The authentic French baguette spot for the ‘perfect city lunch’ at a reasonable price

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French Fix
221 Queen St
Melbourne

This is an advance apology to Queen Street regulars who already know and adore French Fix, because I’m about to make the lines worse.

As a city worker myself, I firmly believe everyone deserves to know where to get fresh, generously filled baguettes made by staff mumbling away to each other in French while you wait.

Here, you can still get a proper baguette that tastes like it has a passport.

Murielle runs the show at the front with a warm bonjour and the kind of efficient friendliness that keeps a busy lunch crowd moving.

Her accent is unmistakably from the south of France, and her son Paul switches between French and Australian-accented English as he keeps the production line humming along.

The café itself is small and humming, with a blackboard menu above the counter and a perpetual stream of regulars who clearly know exactly what they’re here for.

There’s usually a short queue at peak times, but waiting 5-10 minutes while you watch your baguette being assembled from deli-fresh ingredients feels more like foreplay than inconvenience.

Grab one of the pavement tables out front, and you’ve suddenly got yourself a very European lunch break, complete with people-watching and the occasional whiff of baguette-induced envy from passersby.

In a CBD where sandwiches now seem to be priced according to inner-city rent, French Fix still feels surprisingly reasonable.

The baguettes sit around the $16 mark, a small increase over the last few years, but still one of the better-value lunches you can get in this part of town.

There’s even a sign out front spruiking a plain baguette, savoury croissant and regular coffee for about $12.50, which is essentially 2018 pricing snuck through a wormhole.

Le Parisien was the obvious starting point and ended up being my favourite sandwich of the lot. It’s deceptively simple: ham, Emmental cheese, French pickles, Dijon mustard and butter.

The baguette has that crucial contrast, crackly crust with a chewy interior, and the fillings run all the way to the end, no tragic two-bite dead zones.

The sharpness of the pickles and Dijon cuts through the richness of the butter and cheese, the ham is properly savoury, and the whole thing tastes like something you’d grab from a corner boulangerie after accidentally walking 15 km around Paris in one day.

Le Normand mixes it up with ham, French brie, salad, tomatoes, Dijon and butter.

Think softer, creamier, a bit more “picnic in a field” than “quick bite on a city bench.”

The brie adds a gooey, indulgent note that plays really nicely with the peppery bite of mustard and the freshness of the salad.

If Le Parisien is your classic, straight-down-the-line sandwich, Le Normand is its slightly more romantic cousin.

Le Roast-Beef comes packed with roast beef, French pickles, salad, tomatoes, Dijon and mayonnaise.

It’s a bit more robust, with the tang of the pickles and mustard keeping the roast beef from feeling too heavy.

If you’re the type who always picks the most substantial option on the menu, this one is calling your name.

The croque monsieur is where things get truly dangerous. Thick slices of brioche bread, layered with ham and Emmental, slathered in homemade béchamel and toasted until the edges go golden and the inside becomes a molten cheese situation that no office productivity app can compete with.

It’s rich, salty, comforting and exactly the kind of thing that makes you forget you once promised yourself you’d have a light lunch.

Of everything I tried, the croque monsieur and Le Parisien were my clear favourites.

The croque is all about indulgence, a proper cheese-and-ham hug on brioche that feels entirely appropriate for a grey Melbourne day.

Le Parisien, on the other hand, nails restraint and balance, proof that when your ingredients are good and your bread is excellent, you don’t need to overcomplicate things.

The staff speak French, the food feels genuinely French rather than themed, and there’s a comforting simplicity to the menu that suits a quick city lunch perfectly.

So yes, this is an apology to the existing French Fix faithful, because more people are absolutely going to start lining up once they realise you can still get a freshly made, bona fide French baguette for under $20 in the middle of Melbourne.

But it’s also a recommendation to every hungry office worker within walking distance of 3/221 Queen Street: skip the sad desk salad and go get yourself a sandwich that actually sparks joy.

Image: Supplied