Cafe Cressida

If you lived in Woollahra in 2000, your afternoon tea plans probably revolved around the popular Sicilian-inspired orange cake at Caffe Agostini. Chef Phil Wood and his partner Lis Davies (who also own Ursula’s revived the site as the bright, playful Cafe Cressida in January 2025, bringing back a replica of the cake with it.

The brekkie menu spans light snacks (including a summery yoghurt and honeycomb passionfruit cup) to heartier hot plates. For a toastie, two thick slices of Iggy’s sourdough sandwich generous slices of gruyere and parmesan melting into each other, cut with the tang of sauerkraut and Dijon mustard. The full breakfast is a meeting place for top-shelf ingredients handled lightly: gently scrambled eggs, crispy bacon, a parsley-pecorino sausage from LP’s and roasted tomatoes.

The charming atmosphere carries through to lunch and dinner. The former is big and bright, with dishes like panzanella salad made sprightly with cucumber, fennel and basil served alongside crusty bread, and a fish curry with brown rice. Come dinner, you can do multiple courses, albeit more casually than at Ursula’s, with help from wines from nearly every Australian state – from Rieslingfreak’s Eden Valley drop to Ten Minutes by Tractor’s 10X pinot noir from the Mornington Peninsula.