It’s 6pm on a Friday night and I’m catching up with Andrea for an impromptu post-work drink. But really, what my stomach is telling me is that I need food, not drink.

I don’t think there’s many bars in Melbourne where you can order a gooey chocolate fudge cake at beer o’clock instead of a pint. But at Hell’s Kitchen, that’s exactly what the friendly, smiling bar staff offered me when I told them I was starving for a pre-dinner snack. In fact, they were even good-natured enough to let my friend Rob order some cake about half an hour later when the kitchen had definitely closed.

Hell’s Kitchen has been a stalwart of Melbourne’s laneway bar scene for many years, mainly because it has an unbeatable location, with floor to ceiling glass looking out onto the bustle of Centre Place and peering into the windows of the Majorca Building. It’s a great place to take interstate visitors as it’s pure Melbourne – hidden, intimate, underground (or overground) cool. But for me, the attraction is all about that cake.

• Hell’s Kitchen, + ‎