You are an early bird and love your breakfast. I must say it is a bit of challenge to find a nice breakfast in Sydney before 6 am. Yeah, I mean its a real issue. I drive around the city to look for some of the best cafes serving the breed of early birds who love sunrise, followed by a lovely breakfast with a hot cuppa tea.
My adventures in search of great breakfast have taken me far from my burb looking for some quality eggs benedict. The craving for smoked grilled chicken with mushroom and toast with butter can make you do some crazy things. Like driving for 15km to get breakfast.
Luckily the sun rises in the East and some of the beaches happen to be in the east as well. I mean Bondi, Bronte, Coogee and Brighton. Some of my best places for a good brisk walk early in the morning. I hope someday I will pick a taste for running. It has happened in a while.
Three steps cafe is one of my all times favourite cafe on Bondi Road in Bondi. Massive breakfast, smoked salmon, grilled mushrooms, spinach & Hollandaise sauce with toast and butter. How often do you find a hot tea in a pot served with hot milk? Maybe my colonial upbringing finds a strange romance with hot tea served in a pot with tea cosy. Yes, I do get carried away with a nice comfy atmosphere and cafe decorated with team colours and heater warming my legs on a cold winter morning.
Three Steps Cafe is on my sweetest foodie memories from Sydney and the romance continues. I hope I can continue with this routine in the post-COVID world. I do get for a walk almost every day.
Sydney is expanding. New spaces are filling up our city. The urban jungle is getting thicker. More faces. More flavours. I see some interesting cafes in Zetlands, Roseberry, Waterloo which are relatively new localities. I hope I will try this one day.
Currently, my Fresh 1 on 1 Robey street has captured my fancy. Earlybirds. Love that spirit of being up at 5 am. Coffee machine pumping steam at the early hours. A lovely lady is running with a mechanical precision juggling, brekkies, sandwiches, smiling and serving coffee. I must visit location for early bird coffee lovers in Mascot near the airport.
Tradies, early morning workers, uber drivers and addicts, all happen to be standing in the same line at 5 in the morning, waiting for their regular feeds. My poison is chicken roll with avocado, butter and salad, and a hot cuppa coffee. A perfect way to start my day. A straight drive through the tunnel with no traffic, this place seems like a stone throws away. 15km. Yes, I am willing to drive that far. I am satisfied every day. Love this place.
Fun in the inner West
Belmore, Lakemba and Campsie are turning into middle-class heaven with people getting up early in the morning for work. Most construction workers love to get their lunch boxes at Beamish Street in Campsie, which turns into a food street early in the morning. My favourite joints are Penang Hawker and Jin Weigu Foods serving best of Malay Chinse Dishes. You can find over 50+ dishes ranging from flat-rice noodles, chicken curry, congee, soups, sourdough bread rolls, sauteed vegetables, eggplant, port dishes, hot curry puffs, chicken buns and lots more.
Campsie is my regular hangout in the early hours of the day. Love and early breakfast of lamb bone soup with sourdough bread. Beef pancakes are not to be missed. Most of the cafes open at 430am in the morning.
Lakemba and Greenacre have a large number of middle eastern bakeries that open up by 4 am. The oregano pizza is a regular breakfast of plenty of people. With the recent demographic shift towards more Indian and Bangladeshi, Lebanese pizza has undergone a bit of change with new flavours like butter chicken pizza, chicken tikka pizza and meat pizzas which are quite popular with early starters. Try the salted yogurt drink with your pizza.
Places Explored:
- Three Steps Cafe, Bondi Road Bondi
- Fresh 1 @ 1 Robey Street, Mascot.
- Beamish Street, Campsie
- Haldon Street Lakemba