Lots to love in Little Collins

Ian Jarrett sleeps in, has a late breakfast and enjoys a weekend in Melbourne.

I love a good hotel breakfast. Perhaps not so much in midweek when the suits hide behind the financial pages of their newspapers, or glide through the lobby with their mobile phones. I prefer hotel breakfasts at weekends. On a Saturday or Sunday morning the buzz in the breakfast room is invariably as fluffed up as the scrambled eggs being served at the egg station.

Weekends are more relaxed. More chatty. Guests like to arrive late for breakfast and take their time fuelling up for the day ahead, ready to explore cities, go shopping or later catch a stage performance.

City hotels have to nurture split personalities. Formal and fussy midweek when the corporates are in town doing their business. Slow tempo at weekends when few are in a hurry.

Starwood’s recently opened Sheraton Melbourne Hotel in Little Collins Street manages to mix things up rather well. It packs a lot into a small footprint with its 174 rooms, including 11 77sqm suites, catering to corporate demand with a sophisticated LED Smart TV with wireless Internet connectivity, and a decent sized, well-resourced workspace.

Corporates of both sexes can stride out into Melbourne’s CBD feeling like a million dollars after a few laps of the heated indoor lap pool, an early morning sortie with the brand’s signature Sheraton Fitness programme, followed by a power breakfast in the Little Collins St Kitchen.

Back from doing deals, there are Germaine de Capuccini treatments in the spa and a rooftop bar (when the weather allows) for drinks and snacks. And, of course the Sheraton Sweet Sleeper Bed carries a solid guarantee of a good night’s rest.

I suspect that same Sweet Sleeper Bed is probably the reason why so many arrive late for breakfast at weekends and then make the most of the Sheraton Melbourne’s extensive buffet. There are a couple of communal tables in the Little Collins St Kitchen where friends and families can gather. "Melbourne people like to mingle," I am told.

I like to stroll the food stations but invariably come back to the same breakfast choice: Bircher muesli, scrambled eggs and smoked salmon, and sour dough toast. Unadventurous, I know, although I was tempted by homemade beans and ham hock.

In the evening, the Little Collins St Kitchen becomes a full a la carte restaurant under the skillful command of head chef Krunoslav Velican.

A menu currently suited to a Melbourne winter includes seasonal dishes such as beef cheeks and twice-cooked pork shoulder, but the selections – appropriate for a hotel at the ‘Paris’ end of Melbourne – will be more French influenced as the seasons change.

Sheraton Melbourne also offers six well-lit meeting rooms of various sizes, together providing 666sqm on a dedicated conferencing floor.

Sheraton Melbourne has an introductory rate until September 30 from A$260 per night for guests rooms and from A$750 per night for suites, including breakfast, complimentary Wi-Fi and double Starpoints for SPG members.