN:
โฆ A fluffy large pita
โฆ A WHOLE slow-smoked beef rib
โฆ Smoked lamb shoulder
โฆ BBQ chicken
โฆ Cheese sauce
โฆ Garlic sauce
โฆ Our famous BBQ sauce
โฆ Chips
โฆ Tomatoes
โฆ Onions
โฆ Mini HSP on the sidePrepare your taste buds for an explosion of flavor, this Souvlaki is not for the faint-hearted ๐คค๐คค๐คค๐คค๐คค
Third Wave Cafe on Uber Eats
Ok, that’s enough of their Facebook posts. I recently found that the Third Wave Cafe is available on Uber Eats and my office is within delivery range so below is what I ordered. When I went to order, I actually noticed I had wings from here a year or two ago.
Smoked Mac & Cheese Side
A classic with a twist. Our version is smoked with Hickory Wood, plus we added house-smoked crispy Bacon. If you like Mac & Cheese, you will love this version.
The serving size for this as “small” is a pretty fair size for the price. It certainly has a smokey flavour to it and the little pieces of bacon are good too. There is a good layer of cheese on top and garnished with chives, making this feel very gourmet for a dish served in a foil takeaway container.
Oink Balls
Melt-in-your-mouth pork meatballs wrapped in streaky bacon, smoked and grilled. Bacony, meaty treat.
They were not kidding about the “melt in your mouth” part. This pork meatball is very finely ground and feels like it dissolves into nothing whilst you’re left chomping away at the outer bacon shell. One thing they didn’t mention in the description is that the BBQ sauce has quite a kick to it. A very good BBQ sauce though. I highly recommend these.
Lunch at Third Wave Cafe Melbourne
Whilst the photos from the Uber Eats order may not have done justice to the quality of the food, it sure got me pumped to organise a group lunch with a few work friends.
๐๐ป ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ฝ๐น๐ฎ๐๐๐ฒ๐ฟ ๐ณ๐ผ๐ฟ ๐ฒ:
๐ Beef Ribs
๐ญ Cheesy Kransky Sausage
๐ Half Chicken
๐ 8 Wings
๐ฅฉ Brisket
๐ Cornbread
๐ง Smoked Mac and Cheese
๐ฅ Slaw
๐ Beer Battered Fries
๐ฅ Candy Bacon
๐ฅ Pickles
๐ฅซ Plus 2 different House Made BBQ Sauce
Also comes in sizes for 2 and 4!
It was quite tempting to order one of their platters for 2 ($119.90) but with only 3 of us eating today for lunch only that would have been $40 each, we were too scared to attempt it. Instead, we ordered meals for about $30 each.
Chicken at Third Wave Cafe
Donโt make the mistake of thinking that this is โjust another chickenโ. Most people who tried it said โ it was one of, if not the best, chicken they have EVER had. The chicken is marinated overnight and smoked using Maple wood for up to 5 hours. Served with 2 different BBQ sauces.
Initially, the chicken was not even on my radar, but the above description sold me on it. For my choice of side, I ordered Oink Balls again because those are unreal. Whilst the photo above may not make this look like a lot of food, this was plenty for me. The chicken was indeed of very high quality and did taste good. The chicken must have also been larger than average too.
I really couldn’t fault this meal and give it full marks.
Beef Ribs at Third Wave Cafe
Huge beefy flavours, smoked using a special 9 spice dry rub and hickory wood. Served with the phenomenal Que You Spicy BBQ sauce, Spicy iQ BBQ sauce and horseradish. Half Rack.
Jack also struggled through his beef ribs. Deliciously tender and well cooked but the meat itself didn’t have as much flavour as he expected. I had a bite of it and thought it was pretty good. I think he should have added some extra sauce to it, but he isn’t really into sauces. He’s a tough critic giving this 7.5/10.
Pulled Chicken Quesadilla at Third Wave Cafe
Grilled tortilla full of slow smoked & pulled chicken, asiago cheese, chives, our house made sweet apple bourbon BBQ sauce, avocado and sauteed onions. Jam packed with flavour.
Jan was impressed with the volume of chicken in these and described them as full of flavour. Their house-made sweet apple bourbon BBQ sauce is very good and not overly sweet.
Verdict
I really enjoyed the food here at Third Wave Cafe in Albert Park and plan to return soon for one of their big platters or monthly specials. They have one of Melbourne’s best birthday offers too with about $70 worth of free food if you book a birthday dinner and are on their mailing list. I’m likely to give this a shot in a few months.
