Eat
SayCheese.
The arcade toastie. Horchata on the side.
Location
What people get wrong
Inside Trocadero Arcade at 119 Hopkins. Closed Monday. Square clock, not Mamma Knows 10am. Daylight only. We last walked this on 2026-09-21. Hours move with the week. Checking the shopfront keeps the night easy.
What is Say Cheese known for?
Say Cheese is known for a grilled cheese that treats three curds as the job: mozzarella, cheddar, provolone, chilli flakes, mustard seeds, a toastie you eat at a communal table before the arcade remembers it has a lunch.
You walk Hopkins past Nhu Lan and the entrance is not a kerb shopfront. Trocadero Arcade cuts through to Leeds. Shop 6-7 is the counter. Inside it is brown-paper bags with hand-drawn portraits, colourful crates, a young crew building everything to order. Good Food's dedicated card, 18 December 2025, names Filipino and El Salvadorian roots. Mamma Knows West, Siobhan Relf, 20 August 2023, already called it Footscray's newest deli cafe. You sit because buttered bread does not travel, and because a Saturday at 3:30 still means the board can empty. The communal table is the room. A crate is a seat if the table is full. Stay for the melt while it still stretches.
Teef Club, using the shop as a click-and-collect desk, names the founders as Erick and Miguel, best friends, westies who grew up here. Surnames do not sit in the press we trust. You came for this counter, not for a west-end essay about who else sells a melt. Limited seating. Shared toilet, key at the counter. That is a grab-and-go arcade, not a two-hour brunch room.
Email saycheese.footscray@gmail.com. Instagram @saycheese_footscray. Square site is the house clock. English at the board. You need a toastie, not a dinner booking. You sit because three curds on buttered bread is the whole theatre of this arcade: a brown-paper bag, a crate, a horchata you drink before the 3pm weekday kill. The Hopkins kerb does not see this counter. You came for this melt, this crate, this hide.
What should you order at Say Cheese?
You should order the grilled cheese if that is why you walked, then decide whether the sitting still wants a deli stack or horchata.
Good Food writes mozzarella, cheddar and provolone, chilli flakes and mustard seeds, one of twelve sandwiches. Ask what the board is actually doing. The deli sandwich on the December 2025 card is ham, mild sopressa, prosciutto, fior di latte, onion jam, salsa verde, salad and house pickles. The Rookie is mortadella, stracciatella, house honey and mustard, salsa verde and rocket. Specials rotate.
Mosey names the inventions: Filipino Philly Bistek, Pork n Pickles as a Cubano, Pastrami and Curtido as an El Salvadorian Reuben. Horchata is the drink Good Food still names, hot or cold, milky spiced rice. A Filipino ube version exists when they have it. HappyCow reviewers in 2025 liked a vegan deli with chimichurri. Confirm the board. A category on a website is not a promise the pass still has it.
Eat it at the communal table or on a crate. A melt in a hot car while you do the market is how you ruin cheese. Stay long enough to taste the pickle. If you wanted a tray, email. If you wanted one toastie, join the line before 3. The mustard seed is the point of the grilled cheese. Do not treat a 2023 opening card as tonight's specials board. Stay for the horchata while it is still cold. This is daylight bread. Behave like that is true.
Hours, payment and queues at Say Cheese
Quoted hours from the Square site: Monday closed, Tuesday to Friday 9am to 3pm, Saturday and Sunday 9am to 4pm. Email saycheese.footscray@gmail.com. Last checked 2026-09-21.
Walk-in. There is no booking widget for a sandwich. Cards sit on the Square checkout. Mamma Knows still prints Wednesday to Sunday 10am from August 2023. We put that fight in the hours note. Believe Square.
Sunday this arcade still trades until 4pm. Monday the door is dark. Come closer to 9am if you wanted a choice. Come at 2:45 on a weekday if you already accepted a walk-away. A dinner widget is not this room. Mamma Knows 10am is a leftover clock. Square is the till. The line is the room until the board empties.
How do you get to Say Cheese in Footscray?
You get to Say Cheese by walking Hopkins from Footscray station to 119, then into Trocadero Arcade, a daylight toastie counter, not a kerb shopfront and not a dinner booking.
Read the arcade. Shop 6-7. You are off Hopkins, not on it. Hopkins entrance sits next to CoCo Bubble Tea. Leeds entrance sits next to Asian Pantry. Five Walls Gallery is Level 1 in the same 119. That is paintings. Do not send a melt search upstairs.
This door dies at 3pm on a weekday, 4pm on a weekend. Plan daylight. Irving deck is the market park across the road. Eat here. Butter on the paper is how you know you came to the right crate. You walked the arcade, not the kerb. Shop 6-7 is the lock. Stay long enough to finish the pickle. Then leave Hopkins while you still have afternoon. The toastie is the sitting. You came for this counter, this horchata, this hide.
What do people mix up about Say Cheese?
They hunt a kerb shopfront, or they send a dinner booking, and they miss the arcade toastie that dies at 3.
- Shop 6-7/119 Hopkins Street, Trocadero Arcade, Footscray VIC 3011 only.
- Tue-Fri 9am-3pm. Sat-Sun 9am-4pm. Closed Monday.
- Square site is the clock. Mamma Knows 10am is 2023.
- Grilled cheese. Horchata. Instagram @saycheese_footscray.
Questions people ask next
- Where is Say Cheese?
- Say Cheese is at Shop 6-7/119 Hopkins Street, Footscray VIC 3011, inside Trocadero Arcade. Footscray station is the nearest train. Walk the arcade. It is not a kerb shopfront.
- What are Say Cheese hours?
- Tuesday to Friday 9am-3pm, Saturday and Sunday 9am-4pm on the Square site. Closed Monday. Mamma Knows still prints 10am from August 2023. Last checked 2026-09-21.
- What should I order at Say Cheese?
- The grilled cheese if you wanted mozzarella, cheddar and provolone. The deli stack if you wanted ham and sopressa. Horchata hot or cold. Ask what has sold.
- Does Say Cheese take dinner bookings?
- No. This is a daylight sandwich counter. Weekdays die at 3pm. Weekends at 4pm. Catering is an email job. Instagram @saycheese_footscray.
Where we checked
More in Eat
Ollie's Deli
The west's sanga shop. They close when the board is empty.
Shop 7/158 Barkly Street, Footscray VIC 3011
Nhu Lan Bakery
The banh mi this suburb names first. The queue is the oven timer.
116 Hopkins Street, Footscray VIC 3011
Sapa Hills
Prawn toast on Hopkins. Closed Tuesday.
112 Hopkins Street, Footscray VIC 3011