Love how convenient this place is! Literally cross the road from Central Station, Devonshire street exit and there you are! Even closer than Devon.
This is a relatively new cafe which opened earlier this year. The co-owner is from HK and decided to venture out to Syd for more brunch style cafe options here, since HK real estate is even more expensive, and I feel that it's harder to profit from this style of cafe in HK. Like when I went back last year, a good quality cup of coffee I had at a cafe was $10aud. It was pretty average, and only tourist like me who search for HK's best would pay for that stuff, but the average HK person would just get cheap eats from their local HK style cafe for about 1/5 of that price...
Super spacious cafe with good lighting.
drinks: cappuccino with more sweetness and aroma-$3.50
chai latte-$4
What's special about this cafe is that you can tailor your coffee. For the capp, we asked for more sweetness and aroma. I was actually kind of sick that day, so kind of had a blocked nose...but according to my mum it did have more aroma. I think all their coffees come with some currants. The chai latte unfortunately didn't have enough spice to it. Apparently it's naturally sweetened with honey, but I prefer it to have more spice. This one was quite small for the price you pay, and more on the milky side. It's cute how it comes with a description of the type of chai they use.
late lunch spread
Soba Noodles in miso, earl grey and lavender broth, with baby bok choy, soy seared mushrooms and balck sesame-$16.50
broth poured once it arrives on your table
It probably smelt really nice, but being sick couldn't really smell the lavender...It tasted quite different, but I think it worked. It's either you like it or you don't. This dish felt super healthy! Loved the generous serving of juicy mushrooms, and quite a decent serving size even though it doesn't look like it. Tea was also subtle, would have preferred more aroma, but it was still delicious.
Braised lamb shoulder w/ mint, feta, quinoa and pickled cabbage salad-$18.50
Since we ordered a vegetarian dish, decided to go with a meaty dish (sorry for the over-exposed photo). The lamb was quite fatty, not fully braised and had to cut visible pieces of fat off since the texture of fat in your mouth if not rendered down properly is quite gross. The lamb was a tad charred in some places, but the other flavours with the mint to make it refreshing worked well.
Cake testing time!
Masfagato: 73% dark choc brownie w/ frozen mascarpone and a shot of house blend espresso-$13
Super interesting concept. Lovely presentation for something as simple as a brownie, but it's in a slanted glass (which kind of make eating it difficult unless you held onto the glass to prevent it from slipping). The brownie itself definitely has a hit of dark choc and not much sweetness. The coffee enriched the chocolate flavour. The frozen marscarpone reminded me of icy ice cream, helped to give a creamy element to the dessert without being overly creamy/rich.
Berry Vanilla Custard Cake-$5.50
The custard is blended/mixed into the cake sponge, and not like a 'magic cake where it's a layer of sponge and separate layer of custard. It's dense when you cut into it but not too heavy when you eat it. This cake had minimal sweetness.
Both desserts were on the house. Going to be back here very soon! Will defs keep you guys posted! :)
Earl grey and lavender! It'd be interesting to see how those flavours combine with miso. It's a shame your nose was blocked!
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