This place reminds me so much of Black Books. Part bookstore, part art gallery and part Vinnies, I’m pretty sure the shop is the owner’s loungeroom, the cafe is his kitchenette and his stuff is for sale simply because there’s a lot of it and the front door happens to open onto the eclectic vintage retail stretch of south King […]

Oooh, looks like there’s someone new in town… The End of King looks fantastic and I only just found out it was here! There was some good music pumping and fun vibes happening, with a big rustic counter covered with a big rustic display of phenomenal baked goods. But sadly, amongst it all, no banana bread! I opted for a […]

Cafe Martini has been on my list of cafes to get to for a long time – not because I’ve heard good things, but because I’ve driven and walked past countless times during opening hours and it’s just been closed. This is not surprising for South King Street in general… it’s been pretty frustrating checking off all the cafes down […]

Hello, authentic Newtown cafe. Their minimalist, post-industrial style fitout could have been 3 or 30 years old. The service was a little bit too cool for school, but I would’ve expected nothing less. Excellent coffee. Thank you, Rolling Penny, I rarely get coffees this good. The banana bread was a very alternative, homemade thing, covered in various seeds: sesame, linseed, […]

Like its neighbour, Miss Lilly’s, Patisserie Petunia is also primarily a bakery. Humble and simply styled but with an impressive range of baked goods. I’m not sure if they baked it all in house, but they certainly had the kitchen to do it and it all looked really good. The coffee was fine – not bad, but not amazing. The […]

Miss Lilly’s looks like it might have been a cafe at some point in the early 00s, with distressed-style cracked render and exposed brick down one side and some funky hand-painted inspirational message on the other, but the counter has since been brought right forward to the front door with drinks fridges and cakes cabinets covering it all up. The […]

I’ve hit up a lot of vegan places this week. I’m starting to get used to almond milk, or at least fine-tune my assessment of what makes a good almond FW. My coffee from Le Gourmand today was as seamless as my “forgot it wasn’t real milk” experience at Buddha Bowl – absolutely delicious. They didn’t have BB, but my […]

I’ve been trying for a little while to make it to Comeco, a Japanese, vegan and gluten-free cafe/casual restuarant. I really love the allergen and additive-free ethos going on here. With only vegan options, I picked almond again for my coffee and was suitably impressed. The almond milk was relatively neutral and I could actually taste the (fairly average, ssh) […]

The stars have aligned – I’ve found Maeda and I feel enlightened. Their coffee was simply perfection in a cup, with a rich flavour and gorgeous velvety texture. Achieving the ideal temperature, ratio and texture of the milk, let alone balancing the complex factors that contribute to a good espresso shot, is both a science and an art and Maeda […]

There’s a Little Tanya in every family: loud, sticky and unattractive. I might be able to overlook her lack of visual appeal if she served me an awesome coffee, but that was looking less likely by the second. Turns out the coffee was a lot like the one I had at her neighbour’s place, Chill Cafe. You could definitely taste […]