The Falconer
Read this slowly, god knows it took us a while to digest. This is a l-i-c-e-n-s-e-d cafe. On O-x-f-o-r-d S-t-r-e-e-t. Where you will a-c-t-u-a-l-l-y want to stay a while.
As its neighbours dance at light speed, Falconer quietly cruises through coffee (morning) and wine (evening) accompanied by a tasting plate (any time).
Yulli's
Those new licensing laws are finally starting to kick in and small bars are popping up all over the place. The latest addition is the wine bar/restaurant/café Yulli's. Like a caped crusader of hospitality, Yulli serves coffee by day (and breakfast on the weekends) before dimming the lights and switching to wine bar by night.
The Golden Cobra Coffee
Coffee - the black oil that gets the morning from akimbo to limbo. Along with legal crank, the other thing Izrock likes is independent business and DIY ethic - not waiting for an opportunity to arise but just taking it.
The Golden Cobra combines these two attributes with a healthy dose of community mindedness.
Wafu
Attend this haunt in numbers, because taste buds won't be impressed with just one dish. Opening the gluten/dairy/msg-free cabinet of Japanese authenticity is guilt free Tempura, ohitashi greens, teriyaki, katsu and sashimi salads - alongside mountains of brown rice. Wafu's health affection will liken your palette to Macrobiotic principles, as such a cabaret leads to a stomach 180 per cent full and a body 200 per cent satiated.
LNC Dessert House
There is a lot on offer for those with a sweet tooth already down Chinatown way. Bubble tea, hot custard balls, red bean everything, pancakes and ice cream. Hindsight's a wonderful thing - and there'll be a few people out there fuming that they didn't think of this first. LNC have put all the sweet stuff under the same roof, splashed the walls with bright stripes and decked out the staff in uniforms that make them resemble the store's cartoon mascot.
Bodega
There are only two types of people in this world: people who like tapas and idiots. So we went to Bodega - one of a handful of exemplary tapas joints in Surry Hills that keep Sydney's inner city sophisticates well fed and indulged. If words could do any justice to good food we would write about it in exquisite detail.
Pigeon Coffee
No longer are Pigeons just rats of the sky, soilers of courtyards and guttering cooers. They now brew a decent flat white, chat to you over breakfast and are seriously dog friendly.
Pigeon Coffee is what you would describe as a ‘hole in the wall' establishment. In a space smaller than a toilet block, the café manages to squish coffees, juices, muffins, meals, three tables, a bench, a dog and a slab of Astroturf.
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