Mietta's Review
The new venture by Con Christopoulos (Degraves, European, Supper Club) can feel like a library reading room with its shelves of books and overhead lights - perhaps because it's part if the CAE's Flinders Lane campus. The main business during the day is coffee and food and at night it becomes a wine bar with some platters to dilute the bounty of the bar. Journal has a succinct menu a range of snacks, good coffee and even better prices.
Other published opinions
Age Good Food Guide 2012 Score: 14/20
The Age Cheap Eats 2011 Score: **
Age Good Food Guide 2011 Score: 13/20
Age Cheap Eats 2010
Age Good Food Guide 2010 Score: 13/20
Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2010
Herald Sun 6-9.30 Score: 36/50 "LUCKY people, you business types who work in the city. At least once every so often you ought to be able to afford a meal at journal Canteen. Costs are minimised here, which means the hearty tucker is sold at fair prices. Chalked on blackboards, what you may order usually includes a soup of the day, antipasti in two sizes ($15/$27) and four main courses, each costing $20"
Herald Sun In Good Company, Simon Plant, 13-10-09 "Regulars at this welcoming City Library cafe hone in on two big communal tables where they can read, study and chat"
Herald Sun Zoe Skewes, 8-08-09 "Communal tables and a stack of daily papers and magazines means solo diners are well catered for and friendly staff are dab hands at co-ordinating seating arrangements so everyone has a pew"
Herald Sun 13-06-09 "This bare-bones room is just the place to savour Rosa Mitchell's Sicilianleaning village food"
Age Cheap Eats 2009
Age Cheap Eats 2009
Age Good Food Guide 2009
Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2009
Herald Sun 24-06-08 Score: ** "Herald Sun A bare-bones room with plain tables and schoolroom chairs"
Age Cheap Eats 2008
Age Cheap Eats 2008
Age Dani Valent
Herald Sun Eat, Simon Plant, 15-09-07 "MONSTER menus worry me. Far from inspiring confidence, they suggest the kitchen is trying to cover all bases ... and doing none of them properly. So, my confidence soars when I climb the stairs to Journal Canteen. In this bare-bones dining room, a sibling to Journal Cafe next door, the blackboard lists antipasto, a soup, a pasta, two mains and a couple of sweets. That's it. But what Journal offers each day is so precisely executed, so perfectly in tune with the season, further choices are unnecessary."
Age Matt Preston, 17-9-2007
Age Cheap Eats 2007
Age Cheap Eats 2006
Age Cheap Eats 2005
Age A2 Thomas Hunter 16/10/04
Age Take 5 Roslyn Grundy 15/8/04
Herald Sun Donna Coutts 3/7/04 score 15/20 "Beautiful building, good cafe food and service. Come in from the cold."
Or perhaps ...